Greenfield land and rezoning terms, in plain words

The words you'll meet when you look at rural land with development potential in NSW, and what they mean for what you can build.

AEP (annual exceedance probability): The chance of a flood that big or bigger happening in any one year. A 1% AEP flood has a 1 in 100 chance each year. People used to call it a 1-in-100-year flood, which made it sound rarer than it is.
AHIMS: The Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System, Heritage NSW's register of recorded Aboriginal sites. A basic search is free and is one of the first checks before buying land.
Asset protection zone (APZ): A strip of managed land between homes and bushland, kept low in fuel so a bushfire loses strength before it reaches a house. For a new subdivision in NSW, Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 sets how wide it must be, based on the vegetation and the slope.
BAL (bushfire attack level): A rating of how much heat, embers and flame a building could face in a bushfire, from BAL-LOW up to BAL-FZ (flame zone). It comes from the Australian Standard AS 3959. New residential lots in NSW are generally laid out so homes won't face more than BAL-29.
BDAR: A Biodiversity Development Assessment Report. An accredited assessor surveys the plants and animals on a site and works out the biodiversity offsets needed if it's cleared. Surveys often depend on the season, so it can take months.
Biodiversity Offsets Scheme: The NSW scheme under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 that makes developers who clear native vegetation over set thresholds pay for it to be protected somewhere else, by buying or retiring biodiversity credits.
Biodiversity Values Map and Threshold Tool (BMAT): The NSW Government's online map of land with high biodiversity value. Clearing mapped land brings in the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme, so mapped land usually comes off the area you can build on, or costs offsets to clear.
Bush fire prone land: Land the council's certified map shows can support a bushfire or be affected by one. Building or subdividing on it means meeting Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019, and a subdivision needs a bush fire safety authority from the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Controlled activity approval: Approval under the Water Management Act 2000 for work on waterfront land, such as building, clearing or moving soil near a creek. If a subdivision needs one, it's integrated development: since 1 July 2026 the Development Coordination Authority issues the general terms of approval, and they become part of the consent.
DCP (development control plan): A council's detailed design rules, such as road widths, setbacks and how streets are laid out. It sits under the LEP and guides how a subdivision is designed.
Development contributions: Money (or land or works) a council collects from developers for local roads, parks and community facilities, under a contributions plan. For a greenfield subdivision it's a big cost per lot, so it belongs in every feasibility.
Englobo land: A large block of undeveloped land, often rural on the edge of town, sold as one parcel before it's subdivided. In a listing it usually hints at development potential, which isn't the same as approval.
Flood planning area: The land a council's flood study shows below the flood planning level. Special rules apply to building on it, and a greenfield site usually keeps homes out of it.
Flood planning level: The height new homes must be built above, usually the 1% AEP flood level plus a safety margin called freeboard (often 0.5 m). Councils set it in their flood planning.
Gateway determination: The NSW planning department's decision on whether a planning proposal can go ahead to the next stage, and on what conditions, such as the studies to finish and who to consult. It's the first big yes or no in a rezoning.
Greenfield site: Land that hasn't been built on before, usually farmland on the edge of a town or city, that might be developed for new housing.
Lead-in servicing: The water, sewer, power and roads that have to reach a new estate from the existing network before the first lot can be sold. If the nearest capacity is far away, it can cost millions.
LEP (local environmental plan): A council's main planning law. Its maps set each piece of land's zone, minimum lot size and other controls. Rezoning land means changing the LEP through a planning proposal.
Lot yield: How many lots a site can carry. A fair first estimate takes off the land you can't build on, then roads and parks, then divides by the average lot size.
Minimum lot size: The smallest lot the LEP's Lot Size Map allows when land is subdivided. Real lots are usually bigger on average, and plenty of land can't be used at all, so dividing a site by its minimum lot size overstates what it can carry.
Net developable area (NDA): The land left for housing once constraints like creek corridors, flood land, protected bushland and steep ground come off, and in some definitions roads and parks too. Check which definition a council or lender means.
Planning certificate (10.7 certificate): A council certificate under section 10.7 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 listing the planning rules that apply to a lot, such as its zone and whether it's bush fire prone or flood affected. It used to be called a section 149 certificate.
Planning proposal: The document that asks to change an LEP, for example to rezone rural land for housing. It explains what's proposed and why, and it goes through Gateway, studies, public exhibition and a final decision.
Residual land value: What a developer could pay for land: what the finished lots would sell for, less every cost to get there and a profit margin. For land that isn't rezoned yet, it also has to allow for time and the chance the rezoning fails.
Rezoning review: An independent check by a planning panel when a council refuses to support a planning proposal, or doesn't decide in time. The panel decides whether it should go on to Gateway.
Riparian corridor: The strip of land along a creek kept for the creek and its vegetation. In NSW its width depends on the creek's stream order: 10, 20, 30 or 40 m each side, measured from the top of the bank.
Spatial Viewer: The NSW Planning Portal's free online map. Find a lot and turn on layers like zoning, lot size, flood and bush fire prone land.
Stream order (Strahler): A way of ranking creeks by size. A small creek with no others flowing into it is first order. Where two first-order creeks join, the creek becomes second order, and so on. NSW uses it to set riparian corridor widths.
Waterfront land: The bed of a river, lake, estuary or creek, and the land within 40 m of its bank or shore. Work on it can need a controlled activity approval.

See what these mean for a real site

Our report maps every one of these for a lot, takes off the land you can't build on and works out what's left is worth. We're opening soon.