You're sitting on a property you've owned for 30 years and someone starts talking about setbacks and impervious coverage ratios and you just kind of... go along with it.
I've been in those conversations. I've also been the one using that language without stopping to check if the person across the table actually knew what I meant. That's on me. So here's the glossary I probably should have handed people years ago.
These are the 20 terms that come up most in shore redevelopment conversations — the ones that actually shape decisions, affect value, and sometimes get people into trouble when they're not understood.
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The Site Terms: What You're Actually Working With
Lot coverage — The percentage of a lot that can be covered by structures. Not just the footprint of the house. Sheds, garages, covered porches — those count. Coastal towns have gotten more aggressive about this over the last decade. A lot that felt large in 1974 can feel restrictive fast when you're trying to fit a modern build on it.
Impervious coverage — Similar but broader. Includes driveways, patios, walkways. Anything water can't pass through. This is the number that bites people. You can have plenty of lot coverage left and still be out of room on impervious. I had to look this up myself the first time I heard it used separately from lot coverage — they're related but not the same.
Setbacks — The required distance between a structure and each property line (front, rear, side). Every municipality sets its own. A typical 1950s-era cottage on a Sea Isle block often sits closer to the property line than current code would allow. That's grandfathered as long as you're not expanding. Once you demo and rebuild, you're on current setbacks. This changes your buildable footprint. Sometimes significantly.
Buildable envelope — The actual box of space where you can put a structure, after accounting for all setbacks, height limits, and coverage rules. Not the lot. The envelope. These two numbers can be very different. Why oversized lots matter so much comes back to this — a wider envelope changes everything.
FAR (Floor Area Ratio) — The ratio of total floor area to lot size. A 0.5 FAR on a 5,000 sq ft lot means 2,500 sq ft of finished living space. Some towns use FAR, some use lot coverage, some use both. Shore towns are inconsistent here, which creates real confusion when you're comparing parcels across municipalities.
Non-conforming structure — A building that was legally built under old code but doesn't comply with current zoning. Common in shore towns. A non-conforming structure can usually stay as-is but can't be expanded — and in many cases, if it's substantially damaged or demolished, it has to be rebuilt to current standards. This is a real threshold for older homes.
Grandfathered use — The legal status that lets a non-conforming structure or use continue to exist. Not infinite. Not transferable across all change types. Demolition typically ends it. This comes up constantly in conversations about older shore homes that owners aren't quite ready to sell but can't maintain the same way anymore.
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The Process Terms: What Actually Happens
Demolition permit — The formal approval to tear down an existing structure. Not always a rubber stamp. Some towns require asbestos surveys, disconnection of utilities, and specific documentation before they'll issue one. In a joint venture context, this is typically where the clock starts on the construction timeline.
Construction permit / building permit — The approval to build. Separate from demo. These can take time, and the timeline varies by municipality — I won't pretend otherwise, because giving you a specific number here would be guessing. What I can say is that our projects run approximately 6 months from demolition to sale-ready, and permitting is baked into that.
Certificate of Occupancy (CO) — The document that says a newly completed building is legally habitable. You can't sell a new build without one. Can't close on it, can't transfer title on it as a finished home. If a developer says a project is "done," ask if the CO is in hand.
Variance — Formal approval to deviate from zoning requirements. You're asking the zoning board to let you do something the code doesn't normally allow. Variances can be granted, denied, or granted with conditions. They add time and uncertainty. A clean lot — one that doesn't require variances — is meaningfully less risky than one that does.
As-of-right development — A project that complies with existing zoning and doesn't need a variance. You're working entirely within the rules. Faster. More predictable. Buyers of finished product typically prefer to know the build was as-of-right. It affects financing and title insurance too, though that's a longer conversation.
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The Deal Terms: How Money and Structure Work
As-is value — What a property is worth in its current condition, sold to whoever's buying it that day. Not what the land would be worth if the house were gone. Not what a finished new build would sell for. The actual present-tense number. Sellers sometimes confuse this with land value — they're related but not equal.
Land value — The value of the dirt, separate from whatever's sitting on it. In high-demand shore corridors, this is the number that matters most. A tired 1960s bungalow doesn't add much to land value and sometimes subtracts from it if there are environmental or structural concerns.
Net profit (in a JV context) — Gross sale proceeds minus all project costs: acquisition, demolition, construction, carrying costs, transaction costs. What's left after everything is paid. In joint venture structures, profit splits are calculated on this number. We structure splits typically between 25% and 50% of net profit, depending on what each party brings to the deal.
Joint venture (JV) — A partnership structure where a landowner and a developer collaborate on a redevelopment project. The landowner typically contributes the land; the developer contributes capital, construction management, and expertise. Neither party is buying from or selling to the other at the start — they're partnering toward a shared outcome. There's more on how this actually works in plain terms here.
Carrying costs — The ongoing costs of owning a property during a project: property taxes, insurance, financing costs. These aren't invisible. They compound over time and come out of net profit in a JV. A longer timeline means higher carrying costs. This is one of the real reasons speed in construction matters — not just for market timing, but for basic math.
All-cash offer — An offer with no financing contingency, backed by liquid capital. For sellers, this eliminates a major source of deal failure. We close in as little as 10 days, or on whatever timeline works for the seller. That's only possible because there's no lender in the middle.
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Two More Worth Knowing
Elevated construction / FEMA BFE compliance — Base Flood Elevation is the FEMA-designated flood height for a given area. New coastal construction typically has to meet or exceed it. Building above BFE affects design, staircase configuration, ground-floor use, and ultimately, flood insurance rates for future owners. In shore towns, almost every new build touches this.
Spec build — A home built without a specific buyer under contract. The developer builds to a projected buyer profile and market demand, then lists for sale on completion. Most shore redevelopment works this way. The risk lives with the developer during construction; the seller in a JV has their exposure tied to that eventual sale price, not a guaranteed number.
(That last point is the one I always want to make sure people actually hear — a JV is not a guaranteed sale price. It's a share of what the market decides the finished product is worth. Those are very different things.)
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I think about a property I drove past last week — a mid-century ranch on a corner lot in a town where corner lots almost always have better envelope options because of how side-yard setbacks stack. The house is clearly at end of life. The lot is clearly not.
The owner of that property would make a completely different set of decisions if they understood what "buildable envelope" actually meant versus what the raw lot size says on the tax record.
If your property — or someone you know's property — is somewhere in this conversation, we evaluate most submissions within 48 hours. Reach out here and tell us what you're working with.