Site Analysis

Before design can begin, you’ll need to know what services are available on the site, and the locations of pipes, wires etc. Sites in rural areas may not have access to services such as sewerage, water and gas. Some remote sites may have no economical access to any services.

Required services

Most building sites within New Zealand have ready access to power and phone. Connections to town water, sewerage and stormwater is available in towns and cities but may not be available in many small country towns and villages. Rural sites, even within large city areas, typically have power and phone supply available but not water, sewerage or stormwater. Television reception varies from site to site.

You’ll need to determine whether the site has the following services (and if the service isn’t available, what you’ll do about it):

• potable water supply and its storage (is there a town supply that can be economically accessed or must the supply be provided by groundwater, springs, a stream, collected rainwater, or a combination of methods where no one source is sufficient for the expected demand)
• electricity (is access to the central supply economically available, and how reliable is this supply or must an on-site supply such as wind turbine, micro hydro, solar cells, fossil fuel generator and/or battery be incorporated)
• gas (is access to the central supply economically available or, if gas supply is essential, must bottled gas be regularly supplied to the site)
• stormwater disposal (connection to a stormwater drainage network or disposal to a location on site such as an existing waterway or to a storage tank for potable water supply)
• sewage disposal (is there a sewer connection – it must be used if available – or is an on-site treatment system existing or required)
• telephone and internet – is connection to a landline economically available or is a cell phone the economical option
• television (is reception available with a standard aerial, or is a signal amplifier required, or must a satellite dish be installed).

Health effects

A number of people are sensitive to the effects of electromagnetic radiation/pollution. Determine the proximity to and potential health effects from close-by cell phone towers, high tension power lines or industrial areas. There is no scientific consensus on the precise level of risk from electromagnetic radiation – however some experts advise against building within 300 m of a radiation source.

Council services and utilities

A number of building sites are crossed by overhead wires and underground service (water, gas, sewer) lines. Where these occur, there are likely to be limitations on how close the building can be to services. Always verify the actual positions and invert levels of buried services instead of relying on council drawings which may not be particularly accurate.

Legal matters

The certificate of title for the site should be checked to determine development limitations from easements (such as rights of way) registered against the title. Legal sale and purchase agreements will identify covenants or restrictions applicable to the site.

Finding information

You’ll be able to find out information about a site’s infrastructure services and main utility service locations from the property information memorandum (PIM) or land information memorandum (LIM), as well as from other council property records such as drawings for building consent applications and code compliance certificates. For gas and power utilities you may need to contact the specific supply company. Some councils provide a property file on CD. You can also find information from utility providers. In some cases, you may want to get a survey done.