Site plans for Onkaparinga, South Australia: drawn in minutes
Need a site plan for a shed, patio, carport, deck, pool or granny flat in Onkaparinga? Site plans and assessments in minutes, drawn over the real lot.
Building in Onkaparinga
City of Onkaparinga lots follow the state Planning and Design Code, adjusted by Technical and Numeric Variations for parts of the council area that can change figures such as maximum building height.
Bushfire, flood, heritage and vegetation mapping is read for each lot, and each layer changes small work in its own way: bushfire mapping removes the low-deck exclusion, a flood overlay removes the small-shed, pool and retaining wall exclusions, and a heritage place removes several more. Close to the coast, low retaining walls need approval too. Check the planning atlas, then lodge through PlanSA.
What we hold for Onkaparinga
For Onkaparinga we hold the council’s own rules for:
- sheds, garden sheds, garages and carports
- patios, pergolas, louvred roofs, decks and shade sails
- pools, fences and retaining walls
- granny flats
- driveways, water tanks and shipping containers
At each lot we check the state’s mapping for flood, bushfire, heritage and native vegetation. We also read the council’s application register for past applications on the lot.
Last checked
How approval works in South Australia
In South Australia development approval brings together planning consent, against the Planning and Design Code, and building consent, against the building rules, both applied for through the PlanSA portal. Some small structures are not development at all and need neither. Others are accepted development, which needs building consent but no planning assessment; deemed-to-satisfy development gets planning consent when it meets the Code's standards; and performance assessed development is weighed on its merits. The council, or an accredited professional such as a private certifier, issues each consent. The assessor reads the site plan for the structure's size, its distance to each boundary and how much of the lot is covered. The zone and the overlays on the lot decide the pathway, as per the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 and the Planning and Design Code.
Drawing the plan
Type the property address, the lot’s real boundaries load from official land records in South Australia, and you place the structure over the aerial view. The plan prints to scale with boundary lengths, setback distances, a north arrow, a legend, a site coverage table and a title block, as the site plan for a development approval.
What a certifier in Onkaparinga will ask you
Is the carport open, or closed in?
How open the carport is changes whether it needs a fire rated wall near the boundary, and a roller door or a later enclosure reopens the question. A shed never takes the open carport exemption.
How high can a retaining wall and a fence go?
Each takes its own height test, and a retaining wall carrying a fence has its own approval. Both heights go on the sheet for the certifier to read together.
Is the lot in an overlay, and what is the zoning?
A flood, bushfire, heritage or character overlay can bring a planning approval on top of the building approval, and the zone decides which of the council’s rules apply. The mapped overlays are read at the lot as the structure goes on the plan.
How big can a granny flat be, and how far from the house?
The council caps a granny flat’s floor area, and some councils also limit how far from the house it may stand. The sheet prints the floor area and dimensions the distance to the house.
The figures for your own lot are read in a minute, from its address.
Every question a certifier asks is on the South Australia page.
Changes on the way
Rule changes announced for Onkaparinga, for South Australia and for the whole country, the state and national lines in full on the South Australia page, each with the page that says so and the day we read it.
In the next 90 days
Nothing due in the next 90 days that we know of.
Later
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National Construction Code 2025, Building Code
Source plan.sa.gov.au, read
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ABCB Housing Provisions 2025 (with NCC 2025)
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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AS 1926.1:2024 Swimming pool safety barriers
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 10.8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 9.2
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H6, Specification 42 and Housing Provisions Section 13
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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NCC 2025 Volume Two Part H8
Source ncc.abcb.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, residential pause
Source treasury.gov.au, read
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National Construction Code, next edition
Source abcb.gov.au, read
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No date yet
State-wide Bushfire Hazards Overlay Code Amendment
Source yoursay.sa.gov.au, read
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No date yet
State-wide Flood Hazard Code Amendment
Source yoursay.sa.gov.au, read
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No date yet
AS 3959:2018 Construction of buildings in bushfire prone areas
Source store.standards.org.au, read
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No date yet
AS 4678-2002 Earth retaining structures
Source store.standards.org.au, read
What we changed for Onkaparinga
The rules we hold for Onkaparinga, each brought up to date from the page it names, newest first. The summary above reads from them.
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Council rules
Read from plan.sa.gov.au
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Planning scheme edition
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Council rules
Read from plan.sa.gov.au
Council notices
No story for Onkaparinga yet.
The sources we read for Onkaparinga
No page of Onkaparinga’s own is on our watch yet.
Follow Onkaparinga in a feed reader: www.rapidsiteplan.au/site-plan/onkaparinga/feed.xml. Every council and state has one, listed on rule changes by council and state.
RapidSiteplan is design software: you confirm details, measure on site and your certifier or council makes the approval decision. The rule above is general information, not building or legal advice. Boundaries shown are indicative, a surveyor is recommended where exact positions matter.
Serving postcodes 5158 and surrounds.
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