But permitted development rights are quite limited to the front elevation

I'll _respectfully_ suggest that you don't know what
you're talking about. The 'front elevation' essentially can't
be changed without 'planning permission' - but - other things
being equal PD will permit one to add a large volume
to the rear of a house - that's _not_ "limited to the front elevation "

I think you took "limited" in the wrong sense.

Perhaps if I reorder the sentence to remove the ambiguity (although the word
"quite" actually precludes your interpretation).

"permitted development rights to the front elevation are quite limited"

Christian.