Design & documentation · Nationwide
Permit Plans and Coordinated Drawing Packages
Turn your proposed work into a coordinated set of drawings and supporting documents. True North helps commercial and residential clients nationwide develop the design, resolve the information gaps, and prepare a permit package around the actual project and reviewing authority.
For owners, tenants, property representatives, and contractors planning new construction, a build-out, an addition, or a remodel. Bring your idea or the plans you already have; a complete drawing set is not required to begin.
- One defined drawing package
- A scope suited to the project
- Existing conditions, new design, or a supplied plan review?
What your permit package can include
A useful package shows what will change, how the parts fit together, and which professional is responsible for each discipline. The required sheets depend on the property, proposed use, work, and review pathway.
One defined drawing package
We assemble the drawings and supporting information needed for the regulatory reviews in your agreed scope. The proposal identifies the drawing list, disciplines, supporting documents, review cycles, issue format, and delivery milestone. It also identifies any applications, submission management, or review responses included in the engagement.
A scope suited to the project
A tenant build-out may center on layout, equipment, accessibility, and system coordination. An addition can require site, roof, elevation, structural, and existing-to-new interface information. A new building can need a broader site and discipline package. These are starting points for scoping, not a universal list of required sheets.
Existing conditions, new design, or a supplied plan review?
Existing-condition drawings record what is there. Proposed permit drawings describe what you intend to build or change. Reviewing plans supplied by someone else checks their suitability and gaps; it does not automatically include a new site measurement or redesign. We identify which work your project needs before defining the package.
Resolve the design before producing the sheets
Design development connects the way a space will be used with its physical constraints. The applicable tasks can include:
Site arrangement and building form
Study buildings, access, parking, outdoor uses, utilities, landscaping, and stormwater together. Develop the building volume, height, roof form, entrances, and relationship to neighboring development.
Floor plans and movement
Arrange rooms, openings, fixtures, equipment, and support spaces. Coordinate customer entrances, queues, seating, checkout, pickup, service points, and exits. Plan employee workstations, storage, staff facilities, service routes, and deliveries. Track how goods move through receiving, preparation, production, distribution, waste, and equipment routes.
Furniture and equipment planning
Coordinate capacity, dimensions, loads, utility services, power, clearances, accessibility, and circulation. Allow for maintenance access and the routes needed to remove or replace equipment without overlooking adjacent activities.
Materials and interior design
Develop the spatial character, finishes, fixtures, lighting interfaces, and millwork within the assigned design scope. Interior selections consider use, sanitation, durability, fire performance, and maintenance. Exterior selections consider weather exposure, attachments, fire performance, energy requirements, appearance, and private review criteria.
Visual communication and accessible layouts
Use agreed perspectives, diagrams, renderings, or models to explain the concept. Integrate accessible site connections, routes, entrances, rooms, fixtures, and counters into the layout rather than treating them as an afterthought.
A recorded basis for the design
Confirm the selected arrangement, systems, materials, equipment, and owner decisions before final drawing production. This establishes the assumptions the team will coordinate and identifies decisions still outstanding.
Drawing sheets and supporting documents
The agreed sheet list may draw from the following products. We coordinate them with the applicable professional disciplines; every product is not automatically included in every project.
Project and code information
A cover sheet identifies the address, scope, team, drawing index, issue status, and controlling information. A code information sheet records the applicable codes, use classifications, areas, construction type, occupant loads, and design criteria.
Existing and demolition plans
Document the measured existing layout, labeling inaccessible or unverified conditions. Identify walls, openings, finishes, equipment, utilities, and other elements to remove, together with the elements that need protection.
Proposed, dimension, and partition plans
Show intended room uses, openings, fixtures, equipment, and drawing references. Set out controlling dimensions, offsets, clearances, wall positions, and coordination geometry. Identify partition types, extents, ratings, construction, and intersections.
Ceiling and roof plans
Reflected ceiling plans coordinate heights, grid, soffits, access panels, lights, diffusers, and fire-system interfaces. Roof plans address geometry, slopes, drainage, penetrations, equipment, curbs, edges, and related details.
Exterior and interior elevations
Exterior elevations show building faces, materials, openings, heights, equipment screening, and appearance requirements. Interior elevations coordinate wall-mounted elements, casework, equipment, finishes, mounting heights, and fixture relationships.
Sections and enlarged plans
Building sections explain floor levels, roofs, ceilings, structure, and major assemblies. Wall sections connect foundations, walls, floors, roofs, insulation, and moisture-control layers. Enlarged plans make complex restrooms, kitchens, treatment rooms, service areas, or equipment rooms legible at a useful scale.
Door and window schedules
Record door sizes, types, materials, ratings, frames, glazing, and hardware references. Coordinate window types, sizes, glazing, performance criteria, and installation references.
Finish schedules and room data
Identify finishes by room or surface, including transitions, bases, wet areas, and substrate needs. Room data sheets bring together use, finishes, equipment, services, clearances, and environmental criteria.
Equipment and signage schedules
Coordinate selected equipment with its dimensional, structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing requirements. Identify room, directional, accessibility, safety, and operational signs within the assigned scope.
Written specifications
Set out material, assembly, installation, quality, testing, submittal, and performance requirements within the responsible designer’s scope. Align written requirements with the drawings and project decisions.
Details that connect the design
Where the scope calls for them, coordinated details explain how adjacent elements work together and make construction interfaces clear.
Entrances and storefronts
Coordinate thresholds, landings, clearances, weather protection, doors, glazing, and accessible approaches. Resolve storefront framing, attachments, structure, flashing, and connections to adjacent finishes.
Stairs, ramps, guards, and handrails
Address stair geometry, supports, landings, headroom, and egress. For ramps, address slopes, edge protection, drainage, and accessible connections. For guards, address geometry, openings, structural attachment, and fall protection. For handrails, address height, graspability, continuity, extensions, clearances, and supporting construction.
Restrooms and showers
Coordinate fixture positions, clearances, accessories, partitions, finishes, waterproofing, and utilities. Shower details also address slopes, thresholds, seating, controls, and accessible approaches where applicable.
Counters and millwork
Resolve service function, counter heights, knee space, storage, equipment, and electrical or plumbing interfaces. Coordinate cabinet geometry, materials, supports, hardware, and service access.
Rated, firestop, and acoustic assemblies
Identify selected rated walls, floors, roofs, openings, joints, and their interfaces. Coordinate tested firestop penetration and joint systems with actual substrates, services, and movement. Address acoustic walls, ceilings, floors, doors, penetrations, and paths through adjoining construction that can transmit sound.
Waterproofing and connections
Coordinate membranes, transitions, terminations, penetrations, drainage, and adjacent assemblies. Document physical and performance connections between retained and new construction. Resolve expansion joints across structural movement, weather protection, fire resistance, finishes, and building systems.
Equipment access and replacement
Coordinate doors, removable panels, roof access, lifting paths, and service clearances so maintenance and future replacement needs are represented in the design.
What to bring to the first conversation
Start with what is available. We can help identify missing information before it becomes a design assumption.
Property and existing records
Share the project location, intended use, available surveys, existing plans, photos, and information about prior approvals or review comments. Confirm permission to use supplied records. We identify backgrounds or conditions that need verification.
Your proposed work and priorities
Describe what will change, who will use the space, how it will operate, and any target opening or construction dates. Bring a selected concept if you have one, along with equipment specifications, layouts, landlord criteria, or association requirements that affect the design.
The project team and decisions
Identify the owner’s decision-maker and any architect, engineer, surveyor, contractor, or specialty designer already involved. We clarify design criteria, discipline responsibilities, and the information each party must supply.
From an idea to a coordinated issue
Your agreement defines the endpoint. Preparing a drawing package, managing a submission, and receiving a permit are different milestones.
Define the work and review pathway
Confirm the location, proposed use, project stage, available records, and intended milestone. Establish the sheet list, inputs, discipline responsibilities, and services included in the proposal.
Confirm the design direction
Resolve important layout and equipment decisions, verify relevant backgrounds, and record the basis of design. Identify unresolved conditions rather than presenting assumptions as measured facts.
Develop and coordinate the documents
Prepare the agreed sheets and supporting information. Coordinate professional designs, details, schedules, and interfaces; track revisions so the team can identify the controlling issue.
Check and issue the package
Review the package for its contracted purpose and organize the deliverables. If applications, agency responses, revisions, or resubmissions are included, manage those steps to the agreed endpoint and maintain the change record.
Make the next step clear
Identify the delivered issue, open decisions, outstanding approvals, and responsibilities for construction or later submissions. A delivered plan set does not by itself establish that a permit has been issued.
Professional roles and approval responsibilities
True North develops and coordinates the contracted documentation and provides professionally stamped plan packages when the agreed scope and applicable jurisdiction require them.
Responsible professionals
Required design, calculations, surveys, and certifications remain with the qualified professionals responsible for that work. We identify the applicable architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire, or other discipline scope rather than assuming one package includes everything.
Authorities and construction partners
Reviewing authorities make approval decisions. Required legal or environmental determinations stay with the responsible specialists. Construction services through our partners are included only when expressly agreed; contractors retain responsibility for their assigned physical work and construction means and methods.
What affects the fee and schedule
We define fees and milestones after reviewing the actual work. There is no single nationwide price or approval timetable for a permit drawing package.
Package size and readiness
The number of disciplines and sheets, existing-record quality, field verification, equipment information, specialty details, and maturity of the design affect the work. Owner changes, coordination needs, and the included review or revision cycles also affect effort.
Separate costs and dependencies
The proposal distinguishes True North’s services, professional fees, agency charges, and physical-construction costs. Owner decisions, specialist inputs, landlord reviews, and jurisdiction workloads can affect timing. Agency approval dates and outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Before you begin
Common questions
Is a permit set the same as a construction set?
A permit set supports the applicable authority’s review. Construction may also need additional details, specifications, coordination, or separately prepared shop drawings. We agree on the intended use and completeness of the deliverable rather than treating permit submission as proof that every construction document is finished. If you need editable CAD files, a BIM model, or other delivery formats, identify them during scoping so the proposal can address format, responsibility, and authorized use.
How do existing-condition and proposed drawings differ?
Existing-condition drawings record the current layout and identify what could not be verified. Proposed drawings show the work you intend to perform. A remodel can need both, plus demolition sheets. We review the available backgrounds and identify any measurement or verification work needed before relying on them.
Is every discipline included in my permit package?
The proposal identifies the disciplines and deliverables included for your project. Architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire, and specialty requirements depend on the work and jurisdiction. Required professional design and certification are assigned to the responsible qualified professionals.
Can you work from plans I already have?
Yes. We first review their intended use, accuracy, completeness, and your authority to use them. Existing-plan review may identify gaps or revisions. Measuring conditions, developing new design, or completing another discipline is separately identified in the agreed scope.
Can I start before choosing a property or finalizing the design?
Yes. Tell us your intended use, likely location, and current stage. Early work can focus on the concept, project requirements, and information you need before committing to a full drawing package. The inquiry form lets you indicate that a property has not been selected.
Does preparing the package include submitting it and answering comments?
Submission management, agency responses, revisions, and resubmissions can be included. Your agreement identifies which steps, review cycles, and endpoint apply. Drawing completion, submission, and permit issuance are tracked as different milestones.
Do you prepare permit packages outside Houston?
True North is based in Houston and serves projects throughout the United States. We scope the documents, required professional participation, and review pathway around the project location. Nationwide availability does not mean every jurisdiction uses the same requirements.
Will the plans guarantee permit approval?
No. The reviewing authority decides whether to approve a submission. We coordinate the agreed package and included review work, identify outstanding issues, and distinguish a prepared or submitted set from an issued permit.
Your next step
A project in mind?
Let’s give it direction.
Start with what you know. We’ll help define the path ahead.