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Grading Plans

Grading and drainage design prepared for municipal review.

What a grading plan covers

A grading plan sets the finished levels across your site. It shows spot elevations, contours, slopes, and how surface water leaves the property.

The plan has to work with three things at once. Your building entrances, the municipal road grades at the property line, and the drainage strategy.

Overland flow routing is the part reviewers scrutinise. The plan must show where water goes during a major storm event when the pipe system is surcharged.

On park and open space projects the plan also sets sports field crossfall and pathway grades. Accessibility slopes on pathways are held within the applicable limits.

The grading plan is reviewed and sealed by a licensed Ontario Professional Engineer where required for site plan control, subdivision registration, or municipal infrastructure submissions.

Levels and storage volumes are worked out together, so the plan is prepared alongside your Stormwater Management Report. Where new services cross the site, it is coordinated with the servicing plan so cover over the pipes actually works.

For more on grading and drainage requirements, read What Is Shown on Civil Engineering Drawings? .

When you need a grading plan and what it includes

When you need one

  • Site plan control submissions
  • Draft plan of subdivision and registration
  • Building permit on sites with drainage conditions
  • Parks, sports fields, and pathway construction
  • Municipal capital works
  • Sites where drainage crosses a property boundary

What you receive

  • Existing and proposed spot elevations
  • Proposed contours and slope annotation
  • Overland flow routing for the major storm event
  • Tie-ins to municipal road grades and adjacent property
  • Retaining wall locations and top and bottom levels
  • Erosion and sediment control notes
  • A drawing to municipal standards, sealed as applicable

What gets flagged on grading

Grading drawings came back most often over what happened at the property line. Drainage was resolved neatly inside the site, then simply stopped at the boundary. Reviewers want to see where the water goes next, and whether it lands on a neighbour. The other frequent gap was the major system: no routing shown for the storm that exceeds the pipe capacity.