The short answer
A site plan costs a developer twice: once in fees to the jurisdiction that reviews it, and once in professional fees to the people who prepare, survey and engineer it. Review fees are public. Washington County, Utah charges $125 for site plan review, and Hillsborough County, Florida charges $9,643.80 for a Planned Development rezoning [5, 6]. Professional fees are quoted per project and rarely published, so the evidence on them is market evidence, not a price list. The public record gives one data point: a city's executed contract with a civil engineering firm lists conceptual site plan review at $5,000, billed hourly [1]. Lender benchmarks give the scale of the whole design budget: one commercial lender's glossary puts architecture and engineering at 5 to 8% of hard costs [4].
Agency review fees by jurisdiction
Each figure comes from the jurisdiction's own fee schedule, ordinance or application. Fees change with each schedule, so the edition is named in the source.
| Jurisdiction | Review or approval | Published fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gwinnett County, Georgia | Development plan review, 1.01 to 5 acres | $750 | [2] |
| Gwinnett County, Georgia | Development permit | $150 per acre, $1,000 minimum | [2] |
| Gwinnett County, Georgia | Special use permit or rezoning, nonresidential | $1,000 for 0 to 5 acres; $1,500 for 5.01 to 10 acres | [2] |
| Hillsborough County, Florida | Standard District rezoning | $5,333.98; $275 for a second resubmission | [6] |
| Hillsborough County, Florida | Planned Development rezoning | $9,643.80; $1,876.30 for a second resubmission | [6] |
| Mansfield, Texas | Specific use permit | $2,500 plus $100 per acre, $7,500 maximum | [3] |
| Polk County, Florida | Conditional use | $4,023 plus $450 advertising | [7] |
| Polk County, Florida | Traffic study review | $176 minor; $1,105 major | [7] |
| Lee County, Florida | Development order | $3,000 plus $60 per acre; amendment $775; resubmittal $435, the first one free | [8] |
| Waller County, Texas | Commercial civil design plan review | $3,000 plus $50 per acre over 2 acres | [9] |
| Waller County, Texas | Preliminary plat | $500 for 5 or fewer parcels; $3,000 for 50 or fewer lots | [9] |
| Bandera County, Texas | Infrastructure plan review, rental community | $250 plus $10 per rental space | [10] |
| Buncombe County, North Carolina | Special use permit, commercial structures of 10,000 to under 50,000 sq ft | $1,000, plus $200 per additional 25 acres over 25 acres | [11] |
| Montgomery County, Texas | Development permit, per structure | $150 plus $0.015 per sq ft | [12] |
| Smyrna, Delaware | Category A concept plan | $750 | [13] |
| City of Montgomery, Texas | Zoning action | $500 plus time and materials; $5,000 minimum feasibility escrow | [14] |
| Washington County, Utah | Site plan review | $125 | [5] |
The model projects set these fees inside a full approval path: a gas station and c-store in Gwinnett County, an express car wash in Hillsborough County, an express car wash in Mansfield, an RV park in Polk County, a marina with dry stack in Lee County, a truck stop in Waller County and RV and boat storage in Montgomery County.
Professional fees: what the market evidence shows
Firms that prepare, survey and engineer site plans seldom publish fees, and the few published figures are market evidence, not quotes for a given site.
The public record shows the concept stage priced on its own. The City of Greenfield, Indiana's executed proposal with a civil engineering firm lists "Conceptual Site Plan Review $5,000 Hourly" [1], a separate line from the engineering that follows.
The checklist then decides which other professionals are paid. Gwinnett County's zoning submittal needs a registered surveyor's boundary survey and a traffic impact study by a prequalified engineer [15], and Murfreesboro, Tennessee requires drainage areas "with engineered stamped calculations" at site plan [16]. Each is a separate engagement, and some carry their own agency fee: Polk County charges $176 or $1,105 to review a traffic study [7].
How design firms bill is better documented than what they charge. Across architecture firms, the AIA 2024 Firm Survey, as reported by Archinect, found that "professional fee" accounted for 32% of billings, tied with fixed fee as the most common basis; hourly accounted for 20%, percentage of construction cost for 12% and per square foot for 1% [17]. For full architectural services, one fee-estimating guide puts private-sector architecture at 7 to 10% of construction cost for general commercial work, with schematic design at 15 to 18% of the total fee [18]. Both are market evidence for the profession as a whole, not for site plans alone.
What drives the cost
| Driver | What the published fees and market evidence show |
|---|---|
| Size of the site | Agency fees scale with acreage: $150 per acre in Gwinnett, $60 per acre in Lee County, $50 per acre over 2 acres in Waller County, and $100 per acre to a $7,500 cap in Mansfield [2, 8, 9, 3] |
| Units and structures | Bandera County charges $10 per rental space; Montgomery County charges per structure, $150 plus $0.015 per sq ft [10, 12] |
| A discretionary approval | Where the zoning does not allow the use by right, a rezoning fee is added: $5,333.98 for a Standard District rezoning or $9,643.80 for a Planned Development in Hillsborough County [6] |
| Review cycles | Gwinnett charges 50% of the review fee for a resubmittal after the third review; Lee County charges $435 per resubmittal after the first; Hillsborough charges $275 or $1,876.30 for a second rezoning resubmission [2, 8, 6] |
| Required studies and surveys | A boundary survey and a traffic impact study in Gwinnett; stamped drainage calculations in Murfreesboro [15, 16] |
| Escrow | The City of Montgomery, Texas requires a $5,000 minimum feasibility escrow for a zoning action [14] |
| Hourly billing | Conceptual site plan review billed hourly in Greenfield, listed at $5,000 (market evidence); hourly work is 20% of architecture firm billings in the AIA 2024 Firm Survey [1, 17] |
The design budget in context
Lender and industry benchmarks, all market evidence, put the design budget in proportion, and their ranges depend on the base. A commercial lender's glossary puts architecture and engineering at 5 to 8% of hard costs, and soft costs at 15 to 25% of hard costs for single-family ground-up projects and 25 to 35% for commercial ground-up [4]. Its illustrative multifamily example carries architecture and engineering at $247,000, or 6.5%, on $3,800,000 of hard costs inside a $5,580,000 project [4]. A construction consultancy measures against total cost instead, putting commercial soft costs at 15 to 30% of total development cost and A/E fees at 8 to 15% of total project costs [19]. A worked case study shows soft costs of about $8.9M, or 11%, on an $80M development [20].
Against an allowance of that size, the agency fees above are small lines. Timing matters as well: soft costs incurred before loan closing "may need to be funded from equity" [21], and the concept plan is drawn before the loan closes.
Where a preliminary site plan fits
A preliminary site plan is the concept-stage drawing: the layout, buildings, internal roads and drive aisles, parking, amenities and yield, organized on the sheet with a site data table that tests the plan against the code. It is drawn without the engineering layer, so the stamped grading, drainage and utility design stays with your engineer of record, who builds the sealed set on it. Renderings tied to the plan are covered under 3D rendering services, and site plan services describes the service as a whole. Which stages accept a plan without a seal is set out in where unsealed site plans are accepted; a homeowner's permit drawing is covered in site plan for a permit and permit site plans. For a quote on your site, contact the studio.
For what a site plan contains, read what is a site plan; for the boundary survey, a separate document from the site plan, site plan vs plot plan vs survey; and for who draws and seals each layer, who prepares a site plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a site plan cost?
Two things add up. Agency fees are public: Gwinnett County, Georgia charges $750 to review a development plan on 1.01 to 5 acres, and Mansfield, Texas charges $2,500 plus $100 per acre, up to $7,500, for a specific use permit [2, 3]. Professional fees are quoted per project. As market evidence, one city's executed contract with a civil engineering firm lists conceptual site plan review at $5,000, billed hourly [1].
How do design firms bill for site plan work?
Market evidence from the AIA 2024 Firm Survey, as reported by Archinect: "professional fee" accounted for 32% of billings, tied with fixed fee as the most common basis, hourly for 20%, percentage of construction cost for 12% and per square foot for 1% [17].
Why does an engineered site plan cost more than a concept plan?
It carries the stamped engineering and the studies the checklist requires. Gwinnett County's zoning submittal needs a registered surveyor's boundary survey and a traffic impact study by a prequalified engineer, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee requires drainage areas "with engineered stamped calculations" at site plan [15, 16].
Are county review fees part of the site plan price?
What does a resubmittal cost?
What share of a development budget goes to design?
Sources
- 1)Mixed-use development conceptual layout, executed proposal (2024-12-19), City of Greenfield, Indiana, Board of Works. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 2)Planning and Development Fee Schedule (effective July 1, 2024), Gwinnett County, Georgia. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 3)Ordinance OR-2379-24, Master Fee Schedule, City of Mansfield, Texas. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 4)Soft Costs (glossary), Matrix Commercial Capital. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 5)Community Development Fees, Washington County, Utah. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 6)List of Zoning Fees, Hillsborough County, Florida. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 7)Land Development Fee Schedule (effective October 1, 2023), Polk County, Florida. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 8)External Fees Manual (May 2026), Lee County Board of County Commissioners, Florida. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 9)Road and Bridge Fee Schedule (adopted July 24, 2024), Waller County, Texas. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 10)Bandera County Subdivision and Land Development Regulations (revised August 25, 2022), Bandera County, Texas. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 11)Fee Schedule, Fiscal Year 2027 (effective July 1, 2026), Buncombe County, North Carolina. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 12)Commercial Permit Application Packet, Montgomery County, Texas. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 13)Category A Site Plan Application, Town of Smyrna, Delaware. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 14)Development Handbook (last revised August 2025), City of Montgomery, Texas. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 15)Procedures and Instructions: Rezoning, CIC, SUP, Gwinnett County, Georgia, Planning and Development. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 16)Site Plan Review Checklist, Appendix A, Zoning (updated February 12, 2026), City of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Accessed 2026-10-09.
- 17)Five Ways Architects Charge Fees, and Five Tips to Consider (reporting the AIA 2024 Firm Survey), Archinect. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 18)Architectural and Engineering Fee Estimating Guidelines, Monograph. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 19)A&E Fees and Soft Costs: Commercial Construction 2026, Terrapin Construction Group. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 20)Soft Costs (Glossary of CRE Terms), Adventures in CRE. Accessed 2026-10-07.
- 21)Hard Costs vs Soft Costs: A Real Estate Development Budget Guide, Dwellsy IQ. Accessed 2026-10-07.
How these sources were chosen and when the page is reviewed: how we research.