What may I build on this plot?
Height, setback, density, zoning, parking: Piloti names the rule from state law with a citation, reads the zoning plan in the project alongside it and calculates with its provisions, as a site plan sketch and key figures.
In short
What may be built on a plot is set by state law and the municipality’s land-use and zoning plan, not by the OIB guidelines. Piloti names the rule with a citation, calculates site coverage, density and setbacks per side from the provisions of the plan in the project, and shows the result as a site plan sketch.
What Piloti delivers
- A site plan sketch
- Plot, footprint and setbacks per side; with the areas also site coverage and density, the ratio calculated from the areas.
- A section for height
- Where height is checked across the storeys, Piloti draws a schematic section.
- Parking as a key figure
- Required against provided, with the basis of assessment in the text, because without it the number cannot be checked. A calculated number shows its working.
- Options
- Two building volumes on the same plot side by side as tabs, each with its own verdict.
Why no Austria-wide number helps here
Setbacks, heights, density, zoning and parking are state and municipal law: building code, land-use plan, zoning plan, parking rules. The answer therefore always depends on the state, and there is no number that applies equally in Graz and in Bregenz.
The terms move too. In Vienna the Bauklasse controls the permitted building height; other states work with numbers of storeys, heights or density values, and what one state calls Bauwich another calls Abstand. A remembered Vienna rule applied to another state is wrong and looks right.
And then the real gap: which rule applies can be read from the law. What the zoning plan fixes for this one plot is only in the plan itself.
How Piloti works through the question
- 01
Name state and instrument
If the project records the state, Piloti works under it. If not, that is the question. Then: which instrument carries the answer, building code, land-use plan, zoning plan or parking rule?
- 02
Fetch the provision
The rule comes from state law in RIS, for Vienna for example from the Bauordnung für Wien or the Wiener Garagengesetz 2008, cited the way an official decision cites it.
- 03
Show the chain of rules
If a question touches state law and an OIB guideline at once, such as setback and fire safety at the boundary, Piloti says which level carries which part. What binds and what only interprets is the real information here.
- 04
Calculate with the plan when it is there
If the zoning plan or an extract is in the project, Piloti reads its provisions and calculates with them: site coverage, density, setbacks per side.
- 05
Say what is missing
If it is not there, the number is stated as unknown, with a note on where to look it up. A plausible number is not invented.
What Piloti needs from you
- The state and the municipality.
- The land-use and zoning plan, or an extract, uploaded to the project as a PDF or image.
- Plot area and boundaries, for example from the site plan.
- What you want to build: use, storeys, rough massing.
Good to know
Piloti reads the provisions for your plot from the zoning plan you upload to the project; without it, it says which rule applies and where the provision can be found. Every number appears with its source, so your office can check it. An unclear provision is for the municipality or a pre-application meeting with the building authority.
Questions
How do I find out what I may build on my plot?
In your municipality’s land-use and zoning plan and in your state’s building code. The plan fixes what applies to the plot; the law says how its provisions are to be read and what applies where the plan is silent. Piloti reads both together once the plan is in the project.
Do the OIB guidelines set the distance to the plot boundary?
The setbacks that govern development are in state law and the zoning plan. OIB guideline 2 can add fire safety requirements at the plot boundary. Piloti keeps the two levels apart in the answer and says which carries which part.
What is the difference between the land-use plan and the zoning plan?
The land-use plan (Flächenwidmungsplan) sets what an area may be used for, such as building land or green land. The zoning plan (Bebauungsplan) sets how it may be built on: position, height, density, setbacks. What the plans are called and what they contain is set by state law; in Vienna both are combined in one plan document.
Can Piloti fetch the zoning plan for my address?
Piloti’s web research can find your municipality’s plan portal, with the source linked. The answer is most solid with the plan or an extract in the project: then Piloti reads the provisions and calculates with them.