Senior living site plans

The head count comes before the layout

A senior living site plan settles one number before it draws a building: how many residents will receive care. That number sets the building code occupancy. Under the International Building Code, a facility where more than 16 residents receive custodial care is Group I-1, Condition 1 or 2; one with 6 to 16 such residents is Group R-4; and one with 5 or fewer is Group R-3 ^{[1, 2]}. The jump to the institutional group comes at the 17th resident ^{[1, 2]}. Washington amends the model code so that licensed assisted living is I-1 Condition 2 regardless of size ^[3].

Height is the second number. Once the roof is more than 30 ft above grade, the site plan must provide an aerial apparatus road at least 26 ft wide, located 15 to 30 ft from the building, where IFC Appendix D is adopted ^[4]. On a multi-story assisted living building, that lane is drawn before the drop-off and the parking field.

The preliminary site plan carries this in its site data table: residents and units by care level (independent living, assisted living, memory care), the occupancy group and stories of each building, parking required against provided, open space, and the fire apparatus access drawn to scale. Engineering stays with the client's engineer of record.

Numeric standards that shape the layout

The aerial road takes one full long face of a multi-story building, and overhead service lines stay off that side ^[4]. The drop-off, the parking aisles and the courtyards go where the lane leaves room.

Local fire codes amend the model text. San Antonio's 2021 fire code exempts Group R-only buildings of 4 stories or fewer from the aerial road where conditions are met, including roof access by stair and 25 ft lanes throughout ^[13]; the relief is written for Group R-only buildings, so a building classed I-1 is outside its terms ^[13]. Seattle's 2018 fire code requires two separate approved access roads for residential projects over 30 dwelling units, a threshold a larger independent living building can cross ^[14].

Washington's parking law changes the parking field. ESSB 5184 (2025) bars minimum parking for senior housing, residences under 1,200 SF, commercial spaces under 3,000 SF, affordable housing, child care, ground-level commercial in mixed-use buildings and changes of use, and caps what cities may require at 0.5 spaces per multifamily unit ^{[11, 12]}. On a Washington senior housing site the parking count is a program decision, not a code minimum ^[11]. See Washington site plans.

Podium buildings

A senior building over a parking or retail podium follows IBC 510.2 (2024). The section treats the podium and the building above as separate buildings for area, stories and construction type when the horizontal assembly is 3-hour rated, the building below is Type IA, shaft and stair enclosures through it are rated 2 hours, and the building above contains Group A, B, M, R or S occupancies ^[15]. Group I is not on that list ^[15], so an assisted living floor classed I-1 above a podium is settled with the architect of record before the massing is fixed. NFPA 13 sprinklers are required below the assembly, and height is measured from grade plane ^[16], so the podium does not take the building out of the aerial road requirement ^{[15, 16]}. The mixed-use rules for the ground floor are on mixed-use site plans.

Assisted living licensing by state

Assisted living is licensed by a state agency, and in several states the license tier follows the resident or bed count. The table shows the states whose agency and primary citation the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) summaries confirm. Rows from NCAL's 2023 edition carry that year.

NCAL updates selected states quarterly. As of June 2026 it lists updates for AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DC, GA, HI, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT and NC, so rows taken from its 2023 edition may be stale for Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California and Colorado ^[20]. In calendar 2025, 18 states plus DC updated their assisted living rules ^[21]. In Maryland, new regulations take effect July 2026, and 82% of the state's 1,625 licensed programs have 15 or fewer beds, as reported by Property Manager Insider (secondary) ^[22]. Other states license assisted living under their own statutes and rules; the state agency confirms the tier for a given program before the plan is fixed.

The Alabama tiers show how a license and the building code meet on the site: Group licenses run 3 to 16 residents and Congregate licenses 17 or more, and life-safety rules differ by tier ^[17], the same 16 and 17 resident line at which the IBC moves from R-4 to I-1 ^{[1, 2]}.

Memory care, assisted living and independent living

Memory care is usually a specialty license or certification layered on assisted living. Texas licenses assisted living facilities as Type A or Type B, and its Alzheimer's certification requires a Type B license ^[19]. Florida's assisted living license carries LNS, ECC and LMH specialty licenses, issued by the Agency for Health Care Administration ^[18]. The site data table lists units by care level so the licensing agency and the building official read the same counts.

Independent living sits outside these care licenses. Whether a senior use counts as residential or institutional for zoning is decided locally, so the zoning district's use table is read before the site is drawn. For the residential side of a senior campus, see multifamily site plans.

Approval path patterns

A senior project runs two tracks at once: the state license and the local land use approval. The local track is where the preliminary plan works hardest.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee is a documented example of a city that asks for a concept plan first. Its due diligence meeting "is required for Master Plans, Preliminary Plats, Site Plans, Annexation and Rezoning requests that are beyond the conceptual stage and where a more formal design is moving forward," and "A dimensioned conceptual site plan is required depicting all proposed and existing structures, vehicle and pedestrian access, parking, landscaping, potential drainage area(s) and a site data table" ^[23]. A due diligence meeting must be held before a pre-application meeting can be requested, and at the pre-application meeting plans should be "90-95% complete" ^[23].

Tennessee's board rule for architects and engineers requires working or partially completed plans, and any drawings that are not construction documents, to carry a designation such as preliminary, not for construction, for review only or draft (Rule 0120-02-.08(9)); the registrant's seal goes on all original sheets of any set of working drawings or plans (Rule 0120-02-.08(2)(a)) ^[24]. The land surveyors' rule lets working drawings and preliminary documents go without seal and signature when they carry a statement to that effect in large bold letters (Rule 0820-04-.08(2)) ^[25].

The unsealed preliminary plan belongs at the concept meeting, in the lender package and in the capital raise. The engineer and architect of record take it as the program and layout brief and draw the sealed set under their own responsible charge. For the general picture, see preliminary vs final site plans, do I need an architect for a site plan and where unsealed site plans are accepted. The state layer for Tennessee is on Tennessee site plans, and Murfreesboro sits in the Nashville metro.

What the preliminary plan carries, and what the engineer of record adds

The general split is in who prepares a site plan.

Supply and demand, 2026

NIC MAP put senior housing occupancy at 89.5% in Q1 2026 ^[5]. Year-over-year inventory growth hit a record low that quarter: 0.4% for assisted living and 0.3% for independent living across the 31 NIC MAP Primary Markets ^[27]. Units under construction fell under 24,000 in 2Q 2026, the lowest since mid-2012 ^[6]. NIC MAP's 2026 Senior Housing Market Outlook revised its forecast of the units needed to "approximately 576,000 units by 2030 and... more than 1 million by 2035"; these are projections, not measured figures ^[28].

Related pages

For the views boards ask to see on a multi-story residential building, see apartment rendering. The studio's article four acres and a license covers the deal side, and hotel site plans show the same aerial fire lane logic on a 4-story building.