Glossary of Terms

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Abut

Contiguous; having a common boundary, wall or property line.

Amendment

A change to an existing official document or regulation.

Appeal

A request that another authority reviews or reconsiders a decision that an interested party believes to have been made in error.

Appraisal

An estimate of the value of real or personal property or an interest or estate in that property as determined by a qualified appraisal.

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B

Buffer

A landscaped area, intended to separate and partially obstruct the view of two adjacent land uses or properties from one another.

Building, Accessory

A building subordinate to the principal use of a building on the lot. Among other things, the following are considered to be an accessory buildings: shed, gazebo, garage.

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C

Certificate of Occupancy

Official certification that a premises conforms to applicable ordinances and may be used or occupied. A certificate of occupancy is granted upon completion of new construction or completion of alterations or additions to existing structures.

Covenants, Restrictive

Any contract restricting the manner in which land may be used.

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D

Development

Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations.

Development Plan

A type of plan that becomes part of the zoning for a property. The plan depicts site characteristics and development information and provides guidance for site plans.

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E

Easement

A right given by the owner of land to another person for specific limited use of that land.

Encroachment Line or Limit

The boundary line which delineates the floodway and designates the width of the channel and minimum width of overbank areas needed for conveying the regulatory flood.

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F

Flood Elevation

The elevation floodwaters reach at a particular site during the occurrence of a specific flood (usually referred to as a 100-year flood line).

Flood Plain

Any land area susceptible to being inundated by water as a result of a flood and within a floodway or floodway fringe.

Floodway

The channel of a watercourse and those portions of the flood plain adjoining the channel, which must be reserved in order to discharge the 100-year flood waters or flood flows and so that confinement of flood flows to the floodway area will not result in substantially higher flood levels and flow velocities.

Floodway Fringe

The portion of the flood plain landward of the encroachment limit which shall from time to time be inundated by floodwaters. More shallow and slower moving waters generally characterize flooding in the fringe area.

Frontage

The dimension of a front lot line as measured along the public street (see "lot lines, front").

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G

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, storing, updating, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographical referenced information. (Source: ESRI).

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A constellation of twenty-four satellites, developed by the United States Department of Defense, that orbit the earth at an altitude of 20,000 kilometers. These satellites transmit signals that allow a GPS receiver anywhere to calculate its own location. The Global Positioning System is used in navigation, mapping, surveying, and other application where precise positioning is necessary. (Source: ESRI)

Grade

The average elevation of the finished ground at the exterior walls of the main building.

Lot Lines, Front

The line separating the front of the lot from the street. In the case of a corner and double frontage lots, all lots fronting on a public or private street are deemed front lot line.

Lot Lines, Rear

The rear lot line is that boundary which is opposite and most distant from the front lot line. In the case of a corner lot, the line opposite the shorter street frontage dimension shall be construed as the rear lot line. In case of an interior triangular or irregular shaped lot, it means a straight line ten (10) feet in length which:

(1) Is parallel to the front lot line or its chord.
(2) Intersects the two other lot lines at points most distant from the front lot line.

Lot Lines, Side

Any lot boundary line not a front lot line or a rear lot line.

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N

Nuisance

Whatever is injurious to health, indecent, or unreasonable offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property as to essentially interfere unreasonably with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.

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O

One Hundred-Year Flood

A flood, the magnitude of which has a one percent (1%) chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year or which, on the average, will be equaled or exceeded at least once every 100 years.

Overlay District

A district which overlays and acts in conjunction with the underlying zoning district or districts.

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P

Plat

A map recorded in final form, which represents a tract of land showing the boundaries and location of individual properties and streets.

Preliminary Design

Typically a drawing depicting plans, sections, elevations, site plan, or parking plan of CADA proposals (includes dimensions and descriptive notes).

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R

RFP

A Request for Proposal (referred to as RFP) is an invitation for suppliers or developers, through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific product, service, or project.

RFQ (CADA Development)

The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is a request for submittal and CADA review of a developer's qualifications in order for them to submit proposals to CADA

RFQ (Construction or Supplies)

The Request for Quotation (RFQ) is used where discussions aren't required with bidders (mainly when the specifications of a product or service are already known), and price is the main or only factor in selecting the successful bidder. RFQ may also be used as a step prior to going to a full-blown RFP to determine general price ranges. In this scenario, products, services or suppliers may be selected from the RFQ results to bring in to further research in order to write a more fully fleshed out RFP.

Right-of-Way or ROW

A strip of land acquired by reservation, dedication, prescription, or condemnation and intended to be occupied by a road, trail, water line, sanitary sewer or other public uses.

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S

Setback

The minimum horizontal distance between the front, rear or sides lines of the lot and the front, rear or side lines of the building, or structure respectively.

Site Plan

A plan prepared to scale, showing accurately and with complete dimensioning, the boundaries of a site and the location of all buildings, structures, uses and principal site development features proposed for a specific parcel of land.

Vision Clearance

An open, unoccupied triangular space at the street corner or a corner lot, the space being defined as a setback line extending across the corner between points established twenty-five (25) feet along the right-of-way lines by measurement from the corner.

Yard, Corner Interior

On a corner lot, a yard extending from the front yard to the rear yard and measured between the side lot line (adjacent lot) and the building or any projections thereof.

Yard, Front

A yard extending across the full width of the lot and measured between the front lot line and the building.

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Z Back to Index