A site assessment is TRPA’s check of what a single-family property already has. In TRPA’s words, site assessments “verify the land capability, coverage, and development rights for single-family dwellings only.” If you plan to remodel, add on, rebuild, or sell a Tahoe home, it is often the first application you file, because every later permit is measured against what the assessment verifies.
When you need one
- You want to add coverage (an addition, a bigger deck, a garage, a wider driveway) and need to know what the parcel is allowed and what it already uses.
- The home was built before 1987 and its coverage has never been verified. Older cabins often carry more coverage than their land capability would allow today, and the assessment is how that coverage is recognized as legally existing.
- You want to bank, sell, or transfer coverage and need it verified first.
- You are buying and want to know whether the driveway, decks, and outbuildings count, before the price is final.
TRPA offers a full site assessment (land capability, coverage, and development rights, for homes built before 1987) and a partial one (coverage and development rights only, when land capability has already been verified). Multi-family, commercial, and other non-single-family uses use TRPA’s verification and banking application instead.
When you don’t
- The property has an IPES score. TRPA’s site assessment and land capability applications both say a site assessment is not needed for properties with an IPES score, and El Dorado County says the same. IPES-scored parcels are residential lots that were vacant in July 1987 or later; the score itself carries the base allowable coverage. See what an IPES score means.
- The parcel already has stamped TRPA-approved plans from after July 1, 1987. TRPA says only stamped plans approved after that date can be used to verify land capability and coverage in place of a site assessment.
- Your project adds no coverage and the local jurisdiction doesn’t ask for one. Interior work, for example. Check with the permitting office before assuming.
The two dates that decide what counts
The assessment determines whether your existing coverage legally exists. TRPA’s application puts it this way: coverage “created before February 10th, 1972 or created thereafter with a permit and still existing on-site on October 15, 1986.” Coverage that meets that test can stay even if it exceeds the base allowance. Coverage that doesn’t is not credited. Don’t tear out a driveway or deck before it has been verified; removed coverage keeps its value only if TRPA’s banking steps are followed.
Where to file
- Unincorporated El Dorado County (Meyers, Christmas Valley, Tahoe Paradise, Fallen Leaf) and Placer County: the county building department. In El Dorado County a building inspector does the field visit.
- City of South Lake Tahoe, Washoe and Douglas counties, and all lakefront properties: TRPA.
What you submit
TRPA’s checklist asks for the assessor’s original property record card (internet printouts are not accepted), permit and utility records, photographs, and a 24 x 36 site plan prepared by a licensed professional, such as a surveyor, engineer, or architect. The plan shows property lines, easements, setbacks, and parcel area; all existing development with overhangs reduced at 3:1; coverage calculations broken out by type; trees over 14 inches in diameter and rock outcrops; two-foot contours; and, on lakefront parcels, the high and low water lines. El Dorado County notes that a professional survey is not mandatory for its site assessments if the plan is accurate and to scale. When a property line or a few hundred square feet of coverage matters, a survey is what makes the plan accurate.
TRPA’s January 20, 2026 fee schedule lists a complete site assessment at a $662 minimum fee and a partial one at $529, each as a deposit account, plus a $151 technology surcharge. County fees differ.
Snow timing
Plan around winter. El Dorado County states that site visits cannot be conducted when there is snow on the ground, so an application filed in late fall can wait until spring. The site plan’s coverage, contours, and corners also have to be measured on bare ground. TRPA’s grading season runs May 1 through October 15. The schedule that works: survey in summer, file by early fall, finish the verification before snow, and design over the winter.
Contour Survey prepares site assessment site plans on the California side of the basin. See TRPA land coverage surveys, or estimate your numbers with the coverage calculator.