Sheet G-02 · Reference
Granny flat glossary
Plain-language definitions for the building and planning terms used in the site-check report.
16 terms
- Building Code
- New Zealand’s minimum performance requirements for safe, healthy and durable building work.
- Building consent
- Formal approval to carry out building work in line with plans and specifications accepted by a building consent authority.
- Building coverage
- The percentage of your site covered by buildings when viewed from above.
- Detached minor residential unit (DMRU)
- The planning-rule name for a self-contained smaller home completely detached from the principal home.
- Development contribution
- A one-off council charge for infrastructure demand created by new development.
- District plan
- Your council’s local rulebook and map for land use and development.
- Flooding
- Water reaching land or buildings where it can cause harm, including floodplains, ponding and overland flow.
- Natural hazard
- A natural process that could damage land, the proposed building or other property.
- NES-DMRU
- The national planning rules for detached minor residential units under the Resource Management Act.
- Permitted activity
- Something the planning rules allow without resource consent, provided every stated requirement is met.
- Project information memorandum (PIM)
- A council report about proposed building work and the land; compulsory before Schedule 1A work starts.
- Resource consent
- Council permission for an activity that is not allowed as of right under the applicable planning rules.
- Schedule 1A exemption
- The Building Act pathway that can remove the building-consent application when every statutory condition is met.
- Setback / yard
- The clear distance a building must maintain from a legal boundary or another specified feature.
- Setback from the principal residential unit
- The required separation between a detached granny flat and the principal home.
- Zone / zoning
- The planning category applied to an area of land.