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Planning & Development Drawing Submittal Process Changes

Effective January 12, 2026, the Planning and Development Department’s drawing submittal process will change significantly. In the long run, this will be better, but it will take some time for all of us to get used to it.

If you are an existing user, the Accela application process will remain mostly the same. Your existing login will not change, nor will other features such as payment. The drawing submittal process and comment review process is what is changing.

The new system requests more information on the drawings or manual input from the applicant during the upload process. When we provide comments, it will provide residents with a detailed list, and better tools to review and respond.

The system emails you receive during the review process will help you navigate the new system and provide on-screen instructions.

Residential Projects

Submit a single PDF. Most residential drawings do not have, or require, the details noted below.

  • Submit a single pdf.
  • Rotate pages in a readable format.
  • Create a file name with a -1 for first submittal.
    • For example: Smith Plans-1.pdf 
  • You will need to manually enter sheet names and numbers during the upload process.
  • Anything other than drawings should be submitted in as a document.
    • Soil borings, engineer’s letters, etc.
  • For revisions use same file name and update submittal number.
    • For example: Smith Plans-2.pdf

Complex Residential/Commercial/Zoning/Engineering Projects

Submission Standards

  • Both raster and scanned contents can be viewed in DigEplan.
  • Vector submittals are preferred for text searching and measuring.
  • PDF files must not restrict permissions or require a password to view the file’s content. Provide an unlocked digital seal where required.
  • PDF Packages or Portfolios are not acceptable.

File Naming Standards

  • File names of plans and supporting documents should describe the file contents and include the submission order number, for example
    • For example: Architectural Plan Set – Rev01.pdf.
  • The same file name should be used for resubmissions, but the Submission Number should be incremented for each resubmission by the applicant.
    • For example, Architectural Plan Set – Rev02.pdf.

Plan Sheet Numbering Standards

  • PDF files containing Plan / Drawing Sheets, each sheet should contain a PDF bookmark that contains the Sheet Reference Number and optionally a Sheet Title
    • For example, A1.0 LOWER FLOOR.
    • Without a bookmark information will need to be manually entered
  • Plan Sheet Reference Numbers should be unique.
  • If Plans need to be revised and resubmitted, use exactly the same Plan / Drawing Sheet Reference Number for each subsequent submission version of the same drawing sheet.
  • Plans should be generated using a fixed scale, for example, ¼” to 1’, 1/8” to 1’.
  • Plan Sheets should be correctly oriented.

Supporting Document Standards

  • Supporting documents should be submitted as separate files, not combined as part of a plan sheets submission file. This includes response letters.
  • Documents that contain multiple pages, for example, Structural Calculations, should be submitted as a single, multi-page file.
  • Different categories of supporting documents should be submitted as separate files, for example, Structural Calculations, Engineering Calculations, and Specifications, should each be in separate files.
  • Documents should be correctly oriented

Resubmittal Process

  • The same file name should be used for resubmissions, but the Submission Number should be incremented for each resubmission by the applicant,
    • For example Architectural Plan Set – Rev02.pdf.
  • If Plans need to be revised and resubmitted, use exactly the same Plan / Drawing Sheet Reference Number for each subsequent submission version of the same drawing sheet.
  • Resubmitted plans should use the same file format as the previous submission (e.g., PDF), and each sheet should have the same page size, page orientation, and drawing scale as the previous submission.

Autocad-generated PDFS:

  • In AutoCAD, “comments” often refer to SHX text appearing as comment boxes in PDF
  • Use the PDFSHX command: Type PDFSHX in the command line and set its value to 0 (zero) to stop SHX text from being stored as comments in PDFs.
  • Drawings submitted with SHX comments will be returned.

Questions

Should you have any questions, please get in touch with our Planning & Development Department at 937-296-2441.

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