Property report · British Columbia
1279E Hwy 5, Clearwater
Clearwater
Thompson-Nicola Regional District
- PID
- 003-000-621
- Mapped area
- 5.28 ha (13.04 acres)
- Local government
- Clearwater
- Checked
- Oct 23, 2026
placedossier.com/p/003000621 · checked 2026-10-23
On the plan: everything we found750 m across
The plan draws every layer in this report on one sheet, with contours every 20 m (408–724 m above sea level) from NRCan's 30 m elevation model. It's the view that prints. Lines can be metres off; not a survey.
26 checks
iWhat these mean
- Look into
- Something on or near this lot worth checking before you buy.
- This lot
- The lot's own ground (zoning, slope, water, access, wells, septic), with nothing in the record to look into. Shown in full.
- Background
- Figures for the place around the lot (earthquakes, climate, services, taxes and the like) that read much the same for its neighbours. One line each; open one to read it.
- Nothing to flag
- Checked, and nothing here to look into.
- Not covered
- What these public records can't answer for this lot.
Every finding names its source.
Around the lot
Nearest of each, from the lot's edge- Water wellon or at the lota water-supply well on record
- Public roadbeside the lot (about 5 m)Miller Road
- Power line10 ma 138 kV line
- Highway or major road30 mHighway 5 (Highway YH 5)
- Pipeline40 ma transmission line (Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC)
- Farmland reserve45 mALR land
- Logging or Crown land plan50 mapproved cutblock
- Water90 ma river
- Floodplain map90 mNorth Thompson River
- Wildfire100 mthe 1947 fire
- Railway1.6 kma main railway line (Clearwater Subdivision, Canadian National Railway)
Nothing within 210 m: gravel pit or quarry, military land, airport or airstrip, mineral or placer title. Distances from the plan's lines, so expect a few metres either way. Each section has the official figures.
Look into4
Found on or near this lot, and worth checking before you buy.
§03Buildable area Look into
About 9,680 m² (18%) of the lot is clear of steep slope and water setbacks; 82% is steeper than 30%. The ground mostly faces south-west. The Province's terrain stability map marks about 45% of the lot as potentially unstable (class IV).
- Clear 18%
- Steeper than 30% 82%
Estimated on Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model: each dot on the plan is one 30 m cell. Small banks, gullies and benches can be smoothed out, and on lots under a few hectares the edges count for a lot. Slopes over 30% usually need a geotechnical engineer's report to build on; 15 to 30% is buildable with more work.
The recordbuildable area on the plan
- Clear of steep slope and water setbacks
- 9,680 m² (18%)
- In or within 30 m of mapped water
- 0%
- Steeper than 30%, outside that strip
- 82%
- 15 to 30% slope
- 8%
- On designated floodplain (counted as clear)
- 0%
- Median slope
- 45%
- Main slope direction
- Mostly faces south-west (100% of the lot faces within 45° of it); worked out from NRCan's 30 m elevation model
- Which way it faces
- 93% south (SE to SW), 0% north (NW to NE), 0% flat; the rest east or west
- Terrain stability (Vavenby Community Watersheds - Slocan)
- Class IV, Potentially unstable: about 45% of the lot; Class III, Stable: low landslide potential: about 25% of the lot; Class II, Stable: very low landslide potential: about 15% of the lot; Class I, Stable: negligible landslide potential: about 15% of the lot (the Province's detailed terrain stability mapping, mapped at 1:20,000)
Not counted: zoning setbacks from the lot lines, room for a septic field and well (the Septic section screens for a field), easements and rights of way, and the local government's own slope or hazard development permit areas. What you can build names them where the local government publishes its map. A surveyor and the local government confirm where you can build.
The Province's terrain stability classes come from reading air photos, with some field checks, to plan logging and forest roads (I to III stable, IV potentially unstable, V unstable; reconnaissance maps use S, P and U). They aren't a geotechnical assessment of a building site. Where a building inspector considers land likely subject to land slip, rockfalls, debris flows or similar hazards, they can require a report from a professional engineer or geoscientist that it can be used safely before issuing a building permit, and must refuse one where the report says it can't (Community Charter s. 56, which applies in regional districts through Local Government Act s. 302). Our summary, checked 2026-10-07.
Sources (4)
Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Freshwater Atlas and designated floodplain maps, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Terrain Stability Mapping (TSM) Detailed Polygons, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Community Charter, s. 56 (requirement for geotechnical report), and Local Government Act, s. 302, BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-07).
How the buildable share is measured, and what it leaves out →
Archaeological sites: protected whether recorded or not, and how to ask →
§09Septic Look into
No open map shows the District of Clearwater's water and sewer service; its built-up parts mostly are, rural parts often not. Ask the District to confirm.
Screening, not a site assessment: measured on the same elevation cells as the buildable area, against the separations in the Province's Sewerage System Standard Practice Manual: a field stays 30 m from a drinking-water well (60 to 90 m from a high-pumping one), 30 m from a lake, river or permanent stream (15 m from seasonal water and the sea), 7.5 m from a downslope drain or bank where effluent could break out, and, as a guideline, 3 m from the lot line. We use 30 m for every mapped stream. A gravity field isn't allowed on slopes over 15%, a mound or at-grade bed over 25%, and trenches over 45%.
The record
- Community sewer
- No open map of the District of Clearwater's sewer service: ask the District of Clearwater whether the lot is on it
- Recorded water-supply wells within 30 m
- 1, on the lot; well tag 54360
- Mapped water within 30 m
- None mapped
- Within the setbacks, under 15% slope (gravity fields, mounds and trenches)
- 1,760 m² (3%)
- Within the setbacks, under 25% slope (mounds, at-grade beds and trenches)
- 4,400 m² (8%)
- Within the setbacks, under 45% slope (trenches)
- 1.9 ha (37%)
- Septic field screening, if the lot isn't on sewer
- About 4,400 m² (8%) of the lot is at least 30 m from mapped water and recorded wells, 3 m in from the lot lines and under 25% slope, where the Province's manual allows most kinds of septic field.
- Soil
- Whether the soil can take a field (its depth, the water table and how fast water drains) needs a site visit.
Under the Sewerage System Regulation, only an Authorized Person (a Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner or a professional engineer or geoscientist) may plan and install a system, and they file the plans with the regional health authority before work starts. They dig test pits to check the soil depth and the seasonal water table and measure how fast the soil drains, which no open map shows. Ask the seller for the filing and maintenance records of an existing system, and have it inspected.
Well locations in GWELLS are often approximate, and many wells were never registered: look for well caps on and next to the lot. Wells, water lines and septic fields on the neighbours' land count too.
If the lot is on a community sewer, none of this applies; ask the local government, which may also set larger setbacks or a minimum lot size for septic.
Sources (7)
Sewerage System Standard Practice Manual, version 3 (2014), Province of BC: Tables II-6, II-19 and III-16, summarised in our words, read 2026-10-04 (summarised in our words); Sewerage System Regulation, B.C. Reg. 326/2004, summarised in our words, read 2026-10-04 (summarised in our words); Groundwater wells (GWELLS), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Freshwater Atlas and designated floodplain maps, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Terrain Stability Mapping (TSM) Detailed Polygons, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Community Charter, s. 56 (requirement for geotechnical report), and Local Government Act, s. 302, BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-07).
§12What's planned nearby Look into
Within 1 km: 3 approved cutblocks not yet logged. Woodlot licence W0307 is 440 m from the lot line, a licence to log.
Cutblocks are from the Province's forest tenure records, which cover Crown forest licences and woodlots, not logging on private land. Crown land applications are on the Province's tenure register; the Applications, Comments and Reasons for Decision site takes public comments on them. Mineral and placer claims have their own section.
The recordcutblocks and Crown land applications on the plan
- Also found
- A 138 kV power line (BC Hydro) runs about 10 m from the lot line.
- Cutblocks applied for (1 km)
- 0
- Approved, not yet logged (1 km)
- 3
- Logged in the last 5 years (1 km)
- 1
- Old growth set aside from logging (1 km)
- KAM_TKA_4694 (about 30 ha, legal since 2013): 110 m from the lot line; KAM_TKA_4663 (about 25 ha, legal since 2013): 410 m from the lot line; KAM_TKA_4596 (about 40 ha, legal since 2013): 700 m from the lot line; KAM_TKA_4622 (about 6 ha, legal since 2013): 780 m from the lot line; and 1 more
- Woodlots and community forests (1 km)
- Woodlot licence W0307, Crown land (Schedule B): 440 m from the lot line
- Crown land applications (1 km)
- guided freshwater recreation
- Quarry, industry, energy or tower tenures (500 m)
- None
- Along the lot line
- Private land along about 80% of the lot line (the north, east and west sides); no parcel mapped along about 20% of the lot line (the south side), most often a road allowance, water or Crown land the parcel map doesn't draw
- Rights of way and easements drawn on the lot
- None drawn on ParcelMap BC; a charge with no plan can still be on the title, so ask for it
- Crown land reserves and notations (1 km)
- Map reserve (Land Act s. 16) for forest research, file 3403785: no expiry date, 700 m from the lot line
- Local development applications
- Not covered here: we read applications only where the local government publishes them as open data (the CSRD, the City of Surrey, the City of Abbotsford and the District of Squamish). Ask the District of Clearwater what's in progress on and near the lot
- Nearest power line (200 m)
- About 10 m from the lot line
- Power lines within 200 m
- On the Province's map: circuit 1L210, about 10 m away. On OpenStreetMap: 138 kV, BC Hydro, about 10 m away
- Oil and gas pipelines (200 m)
- A transmission line (Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC), about 40 m away, permitted 1953 (listed by the Regulator as out of its jurisdiction); A transmission line (Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC), about 60 m away, permitted 2023 (listed as new on the Regulator's record)
- Permitted discharges to air, water and land (2 km)
- None on the Province's list
- Major projects in assessment (10 km)
- None
- Major projects approved (10 km)
- None
- Reviewed, no assessment needed (10 km)
- None
- Closed or not reviewable (10 km)
- None
An old growth management area is Crown forest the Province has set aside for old forest in a landscape unit plan, made legal by an order under the Forest Practices Code or the Land Use Objectives Regulation. Forest licensees must keep it intact; small incursions are allowed for forest health, worker safety, wildfire work and logging next to it. It's held over several harvest rotations, but it isn't a park: where the order allows, the Province can move an area and replace it with other forest, so it says what is planned now (our reading). It governs logging on Crown forest, not what an owner does on private land. Our summary of the Province's landscape unit pages, read 2026-10-11.
A woodlot licence gives its holder the sole right to log the Crown land in it (Schedule B) for up to 20 years, and the holder is usually offered a replacement in the licence's tenth year (Forest Act ss. 45, 46); a community forest agreement or a First Nations woodland licence does the same for 25 to 99 years (ss. 43.3, 43.55). Logging there follows the licence's plan. Their cutblocks are in the counts above. Before a woodlot licence plan is approved, the holder publishes a notice in a newspaper and takes comments from anyone affected for 30 days (Woodlot Licence Planning and Practices Regulation, s. 17). Who holds a licence isn't shown here; the Thompson Rivers Natural Resource District of the Ministry of Forests can say who to talk to. Our summary of the Forest Act and the regulation, read 2026-10-11.
Who owns the land beside the lot is ParcelMap BC's owner type for each parcel that shares the lot line (measured along the line); the open parcel map names no owners. Crown land beside a lot, with a title or without, can be logged, leased, grazed or roaded, and a view or trail across it isn't yours to keep; ask the natural resource district or FrontCounter BC. Land owned by the local government is often a park, a road allowance or a utility lot; ask the local government what it's for.
The Province can set Crown land aside for a purpose, such as a gravel source, a road, a communication site, recreation or a treaty. Cabinet can reserve it by order in council (Land Act s. 15); the minister can withdraw it from disposition for a time, a map reserve (s. 16), or designate it for one use, a designated use area, which withdraws it from any use that doesn't fit (s. 17). A notation of interest isn't a reserve: it marks another agency's interest, so that agency is asked before the Province decides an application there (our reading). A reserve gives no date for when its purpose is used, if ever. Our summary of the Land Act, read 2026-10-12.
Major projects are those large enough to need a provincial environmental assessment: mines, power plants, pipelines, transmission lines, highways, ports, dams and resorts, among others. Each is on the Environmental Assessment Office's register at a single point, the location it gives for the project. A mine, pipeline, transmission line or road can reach well past that point, so a project listed 8 km away can still pass the lot, and one placed beyond 10 km isn't listed here. Each project's page on the EAO's site has its maps, documents and comment periods; distances run from the lot line to the point. Smaller projects (subdivisions, smaller pits and quarries, and other works under the assessment thresholds) aren't on this register.
Power lines are from two maps read together: the Province's map of high-voltage transmission lines (BC Hydro's, private and independent producers' lines), which leaves voltages out, and OpenStreetMap, where volunteers map lines and record the voltage where it's known. Smaller distribution lines along streets aren't included. Distances run from the lot line to the mapped line, which can sit some metres off the real one. The line's right of way, and what it lets the line's owner do on the land, is set by the easement on title, which is the definitive record: check it in the title search, and ask BC Hydro (or the line's owner) about clearances for building and trees.
Pipelines are from the BC Energy Regulator's map of permitted pipeline segments: oil and gas lines and the gas utilities' larger lines, not the gas service along a street. Distances run from the lot line to the mapped line, which can sit some metres off the pipe in the ground. An abandoned or deactivated line is often still in the ground.
A line the Regulator lists as out of its jurisdiction is still in the ground, but its permits are no longer the Regulator's: most often it's a line regulated federally by the Canada Energy Regulator, as the first Trans Mountain line is, whose own crossing rules apply. Call BC One Call before digging either way, and ask the line's operator.
Sources (15)
Forest tenure cutblock polygons (FTA 4.0), Ministry of Forests (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); TANTALIS Crown tenures, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Environmental Assessment Office project points (EPIC), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Old Growth Management Areas - Legal - Current, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Landscape unit plans (old growth management areas), Province of BC (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-11); Forest Tenure Managed Licence, Ministry of Forests (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Forest Act, RSBC 1996, c. 157, ss. 43.3, 43.55, 45, 46 and 47.1 (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-11); Woodlot Licence Planning and Practices Regulation, B.C. Reg. 21/2004, ss. 2 and 17 (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-11); ParcelMap BC parcel fabric (parcel class and owner type), Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); TANTALIS Crown Land Reserves and Notations, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Land Act, RSBC 1996, c. 245, ss. 10, 15, 16 and 17 (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-12); BC Transmission Lines (BC Hydro, private and independent power producers' lines), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); OpenStreetMap power lines as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); Oil and Gas Pipeline Segment Permits, BC Energy Regulator (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Waste Discharge Authorizations – All Authorizations, Province of BC (file of 2026-07-22) (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
Power lines near a lot: rights of way, building, trees and health →
Getting power to a lot: who connects it and who pays →
Pipelines near a lot: the 30 m rule and rights of way →
Logging and Crown land use planned near a lot →
Crown land next door: what it means, and whether you can buy it →
§18Noise sources nearby Look into
A main railway line (Clearwater Subdivision, Canadian National Railway) is about 1.6 km from the lot line. Highway 5 (Highway YH 5), a highway, runs about 30 m from the lot line.
Distances only, not a measured noise level; noise depends on traffic, trains per day and terrain. Measured in a straight line from the lot line to the mapped centreline of the track or road, or to the edge of an airport's mapped grounds (to its point where only a point is mapped); a mapped line can sit some metres off the real one.
The record
- Nearest railway (2 km)
- A main railway line (Clearwater Subdivision, Canadian National Railway), about 1.6 km from the lot line
- Nearest highway or major road (2 km)
- Highway 5 (Highway YH 5), a highway, about 30 m from the lot line, bordering the lot (within 50 m)
- Nearest airport or airstrip (2 km)
- None mapped within 2 km
- Light at night (within 1 km, 2024)
- None recorded from space; darker than at about 94% of BC homes.
Railways are OpenStreetMap's track in use: main, branch and industrial lines, sidings and yards, and rapid transit; lines mapped as disused or abandoned, and track in tunnels, are left out. "Main line" is how OpenStreetMap's mappers class the line. Highways and major roads are the roads OpenStreetMap classes as motorway (a freeway), trunk (a highway) or primary (a major road). Airports and airstrips are every aerodrome OpenStreetMap maps, public or private, with its type where mapped; heliports aren't included. Airport noise exposure maps (the NEF contours some airports draw) aren't open data, so they aren't used.
Visit at rush hour and at night, ask the seller how often trains pass, and confirm with the local government whether a noise bylaw, a development permit area or an airport zoning regulation covers the lot. For a railway, the railway company or Transport Canada can say how many trains use the line; for an airport, ask the airport about flight paths.
Light at night is what the VIIRS satellite records looking down at about 1:30 a.m., averaged over the cloud-free nights of 2024, with fires, the northern lights and other passing light left out (the Earth Observation Group's yearly composite); its cells are about 460 m by 300 m in BC. We give the median of the cells within 1 km of the lot's middle, in nanowatts per square centimetre per steradian (rounded to whole numbers), set against the same figure at BC's homes (Statistics Canada's 2021 dwellings on ISED's points) and named after places that read alike (our reading). It is light going up, not how dark the sky looks from the ground: a nearby town's glow on the horizon (Winter sun lists any towns whose lights are in direct line), the moon, a neighbour's yard light and the trees aren't in it, and it says nothing of light at other hours. For stargazing, look at the sky from the lot on a clear, moonless night. This product was made utilizing VIIRS Nighttime Lights data produced by the Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines.
Sources (3)
OpenStreetMap road data as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); OpenStreetMap railways and aerodromes as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); VIIRS Nighttime Lights, 2024 annual composite, Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines (Elvidge et al. 2021, Remote Sensing 13(5):922), via Hengl, OpenGeoHub, Zenodo doi 10.5281/zenodo.7750174 (CC BY 4.0).
Railways, highways and airports near a lot: what the distances mean →
Dark skies: what the light-at-night figure means, and what it leaves out →
For reference18
What the records say, with nothing in them to look into.
This lot 6
§02What you can build (zoning) For reference
Zoned RL-1 (Rural) by the District of Clearwater.
The recordthe lot on the plan
- Zone
- RL-1 (Rural)
- Zoning bylaw
- District of Clearwater Zoning Bylaw No. 133, 2016
- Homes allowed
- One house or one manufactured home, or off ALR land one duplex; a secondary suite in a house; off ALR land on a lot over 2 ha, one carriage suite or garden suite
- Main uses
- Farming, nursery, open land recreation, cannabis production, temporary sawmill for timber grown on the lot, winery, cidery, meadery or microbrewery, house; bed and breakfast, boarding, home based business, commercial kennel, secondary suite
- Smallest lot for a subdivision
- 4 ha; 8 ha in the ALR
- Lot coverage
- No maximum
- Height limit
- No maximum
- Setbacks
- Front 6 m, interior sides 2.4 m, exterior side 4.5 m, rear 6 m; accessory buildings front 6 m, interior sides 1.5 m, exterior side 4.5 m, rear 1.5 m
- Heritage conservation area
- None over the lot on the Province's list of local heritage conservation areas (a newly designated one may not be listed yet, and single buildings protected by a heritage bylaw aren't on it)
- Small-scale housing (provincial minimum)
- Clearwater must allow at least one secondary suite or detached accessory home (a garden suite or carriage house) next to a house in zones limited to houses. The 3-to-6-home floor comes with more than 5,000 people, and Clearwater had 2,388 in the 2021 census, so it applies only if the lot is inside an urban containment boundary drawn in a regional growth strategy (unclear here).
- Transit-oriented area (provincial minimum)
- Not in one: the Province sets transit-oriented areas only around the SkyTrain, West Coast Express and bus exchange stations its regulations list, in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, New Westminster, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Delta, the Langleys, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, the North Vancouvers, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, Victoria, Saanich, Langford, Colwood, View Royal, Nanaimo, Lantzville, Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton, Prince George and Whistler, and Clearwater isn't one of them (B.C. Reg. 263/2023, checked 2026-10-06).
- Short-term rentals (provincial rule)
- The Province's principal residence requirement doesn't apply in Clearwater (list in force from June 1, 2026), so the provincial rule doesn't limit short-term rentals to the host's home. Local bylaws, including the zone's own rules, can be stricter. Hosts anywhere in BC register each unit with the provincial registry.
Carriage suite (s. 2.2): a separate two-storey home with a footprint up to 80 m² and up to 95 m² of living space. Garden suite: a separate one-storey home up to 80 m².
Sawmill equipment and aggregate processing stand 300 m from any home; composting stays 30 m from lot lines and water intakes and 15 m from streams (s. 7.1.5).
A sand and gravel pit is allowed on one named parcel, and a bed and breakfast of up to four rooms and eight guests in a detached building on one named lot on Greer Road (ss. 7.1.2(f), 7.1.3).
The zone lists "medical marihuana production facility", a term Bylaw 212 replaced with cannabis production; s. 5.23.1 allows cannabis production in this zone.
Cannabis production licensed by Health Canada (s. 5.23.1): on a lot of 8 ha or more, or 4 ha for a facility up to 200 m², buildings 30 m from every lot line.
Commercial kennels are soundproofed and stand 6 m from every lot line (s. 5.13).
Construction camps for major projects (s. 5.27): on a lot of 4 ha or more, 50 m from lots in zones that don't allow them, for the construction period only, then restored.
One single family dwelling, one duplex or one manufactured home per lot unless the zone says otherwise (s. 5.25.1).
Secondary suite (s. 5.22): one, inside a single family dwelling (a house; the bylaw's single family dwelling leaves out manufactured homes, s. 2.2), never in a duplex or manufactured home, with its own entrance, up to 40% of the house's habitable floor area and 90 m², registered with the District and inspected before anyone moves in; one more parking space (Table 3).
Bed and breakfast (s. 5.16): in the operator's own home, up to four guest rooms and eight guests, no cooking in the guest rooms, one parking space per guest room, and no guest staying more than 60 days in a calendar year.
Boarding (s. 5.17): up to two rooms of a house (not a duplex or manufactured home) let to boarders, with the owner living in the home.
Home based business (s. 5.18): run mainly by the people who live there, inside the house, duplex or manufactured home, with at most one full-time or two part-time employees from outside, no outside storage or change to how the home looks, and none of vehicle repair, trucking, sawmilling, welding, kennels, retail of goods not made on the lot, pubs or restaurants, or cannabis retail. A child care centre or preschool of up to ten children counts as one (s. 5.19). One customer parking space (Table 3).
The bylaw doesn't mention short-term rental. Renting a whole home by the night isn't a listed use, and a use the bylaw doesn't list isn't permitted (s. 5.1.1); a bed and breakfast is. Ask the District before renting a home short term.
A manufactured home for a relative or caregiver (s. 5.24) may be added for as long as a physician certifies the care is needed: on a lot of 4,000 m² with community water or 8,000 m² without, on a lot with no more than one house, 6 m from every lot line and 5 m from the house, with sewage disposal under the provincial Sewerage System Regulation and a covenant on title; not on ALR land without the Commission's approval.
A second home for family or farm workers (s. 5.25.2) is allowed on a lot of 8 ha or more classed as a farm and used only for farming, 8 m from every lot line, with its own water and septic and a covenant on title; not on ALR land without the Commission's approval.
A manufactured home (CSA Z240 or A277) sits on a BC Building Code foundation, anchored and skirted (s. 5.20).
No accessory building before the main building, and none used as a home or for sleeping unless the zone allows it (s. 5.5).
No commercial vehicle repairs, sales or wrecks (s. 5.6.3).
No one may live or do business in an RV except in a campground (s. 5.1.2); while a lot is built on under a building permit, a temporary building or RV may be used for up to a year, or two with the District's extension (s. 5.4).
Shipping containers (s. 5.26) as accessory buildings: one 40 ft or two 20 ft per lot, screened, at accessory building setbacks.
Nothing but a sign within 4.5 m of a provincial controlled access highway (s. 5.8.1).
Development within a riparian assessment area of a stream follows the provincial Riparian Areas Regulation's setbacks (s. 5.8.3).
On ALR land, the Agricultural Land Commission's rules come first: no extra home, duplex, carriage suite or garden suite without its approval, and agri-tourism lodging of up to four rooms (s. 4.4). Licensed cannabis production is allowed on ALR land in any zone, on a lot of 8 ha or more (s. 5.23.1).
Every zone also allows community gardens, municipal parks, utilities, rooftop solar and accessory uses of the zone's main uses, off ALR land (s. 5.2); beekeeping under the Animal Control Bylaw (s. 5.28).
Height is measured from the average finished grade to the highest point, leaving out chimneys, antennas and rooftop equipment (s. 2.2).
Minimum lot sizes apply to new lots. A lot for a relative's home under s. 514 of the Local Government Act is 8,000 m² (s. 5.3(e)).
Parking (Table 3): 2 spaces for each house, duplex unit or manufactured home.
Our summary of Section 7.1 of District of Clearwater Zoning Bylaw No. 133, 2016, consolidated to 2025-04-01. Site-specific exceptions listed in the bylaw by legal description can add or change uses for one property.
Zoning is only one layer: development permit areas, the official community plan, the ALR, building and septic permits and provincial housing rules can add limits or allow more. Confirm with the District of Clearwater's planning department before you buy or build.
The provincial floor is our summary of the small-scale multi-unit housing rules in the Local Government Act (ss. 481.3 and 481.4) and the Local Government Zoning Bylaw Regulation, checked 2026-10-04. Local governments had to bring their bylaws in line by June 30, 2024, and with the 2025 changes by June 30, 2026, so the zone's own rules usually allow at least these homes already; height, coverage, setbacks and parking still decide how they fit. Whether the lot is inside an urban containment boundary, on community water or sewer, or near a frequent bus stop isn't checked here: confirm with the local government before you buy or build.
Sources (10)
Zoning map, District of Clearwater (Open Government Licence – Thompson-Nicola Regional District); The RL-1 zone explained (our summary); District of Clearwater Zoning Bylaw No. 133, 2016 (bylaw text, summarised in our words); Heritage Conservation Areas of BC, Heritage Branch, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Local Government Act, ss. 481.3 and 481.4 (small-scale multi-family housing), BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-04); Local Government Zoning Bylaw Regulation, B.C. Reg. 262/2023, BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-04); Small-scale, multi-unit housing, Province of BC (page updated January 20, 2026), and its Provincial Policy Manual (summarised in our words); Local Government Transit-Oriented Areas Regulation, B.C. Reg. 263/2023 (consolidated to September 29, 2026), BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-06); Local Government Act, s. 481.01 (zoning in transit-oriented areas), BC Laws (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-06); Principal residence requirement, Province of BC (page updated September 21, 2026) (summarised in our words).
Short-term rental rules in BC →
Setbacks: how close to the lot line you can build →
Rezoning: how a zone is changed, and what it takes →
Work done without a permit: what it means for a buyer →
Official records on a property: what's public, and how to look them up →
What a seller must tell you, and what you have to find out yourself →
§04Floodplain For reference
Not on one of the Province's designated floodplain maps.
The recordfloodplain on the plan
- Dams nearby
- None within 1 km on the Province's list of dams
- Dikes nearby
- None within 1 km on the Province's map of dikes and flood protection works
These maps were drawn mostly in the 1980s and 1990s and cover only some rivers and lakes. Not being on one doesn't mean the land can't flood: ask the local government whether it has newer flood mapping, and whether its bylaws set a flood construction level or floodplain setback here.
Sources (3)
Floodplain areas (designated floodplain mapping), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Flood Protection Works: Structural Works, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); BC Dams, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§05Wildfire history For reference
No recorded fire on the parcel; 3 recorded within 2 km, most recently in 1947. The Province's ecosystem map puts the lot in dry forest and grassland that burned often and lightly before fires were put out (NDT4).
- 1947 100 m
The recordwildfire perimeters on the plan
- Fires on the parcel
- 0
- Fires within 2 km
- 3
- Within 2 km in the last 30 years
- 0
- Most recent nearby
- 1947 (3 ha, caused by people)
- Largest nearby
- 1922 (134 ha, lightning)
- Causes on record within 2 km
- 2 caused by people, 1 lightning
- Natural fire regime (the Province's ecosystem map)
- NDT4, frequent stand-maintaining fires: grassland and dry open forest that burned often and lightly, with surface fires every 4 to 50 years in the Ponderosa Pine and Interior Douglas-fir zones and fires that replace the whole stand rare
- Biogeoclimatic unit
- Interior Douglas-fir zone, moist warm subzone, Thompson variant (IDFmw2)
- Within 1 km, not on the lot
- Douglas-fir beetle in 2001, 2008, 2009, 2019, 2020 and 2022 (nearest 360 m); mountain pine beetle in 2002 and 2005 to 2007 (nearest 400 m)
- Surveys read
- 1999 to 2025, the Province's own; on the lot or within 1 km of its line
Fire perimeters mapped by the BC Wildfire Service since 1919, each with its size and the cause the Service recorded (lightning or people, sometimes unknown); older and small fires are less complete. Past fire is history, not a forecast: for insurance, ask about the fire protection area and the distance to the nearest fire hall.
The natural disturbance type is how the forest here burned, blew down or otherwise renewed itself before logging and fire suppression, from the Province's biogeoclimatic map and its Biodiversity Guidebook (1995). It describes the land around the lot over centuries, not the lot's own fire risk or the odds of a fire in any year; the Province's fire threat rating and fuel maps aren't open data. Our summary, checked 2026-10-11.
In NDT4's dry forest and grassland, the guidebook notes that decades of putting fires out have let many Ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir stands fill in with young trees, building up fuel and raising the chance of a crown fire instead of a light surface fire. FireSmart work around a home (thinning, pruning, clearing what burns near the house) answers to exactly that.
The Province's Aerial Overview Survey is flown each summer from small planes 500 to 1,000 m up, sketching damaged stands on maps at 1:100,000 to 1:250,000: it gives the general location and rough extent of damage, not a ground count, and the Province says it isn't accurate enough to direct work on the ground. Most of the province is flown each year, but weather and smoke leave gaps, so a year with no record isn't a year with no damage. Each year's polygons record the trees recently killed (fading or red) or the foliage damaged that season, as the surveyors read it from the air; trees killed in earlier years aren't counted again, and dead trees may since have fallen, been logged or burned. Clumps of up to about 50 dead trees are mapped as spots, which aren't shown here. Our summary of the survey's standards and damage ratings, checked 2026-10-12.
Sources (5)
Fire perimeters – historical, BC Wildfire Service (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); BEC Map (biogeoclimatic zones and natural disturbance types), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Biodiversity Guidebook, Forest Practices Code of British Columbia (1995), natural disturbance types (Our summary, checked 2026-10-11); Pest Infestation Polygons (Aerial Overview Survey), Ministry of Forests (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Forest Health Aerial Overview Survey Standards for British Columbia (2019) and the survey's damage ratings, Province of BC (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-12).
§08Water wells nearby For reference
No open map shows the District of Clearwater's water service (more under Septic). 19 water-supply wells on record within 2 km, typically 61 m deep.
The recordwater wells on the plan
- Community water
- No open map of the District of Clearwater's water service: ask the District of Clearwater whether the lot is on it
- Wells within 2 km
- 19
- Median depth
- 61 m
- Median tested yield
- 28 L/min (16 wells tested)
- Median water level below ground
- 9 m
- Aquifer 807 under the lot
- North Thompson River: unconfined sand and gravel (medium stream system); productivity moderate, vulnerability moderate, demand moderate; 28 wells linked, median depth 45.7 m
- Groundwater level trend
- No provincial observation well still measured in the aquifer under the lot or within 10 km
- Groundwater tested 7.7 km away
- At a water system's well in aquifer 770: within Health Canada's limits (mg/L): arsenic 0.0008, fluoride 0.13, manganese 0.027, uranium 0.00011, nitrate (as nitrogen) 0.03, lead 0.00037; manganese over the 0.02 mg/L taste and staining level in its one sample; 1 sample, 2005. Not this lot's water: test your own well.
- Groundwater tested 9.1 km away
- At a sampled well in aquifer 769: within Health Canada's limits (medians, mg/L): arsenic 0.00023, fluoride 0.08, manganese 0.001, uranium 0.00041, nitrate (as nitrogen) 0.59, lead 0.0002; up to 13 samples, 2000 to 2024. Not this lot's water: test your own well.
- Groundwater tested 9.1 km away
- At a sampled well in aquifer 769: within Health Canada's limits (medians, mg/L): arsenic 0.00014, fluoride 0.1, manganese 0.001, uranium 0.00077, nitrate (as nitrogen) 0.43, lead 0.00027; up to 14 samples, 2000 to 2024. Not this lot's water: test your own well.
- More wells tested
- 2 more within 10 km in the Province's records, farther away or in another aquifer
- Drinking-water protection zone
- None over the lot on the Province's map (it holds only the zones a water system's protection plan has mapped, so many wells and intakes have none on it)
- Water systems' wells and intakes within 300 m
- None on the Province's list
- Community watershed
- None over the lot on the Province's map
Neighbours' wells show what drillers found nearby, not what a new well here will find; many wells were never registered. For a property on a well, ask for a recent flow test and water quality test.
Productivity is how much water the aquifer gives up to wells; vulnerability is how easily a spill at the surface could reach it; both are the province's ratings for the whole aquifer, not this lot. Mapped aquifers cover mostly settled valleys: a lot outside every outline can still have groundwater. Confirm with a qualified hydrogeologist or registered well driller.
These are samples of raw water, before any treatment, from wells in the Province's environmental monitoring records since 2000: its observation wells and groundwater surveys, water systems' wells and other drinking-water wells; wells at landfills, mines and permit holders' works are left out. A result below the lab's detection limit counts at that limit. Lead mostly comes from a well's pipes and fittings rather than the aquifer. Groundwater changes over short distances and with depth, so a nearby well says what the aquifer can hold, not what a well on this lot gives. Bacteria aren't shown: they depend on how each well is built and kept.
Health Canada's Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality set the most a drinking water should hold: arsenic 0.010 mg/L, fluoride 1.5 mg/L, manganese 0.12 mg/L (and 0.02 mg/L for taste and for staining laundry and fixtures), uranium 0.02 mg/L, nitrate 10 mg/L as nitrogen (45 mg/L as nitrate) and lead 0.005 mg/L, with arsenic and lead kept as low as reasonably achievable. Our summary of Health Canada's summary table, read 2026-10-11.
Test your own well, for bacteria and these, at an accredited lab; your health authority can say which labs take samples from private wells.
Sources (10)
Groundwater wells (GWELLS), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Aquifer 807: North Thompson River: ratings and wells (PlaceDossier aquifer page); Ground Water Aquifers, Water Protection and Sustainability Branch, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Long-term Trends in Groundwater Levels in B.C., Environmental Reporting BC (Provincial Groundwater Observation Well Network) (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Environmental Monitoring Data System (EnMoDS) results, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality: summary table, Health Canada (summarised in our words); Health authority drinking water contacts, Province of BC (linked for reading); Drinking Water Sources – Protection Zones, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Drinking Water Sources – Intakes/Wellheads, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Community Watersheds – Current, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§14Wildlife and habitat For reference
No species-at-risk record on or near the parcel. It lies inside a wide federal critical habitat area (Woodland Caribou (Southern Mountain population)).
The record
- At-risk species or ecosystems on the parcel
- None recorded
- Within 500 m
- None recorded
- Wide-ranging species mapped over it
- None
- Secured records in the wider area
- No
- Wildlife Habitat Area over the parcel
- No
- Ungulate winter range over the parcel
- No
- Proposed Wildlife Habitat Area over the parcel
- No
- Proposed ungulate winter range over the parcel
- No
- Federal critical habitat over the lot
- Woodland Caribou (Southern Mountain population) (unmapped range; site: Wells Gray - Thompson; a wide area, up to 215,252 ha)
- Sensitive ecosystems mapped on the lot
- Not mapped here: the lot isn't covered by any of the Province's sensitive ecosystem inventories (checked 2026-10-11)
- Invasive plants recorded on the lot
- None on the Province's list
- Invasive plants recorded within 100 m
- None on the Province's list
- Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 54% of the lot
- Open mixed forest of Douglas-fir (interior) 60%, paper birch 15%, trembling aspen 15%; the leading trees about 64 years old and 28 m tall (projected to 2025); crown closure 35%; air photos of 2011
- Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 30% of the lot
- Open mixed forest of Douglas-fir (interior) 60%, paper birch 15%, trembling aspen 15%; the leading trees about 94 years old and 28 m tall (projected to 2025); crown closure 55%; air photos of 2011
- Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), 11% of the lot
- Dense grass and other low plants; air photos of 2011
- Forest cover (the Province's forest inventory), the rest
- 5% of the lot in one smaller stand on the inventory
Red-listed species are at risk of being lost from BC; Blue-listed are of special concern. A record shows where the species was found, sometimes decades ago; no record doesn't mean nothing lives here, since most land has never been surveyed.
Federal critical habitat is the habitat a recovery strategy or action plan under the Species at Risk Act says a listed species needs to survive or recover (ss. 2, 41). On federal land the Act protects it by order (s. 58). On private and provincial land the Act leans on provincial and local law first; the federal Cabinet can order it protected where that falls short (s. 61). The Act's bans on harming a listed species or its residence apply everywhere for aquatic species and migratory birds, and elsewhere on private land only under a federal order (ss. 32 to 34). Our summary, read 2026-10-12.
Critical habitat for some sensitive species is kept off the public map; Environment and Climate Change Canada's Species at Risk Public Registry has each species' recovery strategy.
Species at risk can still limit building through local environmental development permit areas: ask the local government before planning work.
The Province's records come from invasive plant surveys, mostly since 2022, along roads, trails and shores and wherever crews were sent; no record doesn't mean no invasive plants. A record marks where a plant was found that day; it may since have been treated.
The Province's Vegetation Resources Inventory maps forest and other land cover from air photos, reading each stand as one: its trees by share of the stand, the leading species' age and height projected forward each year from the photo year, and crown closure (the share of the ground the tree crowns cover). It is built to plan forestry across the landscape, not to describe one lot: a mapped stand can hold clearings, a house site or other trees, the figures on private land can rest on old photos, and a stand logged or cleared since may still be drawn as forest. Before counting on timber, clearing costs or how much fuel stands near a house, have a forester or arborist walk the lot. Our summary, checked 2026-10-18.
Sources (8)
Species and Ecosystems at Risk, publicly available occurrences, BC Conservation Data Centre (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Wildlife Habitat Areas and Ungulate Winter Ranges (approved), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Wildlife Habitat Areas - Proposed, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Ungulate Winter Range - Proposed, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Critical Habitat for federally-listed species at risk (posted), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory (SEI) Detailed Polygons, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Invasive Species Observations (InvasivesBC), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); VRI – Forest Vegetation Composite Rank 1 Layer (R1), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§21Winter sun For reference
On December 21 the hills leave about 5 h 40 min of possible direct sun, against 7 h 40 min on open ground.
The record
- December 21 (shortest day)
- 5 h 40 min of possible direct sun; 7 h 40 min on open ground
- March 21 (about the same on September 21)
- 10 h 20 min; 12 h on open ground
- June 21 (longest day)
- 13 h 20 min; 16 h 30 min on open ground
- Noon sun on December 21
- 15° above level; the hills due south rise to 10°, 7 km away
- Highest hills in the winter sun's path
- 10° above level to the south, 7 km away
- Measured at
- The middle of the lot, ground at about 475 m, from head height
- Solar panel output (south-facing, tilted at the latitude)
- About 960 kWh a year for each kW of panels (December about 33), on Natural Resources Canada's 1998-2022 sunshine map; the sun on the panel's face is 3.52 kWh/m² a day over the year, 1.44 in December
- Water the ground lets you see (16 km)
- An unnamed river to the southwest, from about 250 m away, across about 55° of the horizon; North Thompson River to the southwest, from about 550 m away, across about 140° of the horizon; an unnamed river to the west-southwest, from about 800 m away, across about 15° of the horizon; an unnamed river to the south-southwest, from about 1000 m away, across about 35° of the horizon; an unnamed river to the south, from about 1.3 km away, across about 15° of the horizon; and 4 more
- Highest skyline
- 35° above level to the northeast, 0 km away
- Named peaks in view (150 km)
- Clearwater Peak to the west-northwest, 18 km away (about 1,884 m)
- Highest ground in view
- About 1,884 m: Clearwater Peak, to the west-northwest, 18 km away
- Farthest ground in view
- About 19 km to the southeast
- Most relief in one direction
- To the south: from about 410 m, 1.1 km away, up to about 1,793 m, 9.0 km away
- Town centres in line of sight
- None within 150 km, over the bare ground
- City lights in direct line (150 km)
- In direct line: the lights of Clearwater to the west-northwest, 6.3 km (25 nW/cm²/sr at the brightest in line, like a town centre or a city suburb)
Worked out from the terrain only: trees, buildings and cloud aren't counted, so the sun that reaches a window or a garden is often less. The hours are possible direct sun, counted from when the sun's centre clears the hills, at head height at the middle of the lot; another spot on a hillside lot can differ.
The horizon is read from Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model in 72 directions, out to 16 km: on its 30 m grid within 1.5 km, beyond that on a 120 m version of it, where single peaks can read a little lower than they are. The curve of the earth is taken into account.
The sun's path is from the standard solar position formulas. Hours are counted in sun time; clock times shift with daylight saving and with how far the lot is from its time zone's centre.
Check it on site: visit on a clear day in December or January, look at where the trees and buildings to the south fall, and ask neighbours when the sun leaves and comes back.
The panel output is our reading of Natural Resources Canada's figures: its map gives the sun reaching a south-facing panel tilted at the latitude, averaged over 1998-2022 on a grid of about 10 km, and we turn it into kWh for each kW of panels at the performance ratio its Photovoltaic Potential maps use (0.75: losses in heat, wiring, the inverter and dirt). The map is for an open sky: the hills around the lot, trees, buildings and snow on the panels aren't counted. The hills around this lot take about 26% of the direct sun on December 21 and about 19% on June 21 (our figure above), so a panel at the lot's middle would most likely make less than this, most of all in winter (the hills block direct sun, not all the light). A solar installer measures the roof or the spot itself.
What the ground allows you to see from head height at the middle of the lot, read on the same elevation model as the sun hours, out to 16 km: trees, buildings and the house's own spot and height aren't counted, so a view the ground allows can be hidden by the forest, and a second storey can see over a rise. Lakes and rivers are the Freshwater Atlas's; the sea is read where the elevation model sits at sea level.
Peaks, towns and the farthest ground are read out to 150 km on the same elevation model, coarser past 16 km (cells of 240 m to 60 km, 480 m beyond), with the curve of the earth and the usual bending of light: summits read lower than they are at that scale, so a peak only counts when it clears the ground before it, and one at the very edge of the skyline may be left out. It's what the bare ground allows on a perfectly clear day: haze, smoke, cloud, trees and buildings aren't counted. Peak names are BC Geographical Names'; peaks outside BC aren't named.
City lights in direct line are our reading: the satellite's lit cells (15 nW/cm²/sr and up, the brightness of a town centre or more) within 150 km, each named after the nearest town centre within 8 km, and a town counted when one of its brightest cells, taken 10 m above the ground, clears the bare ground before it on the same elevation model as the long view. It says where lights are in a straight line, not how bright they look: the glow a town throws over a ridge isn't modelled, so a town behind the hills can still light the sky above them, and haze, trees and buildings aren't counted.
Sources (7)
Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Solar position: General Solar Position Calculations (NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory; Spencer, 1971) (Public domain); Daily average solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada (1998-2022), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Photovoltaic Potential and Solar Resource Maps of Canada (performance ratio), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Freshwater Atlas lakes and rivers, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); BC Geographical Names (mountains, peaks and summits), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); VIIRS Nighttime Lights, 2024 annual composite, Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute for Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines (Elvidge et al. 2021, Remote Sensing 13(5):922), via Hengl, OpenGeoHub, Zenodo doi 10.5281/zenodo.7750174 (CC BY 4.0).
Winter sun: how the hills around a lot are read, and what the hours leave out →
Solar panels: what the yearly figure means, and what tilt and the hills change →
Background 12
§06Evacuation orders and alerts For reference
An evacuation alert covered this lot in July 2017 (Little Fort Complex Wildfire, District of Clearwater); no order since April 2017.
The record
- Events with an order over the lot since April 2017
- 0
- Events with only an alert
- 1
- July 2017: Little Fort Complex Wildfire
- Evacuation alert for a wildfire, issued by District of Clearwater (“District of Clearwater Evacuation”); alert 15 July 2017, all clear 24 July 2017.
The Province's record of lifted orders and alerts starts in April 2017: evacuations before then aren't in it, and no record doesn't mean nothing happened. Each area is drawn by the local government or First Nation that issued it; we check whether it covers any part of the lot. Where the record's own dates disagree (an order dated before the event began), only the month and year are given. Confirm with the local government.
An alert asks people to be ready to leave; no order to leave covered this lot in the record.
Sources: Historical Orders and Alerts, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Evacuation Orders and Alerts, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§11Mineral and placer titles For reference
No title over the parcel; 1 within 1 km.
The record
- Over the parcel
- None
- Within 1 km
- 1 mineral claim
- Mineral reserves over the lot
- None on the Province's map: new titles can be registered here as anywhere else
Titles change often; this is the record when checked. Mineral Titles Online shows the current map.
Sources: Mineral, placer and coal tenures, Mineral Titles Branch (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Mineral Reserve Sites, Mineral Titles Branch, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§15Earthquake shaking For reference
The building code's design shaking here is 0.079 g peak ground acceleration on firm ground, about 20% of Vancouver's.
| Ground | Peak acceleration | Sa(0.2), low buildings |
|---|---|---|
| Firm ground (C) | 0.079 g | 0.18 g |
| Stiff soil (D) | 0.099 g | 0.24 g |
| Soft soil (E) | 0.11 g | 0.27 g |
The record
- Peak ground acceleration, 2% in 50 years (the code's design level)
- 0.079 g
- Peak ground acceleration, 10% in 50 years
- 0.028 g
- Short-period shaking Sa(0.2), the value the code uses for houses and other low buildings
- 0.18 g
- Peak ground acceleration, 2% in 50 years, on softer ground
- 0.099 g on stiff soil (site class D), 0.11 g on soft soil, about 40% more than on firm ground
- The same value in city centres
- Victoria 0.81 g, Vancouver 0.47 g, Kelowna 0.089 g, Prince George 0.064 g
- Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more recorded since 1985
- 11 within 50 km and 36 within 100 km
- Largest within 100 km
- M3.8 in February 2001, about 80 km away (NRCan: Near Blue River, BC)
- Nearest of magnitude 3 or more
- M3.4 in January 1995, about 7 km away (NRCan: Eastern British Columbia near Clearwater)
- Tsunami
- More than 2 km from the ocean shore, so the Province's tsunami notification zones, which are for the coast, don't bear on it
These are the 2020 National Building Code's reference values at the lot's centre, on firm ground (site class C), with the values the code gives stiff soil (D) and soft soil (E) beside them. Which class the lot's ground is isn't on any open map: the site class and the values a building is designed for come from the building official or a geotechnical engineer. Very soft ground, peat or fill that can liquefy (site class F) needs a site-specific assessment.
2% in 50 years means shaking at least this strong has about a 1-in-2,500 chance in any year; 10% in 50 years, about 1 in 475. g is the acceleration of gravity. The comparison with Vancouver and the other cities is ours.
Liquefaction and earthquake-triggered landslides aren't covered here; ask the local government whether it has mapped them.
Past earthquakes are those Natural Resources Canada's National Earthquake Database records within 100 km of the lot's middle since 1985, the start of its digital record, at magnitude 2.5 and up; blasts, mining events (tremors set off in a mine) and slides are left out. The seismograph network has grown much denser since then, so smaller quakes found today would have gone unrecorded in the 1980s, and positions are good to a few kilometres. A count of past quakes isn't a measure of the hazard: the building code's values above are.
Sources (3)
2020 National Building Code of Canada seismic hazard values (CanadaSHM6), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); National Earthquake Database, Earthquakes Canada, Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Freshwater Atlas coastline, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§16Landslide records For reference
No landslides on record within 5 km. That doesn't rule one out: this is a list of known slides, not a hazard map.
The record
- On record within 5 km
- 0
This is a list of landslides that are known to have happened, gathered from published inventories and from mapping on satellite images and lidar. It isn't a hazard map: it doesn't say how likely a slide is here, and no record nearby doesn't mean the ground is stable. Some parts of BC (the Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, recent burn areas) are mapped in far more detail than others.
Each point mostly marks where a slide started. Debris can travel well past it, down a creek channel and onto the fan at the creek's mouth, so a lot on a fan or below a steep slope can be reached by a slide that began kilometres away. Distances run from the lot's boundary.
The kind of slide and its date are the database's own, mostly worked out from images, so treat them as a first look. Confirm with the local government, many of which have mapped steep-slope or debris-flow hazard areas, and with a geotechnical engineer.
Source: Preliminary Canadian Landslide Database, version 14.0 (May 2026), Brideau et al. (CC BY 4.0).
§17Federal contaminated sites For reference
No federal contaminated sites listed within 2 km. This inventory covers federal land only; see below for what that leaves out.
The record
- Federal sites within 2 km
- 0
This inventory lists only contaminated sites on federal land or that the federal government is responsible for: military land, ports and harbours, airports, fisheries and research stations, reserve land, national parks and similar. Most contaminated sites in BC, such as old gas stations, dry cleaners and industrial land, are on the Province's Site Registry, which isn't shown here: searching it is free, but its records are reports bought per site. Ask the seller what the land and its neighbours were used for; a Phase I environmental site assessment covers it properly.
Each site is one point given by its federal custodian, and a large site such as a base or an airport reaches well past it. Distances run from the lot's boundary to that point.
Confirm with the local government and a qualified environmental professional.
Source: Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (reported for 2025-2026) (Open Government Licence – Canada).
What a contaminated site record means, and what it leaves out →
Old heating oil tanks: finding one, removing it, and who pays for a leak →
§19Services nearby For reference
Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital is the nearest hospital, 5 km away in a straight line; the nearest fire station is Clearwater Fire Department, 6.5 km; the nearest grocery store 6.6 km and public elementary school 4.5 km.
The record
- Nearest hospital
- Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital, Clearwater: 5 km
- Next nearest hospital
- 100 Mile District General Hospital, 100 Mile House: 93 km
- Drive to the nearest hospital
- About 5 minutes (5.5 km by road) to Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital, Clearwater
- Nearest emergency department
- Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital, Clearwater: 5 km. Hours on HealthLink BC's list: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week based on availability. Hours subject to change. Call ahead before going to the hospital
- Drive to the nearest 24-hour emergency department
- About 5 minutes (5.5 km by road) to Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital, Clearwater
- Nearest walk-in clinic
- None within 30 km on HealthLink BC's list, which leaves many clinics out: ask the health authority or a local pharmacy
- Nearest pharmacy
- Pharmasave, Clearwater: 6.8 km. Hours on HealthLink BC's list: Mon to Sat 09:00 to 17:30, Sun 10:00 to 14:00. Closed Christmas Day
- School catchment
- Not mapped for this lot: catchments are shown only where the school district's boundaries are open data, for Surrey Schools (Surrey and White Rock) and the North Vancouver School District (the City and District of North Vancouver). Ask the school district which schools serve it.
- Nearest public elementary school
- Raft River Elementary, Clearwater: 4.5 km
- Drive to the nearest public elementary school
- About 4 minutes (5.4 km by road) to Raft River Elementary, Clearwater
- Nearest public secondary school
- Barriere Elementary-Secondary: 50 km
- Drive to the nearest public secondary school
- About 46 minutes (67 km by road) to Barriere Elementary-Secondary
- Nearest public school with early French immersion
- 100 Mile House Elementary: 93 km
- Nearest francophone school (Conseil scolaire francophone)
- Collines-d'or, Kamloops: 102 km
- Independent schools within 10 km
- 0
- Nearest licensed group child care
- None within 2 km on the Province's list; the nearest is 4.5 km away
- Licensed family child care within about 2 km
- None on the Province's list
- Nearest grocery store
- Save-on-Foods: 6.6 km
- Drive to the nearest grocery store
- About 6 minutes (7.4 km by road) to Save-on-Foods
- Grocery stores within 10 km
- 1
- Nearest fire station
- Clearwater Fire Department: 6.5 km, on the Province's list
- Nearest fire hydrant
- Not said: we have no open hydrant map of the District of Clearwater; ask its fire department where the nearest hydrant is
- Nearest ambulance station
- Ambulance station 335, Clearwater: 5 km
- Nearest police detachment or station
- Clearwater RCMP: 8.2 km
- Nearest transfer station or landfill
- Clearwater Landfill: 10 km
- Nearest post office
- Clearwater: 5.8 km
- Postal area
- V0E: Canada Post marks it a rural postal area (a 0 as the second character): mail mostly goes to a post office box or a rural route box, not to the door, and couriers often add a charge for rural postal codes.
- Nearest gas station
- Canco: 6 km
- Nearest Service BC office
- Service BC - 100 Mile House: 93 km
- Nearest airport with screened airline flights
- Kamloops airport (YKA): 109 km
- Vancouver International Airport (YVR), BC's main airport for flights abroad
- 355 km
- Nearest transit stop
- None within 1 km; the nearest is Hwy 5 at Raft Forest Rd: 2.3 km, route 1; 3 departures on a weekday, none on Saturday, none on Sunday (BC Transit's schedule, week of October 19, 2026)
- Nearest park or protected area
- North Thompson River Park, a provincial park: 6.2 km from the lot line
- Nearest recreation site or trail
- Raft Rim, on Recreation Sites and Trails BC's list: 2.6 km from the lot line
Distances are straight lines from the middle of the lot, except where a fact says by road.
Drive times are our reading: the quickest way over OpenStreetMap's roads at a typical speed for each kind of road (from 100 km/h on a freeway down to 20 on a track or a lane, and at most 40 on gravel), from the mapped road nearest the lot's middle. They count no traffic, weather, winter conditions, road closures or ferries, and a road missing from the map, or a gate, changes them: drive it before you rely on it. Here that road is about 200 m from the lot's middle.
Hospitals are from the Province's list; emergency departments and walk-in clinics from HealthLink BC's lists, with the hours they give. Not every hospital has a 24-hour emergency department, and a small town's emergency department can close for a shift when it's short of staff: the health authority posts these as service changes, so check before you rely on one. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.
Which school a child goes to depends on the school district's catchment, not on distance: ask the district.
French programs are from the Ministry's school list. French immersion usually takes students by application or lottery, often with its own boundary, and the Conseil scolaire francophone's schools are for children whose parents have the right to French-language education: ask the district which applies.
Child care is from the Province's Child Care Map Data, listed October 20, 2026: licensed facilities the Province funds, so a licensed one without that funding, or a licence-not-required carer, isn't on it. The ages served and any space are what each operator reports, and many list no ages. A space reported weeks ago may be gone: ask the facility about spaces and wait lists.
The fee reduction is the Province's Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI): a facility taking part charges lower monthly fees for children up to kindergarten age (our summary).
Licensed family child care is in the provider's own home, so we count it but don't name or place it. It's counted on a grid of about 1 km, so the count near 2 km is approximate.
A fire station nearby doesn't mean it covers this lot: confirm the fire protection area with the local government. Insurers price fire cover by the road distance to the hall that responds and whether the lot is inside a fire protection area.
Insurers ask how far the house is from a hydrant as well as from the fire hall that responds: ask yours what distance it uses and what that does to the premium.
Fire halls, ambulance stations and police are from the Province's First Responders list (updated 2026-09-11), with fire stations it lacks added from OpenStreetMap. A hall that has moved may still be listed at its old address.
An ambulance station is where crews are based. How soon one arrives depends on where the crew is when the call comes.
A detachment is where police are based; it isn't always the force that covers the lot, and a community policing office is often volunteer-run with no officers on hand. Ask the local government which police serve the lot. In an emergency, call 9-1-1.
Pharmacies are from HealthLink BC's list, with the hours it gives: a few pharmacies are in clinics or programs for their own patients, and hours change, so call ahead.
Transit stops and departures are counted from BC Transit's and TransLink's published schedules for one week, leaving out the stop where a trip ends. A stop's distance is a straight line from the middle of the lot; the walk is longer. Service changes with the seasons: check the timetable before you count on a route.
Parks and recreation sites are measured in a straight line from the lot line. Conservancies, regional and municipal parks aren't on these lists. Recreation Sites and Trails BC's list doesn't say whether a site is open, closed or reachable this season: check its page before you go.
Grocery stores, transfer stations, landfills, recycling depots, post offices and gas stations are from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers: one may be missing, closed or mapped in the wrong place, and a landfill may be closed without the map saying so.
The postal area is Statistics Canada's outline of where a postal code's first three characters are used, drawn from postal code points, so near its edge the lot may fall in the next one. It doesn't say how this lot's mail is delivered: ask Canada Post, and give a courier or online store the full postal code to see what they charge.
Airports with screened airline flights are the ones the CATSA Aerodrome Designation Regulations list, where the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority screens passengers, kept where OurAirports also lists scheduled flights (Dawson Creek is designated but has none listed). Smaller airports and floatplane bases with scheduled flights aren't screened and aren't on this list, so a nearer one may have flights: check with the airlines. Distances are straight lines; the drive, or a ferry, is longer.
Confirm services with the local government.
Sources (16)
Hospitals in BC, HealthLinkBC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Emergency Rooms in BC, HealthLinkBC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Walk-in Clinics in BC, HealthLinkBC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); BC Schools K-12, Ministry of Education and Child Care (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Child Care Map Data, Child Care Programs and Services (listed 2026-10-20) (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); First Responders (fire halls, ambulance stations and police), GeoBC (updated 2026-09-11) (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Pharmacies in BC, HealthLinkBC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Service BC Office Locations, Service BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Grocery stores, transfer stations, landfills, recycling depots, post offices, gas stations and fire stations not on the Province's list: OpenStreetMap as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (Open Database Licence (ODbL)); Drive times worked out from OpenStreetMap's roads as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (Open Database Licence (ODbL)); BC Transit schedules (GTFS), read 2026-10-12 (BC Transit Open Data Terms of Use); BC Parks, Ecological Reserves, and Protected Areas, BC Parks and GeoBC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Recreation Sites (Subset), Recreation Sites and Trails BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Forward sortation area boundary file, 2021 Census, Statistics Canada (Statistics Canada Open Licence); CATSA Aerodrome Designation Regulations (SOR/2002-180), Schedule, as modified 2026-09-28 (Reproduced under the Reproduction of Federal Law Order); OurAirports (airport points and scheduled service), as of 2026-10-15 (Public domain).
How school catchments work in BC →
Home insurance: what an insurer asks about the hall, the hydrant, the stove and the wiring →
Transit: what the schedules count, and what they leave out →
Child care: what the Province's list counts, and the fee programs →
Parks next door: what a park beside a lot means →
Mail delivery to a BC lot: rural mailboxes, community mailboxes and a new address →
Getting a family doctor after you move: the Health Connect Registry →
School buses for a rural lot: who decides and what to ask →
Garbage and recycling on a rural lot: transfer stations, depots and burning →
§20Internet For reference
Within about 1 km of the lot, the federal broadband map records 50/10 Mbps or faster over a wired line and over fixed wireless. LTE mobile coverage is recorded there too.
The record
- Best speed recorded within about 1 km
- 50/10 Mbps or faster
- Over a wired line (cable, fibre or DSL)
- 50/10 Mbps or faster
- Over fixed wireless
- 50/10 Mbps or faster
- LTE mobile within about 1 km
- recorded
- Nearest place with 50/10 Mbps or faster
- about 100 m away
- Data
- ISED National Broadband Data, May 2026
- Mobile carriers listed in the area around the lot (about 25 km²)
- Bell and Telus (one shared network) (ISED, reported, not a guarantee at the lot)
- Nearest FM radio transmitter
- CIFM-FM-2, 92.7 MHz FM, 163 W, at Clearwater, about 6.4 km to the west-south-west; the bare ground doesn't block the line to it (terrain only)
- Nearest TV transmitter
- None in operation within 50 km on ISED's list
- Bell satellite TV dish sightline
- 82° W sits 21° up to the south-east, clear of the hills by 17°; 91.1° W sits 25° up to the south-east, clear of the hills by 20° (terrain only)
- Shaw Direct satellite TV dish sightline
- 107.3° W sits 30° up to the south-south-east, clear of the hills by 23°; 111.1° W sits 30° up to the south, clear of the hills by 22° (terrain only)
- Starlink: view of the sky
- The hills rise past 20° in 29% of directions round the lot's middle, up to 35° (terrain only)
This is the service providers report to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) for homes and roads near the lot, not a quote: ask providers whether they serve this address, at what speed and at what cost to connect.
Speeds are download/upload bands. 50/10 Mbps is ISED's top band, so a place in it can get much faster service, and it is the CRTC's target for every Canadian home.
A line that reaches homes within 1 km may stop short of this lot; bringing it further can cost the buyer. Fixed wireless and LTE need a clear line to the tower, which hills and tall trees can block.
Satellite service doesn't need nearby lines, but it needs a clear view of the sky.
Distances are straight lines from the middle of the lot, on a grid of about 250 m.
Mobile carriers are those Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) lists for mobile service in its hexagon of about 25 km² holding the lot's middle; ISED counts LTE and 5G together and doesn't say how much of the hexagon a carrier covers, so a listed carrier may not reach the lot, the house or the valley floor. Cell tower positions aren't open data. Ask the carriers, or try a phone on site.
Broadcast transmitters are from ISED's Spectrum Management System extract: the nearest FM and TV transmitters in operation within 50 km of the lot's middle, with their effective radiated power. Whether the bare ground blocks the line is our reading on the elevation model the Winter sun section reads (out to 16 km round the lot; hills beyond it aren't counted); trees, buildings and an antenna's height on the house aren't, and reception also depends on power, distance and the receiver.
Satellite sightlines are our reading: each geostationary satellite's place in the sky from the lot's middle (Telesat's orbital slots, read 2026-10-13) set against the skyline the Winter sun section reads on NRCan's elevation model, in 72 directions out to 16 km. Trees and buildings, which most often decide whether a dish sees its satellite, aren't counted, and a dish can sit higher or elsewhere on the lot. Starlink asks for a clear view of the sky from about 20° above the horizon and picks its own direction: its app's obstruction check on site is the real test.
Sources (6)
National Broadband Data (May 2026), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Pseudo-Household Demographic Distribution (2021), ISED (Open Government Licence – Canada); National Broadband Data, mobile providers by hexagon (2026-05-05), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Spectrum Management System Authorization Data Extract: Broadcast Service (2026-10-05), ISED (Open Government Licence – Canada); Geostationary fleet and orbital slots, Telesat (facts from the page, read 2026-10-13); Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada).
What the internet figures mean, and what to ask a provider →
§22Soil for farming For reference
Mapped mostly as Class 4 of 7 for farming: severe limits; few crops, or a high risk of crop failure. Main limits: soil holds little water, stones.
The record
- Capability class (1 best, 7 none)
- Class 4: about 35% of the lot; Class 7: about 25% of the lot; Class 5: about 25% of the lot; Class 6: about 15% of the lot
- What limits it
- soil holds little water, stones
- Map scale
- 1:50,000: describes the area, not the field
- Mapped
- 1960s to 1990s (digitised 2015)
These classes rate how well the land suits ordinary field crops, from the soil and climate as surveyed decades ago. Drainage, irrigation or fill since then can change the real answer, and a map at this scale can miss a good or poor field. The Agricultural Land Commission weighs these classes when it decides applications.
If farming matters to you here, a professional agrologist (P.Ag.) can assess the soil on site.
Source: Agriculture Capability mapping, Province of BC (1960s to 1990s maps, digitised 2015) (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
What the soil capability classes mean, and what they leave out →
§23Climate For reference
At Vavenby, 13 km away, January averages −5.2 °C and July 18.2 °C (1981-2010 normals, based on fewer years than the WMO standard).
The record
- Nearest climate station
- Vavenby, 13 km away
- Station elevation
- 445 m
- Lot elevation (estimated, middle of the lot)
- 481 m
- January mean temperature (1981-2010)
- −5.2 °C*
- July mean temperature (1981-2010)
- 18.2 °C*
- Yearly precipitation, rain and snow as water (1981-2010)
- 484 mm
- Yearly snowfall (1981-2010)
- 95 cm
- Days a year over 30 °C (1981-2010)
- 17 days, 1.5 days of them over 35 °C*
- Wettest day in the station's record to 2010
- 76.2 mm of rain and melted snow, January 21, 1935
- Most snow in a day in the station's record to 2010
- 76 cm, January 21, 1935
- Deepest snow on the ground in the station's record to 2010
- 59 cm, January 24, 1982
- Heating degree days, below 18 °C (1981-2010)
- 4,208 a year*
- Growing degree days, above 5 °C (1981-2010)
- 1,735 a year; 848 above 10 °C*
- Period
- 1981-2010
- Plant hardiness zone (regional)
- 5b
- By the 2050s, days a year over 30 °C (model projection, SSP2-4.5)
- About 14 more days over 30 °C a year than in 1971-2000 (same models)
- By the 2050s, longest frost-free run (model projection, SSP2-4.5)
- A longest frost-free run about 35 days longer than in 1971-2000 (same models)
- By the 2050s, winter precipitation falling as snow (model projection, SSP2-4.5)
- About 8 percentage points less of winter's precipitation falling as snow than in 1971-2000 (same models)
- Air monitoring station measuring fine particles
- None within 30 km with 5 or more full years of readings
- Lightning near the lot (1998-2025 average)
- A cloud-to-ground flash within 10 km on about 11 days a year; 0.15 flashes per km² a year, more than at 3 in 4 BC homes
Normals are 30-year averages at the station, not readings for this lot. In BC's mountains a few hundred metres of elevation, a north-facing slope or a lakeshore can change winters a lot: a hillside lot can be much colder and snowier than a valley station.
The lot's elevation is estimated from Natural Resources Canada's 30 m elevation model at the middle of the lot.
The hardiness zone is from Natural Resources Canada's 2025 map, read on a grid of about 2 to 3 km: near a zone's edge, or well above or below the valley around it, the lot may fall in the next zone. It is a guide to which plants survive the winter, not a frost date.
* Based on at least 20 or 15 of the 30 years, short of the World Meteorological Organization's standard: treat as a rougher guide.
The records are single days measured at the station: the most rain, snow and wind it saw in its record up to 2010 (ECCC's 1981-2010 sets give records over the station's whole history, so some dates are older than 1981). Each is one event, not what to expect in a year, and the lot can get more or less than the station.
ECCC's 1981-2010 normals for this station don't include the frost-free period, days with snow on the ground or the lowest temperature recorded, so those are left out rather than guessed.
A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below or above a base, added up over the year. Heating degree days below 18 °C follow how much a home needs heating: a place with 5,000 needs roughly half again the heat of one with 3,300, for the same house. Growing degree days above 5 °C (10 °C for warm-season crops such as corn and grapes) follow how much warmth plants get to grow.
Model projections, not predictions of the weather: the median of 26 climate models downscaled by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (CanDCS-M6), for 2041-2070 under SSP2-4.5, a middle path for emissions. Each is given as the change from 1971-2000 in the same models, not against a station's normals: in the mountains the models' figures can sit well off a valley station's, and the change between the two periods says more than either number. The frost-free run is the longest stretch of days with the low at or above 0 °C. The share of winter's precipitation falling as snow is our reading: each model's December to February snowfall over its precipitation, then the median across the models.
The models work on a grid of about 9 by 6 km, which averages valley floors with the slopes around them, so their own figures can sit well off a station's normals and aren't comparable with them. The models' own figures here, for setting against each other only: about 21 days over 30 °C a year in 2041-2070 (range 15 to 36 across the models), against about 7 days in 1971-2000; a longest frost-free run of about 155 days (range 140 to 175), against about 120; and about 82% of winter's precipitation falling as snow (range 72% to 84%), against about 90%. The range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile of the models' 2041-2070 figure; it isn't a range of the change.
Lightning is the Canadian Lightning Detection Network's cloud-to-ground flashes, averaged over 1998-2025, on Environment and Climate Change Canada's grid of 0.1 degrees (about 11 km north to south and 7 km east to west in BC): it is the area's lightning, not the lot's. A day counts when a flash fell in a grid cell whose middle is within 10 km of the middle of the lot's cell, by the Pacific standard time day (our reading); flashes per km² are for the lot's own cell. Set among BC's homes by Statistics Canada's 2021 dwellings on ISED's points. Lightning starts fires and can damage a well pump, panels or wiring on high open ground; ask an electrician about surge protection.
ECCC has no fuller 1991-2020 set for this station, so these are its 1981-2010 normals; recent years have run warmer than them in most of BC. Ask neighbours or the local government about snow on the road and who clears it.
Sources (6)
Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010, Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Medium Resolution Digital Elevation Model (MRDEM-30), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Plant hardiness zones of Canada (2025 map), Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Statistically downscaled climate indices from CMIP6 global climate models (CanDCS-M6), Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, via the Canadian Centre for Climate Services (Open Government Licence – Canada); Canadian Lightning Detection Network cloud-to-ground flashes (CanCPLDv1), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Clearwater: climate, land and census facts (PlaceDossier area page).
What a plant hardiness zone means →
Climate projections for the 2050s: what the models say, and what they can't →
§24Radon For reference
Radon isn't mapped lot by lot. In the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap health region, 7 of the 109 homes tested (6.4%) in Health Canada's 2009–2011 survey were at or above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline; across BC, 143 of 1,817 (7.9%).
The record
- Health region (regional figure, not this lot)
- Thompson Cariboo Shuswap
- Homes tested here
- 109
- At or above 200 Bq/m³ (the guideline)
- 7 (6.4%)
- At or above 600 Bq/m³
- None
- Across BC
- 143 of 1,817 homes (7.9%) at or above the guideline
Radon comes up from the ground and differs from one house to the next, even next door, so a regional figure says nothing certain about one home. The only way to know is a long-term test of at least 3 months. Health Canada's guideline is 200 Bq/m³ in the parts of a home where people spend more than 4 hours a day; above it, fix it within a year, and the higher the level, the sooner. For a home you buy, Health Canada suggests a long-term test once you've moved in.
The survey tested about a hundred volunteer homes per health region, with one long-term test each. That gives a rough regional picture: it isn't a map, and a region where few or none tested high can still have homes above the guideline. The survey grouped homes by the 2007 health regions; we place the lot by today's boundaries for the same areas.
A house built under Part 9 of the BC Building Code 2024 with a building permit applied for on or after March 8, 2024 must have a radon rough-in, unless it is designed to Parts 5 and 6 instead (Division B, Subsection 9.13.4), wherever it is in BC: an air barrier between the house and the ground, a gas-permeable layer under it, and a sealed radon vent pipe to the outside, ready for a fan. Before that, parts of BC needed only a soil gas barrier. A rough-in lowers radon only once a fan is added, so a test still decides; ask the seller for the building permit date and whether there's a radon pipe (our reading).
Sources (6)
Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011), Health Canada (Open Government Licence – Canada); Health Service Delivery Area Boundaries, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia); Radon guideline, Health Canada (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-02); Testing your home for radon, Health Canada (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-02); Radon in real estate, Health Canada (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-02); Radon Rough-in Requirements, Information Bulletin B24-03-R, Building and Safety Standards Branch (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-23).
§25Property tax For reference
Clearwater's 2026 residential rate is $6.64 per $1,000 of assessed value, above the middle of BC's 160 municipalities ($6.24): about $6,640 a year on a $1,000,000 home at 2026 rates, before the home owner grant. Confirm with the municipality.
- Municipal $3.61
- Regional district $0.81
- Regional hospital district $0.31
- School (set by the Province) $1.60
- Other $0.31
- Middle of BC's municipalities $6.24
On $500,000: about $3,320 a year; on $1,000,000: about $6,640, at 2026 rates, before the home owner grant.
The record
- Local government
- Clearwater
- Residential rate, 2026
- 6.6395 per $1,000
- Municipal
- 3.6076 per $1,000
- Regional district
- 0.8128 per $1,000
- Regional hospital district
- 0.3125 per $1,000
- School (set by the Province)
- 1.5977 per $1,000
- Other
- 0.3089 per $1,000
- BC municipalities' middle rate
- 6.24337 per $1,000
Your bill uses BC Assessment's value for the property, which can differ from its price, and may also include parcel taxes and utility fees (water, sewer, garbage) that aren't rates on value.
The home owner grant takes up to $570 off the bill of a home its owner lives in ($770 in the Province's northern and rural area in 2026, and up to $845, or $1,045 there, for seniors, veterans and people with a disability), for homes assessed at $2,075,000 or less in 2026; above that it shrinks by $5 for each $1,000. From 2027 the northern and rural extra ends and the regular grant is $570 everywhere. The owner applies each year, and must pay at least $350 in tax ($100 for the higher grant) after it.
Rates are set each May for the year; the next year's will differ.
Sources: District of Clearwater's 2026 tax rates bylaw, as compiled by the Province (Local Government Statistics Schedule 702, 2026) (the rates only: facts set in public bylaws, not open data); Home owner grant, Province of BC (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-04).
How property tax works in BC, and what else goes on the bill →
The home owner grant: who gets it, how much, and applying each year →
Property transfer tax: what you pay when you buy, and the exemptions →
§27Crime For reference
Inferred from the town's name: the Clearwater RCMP detachment (rural) reported a crime severity index of 47 in 2025, below BC's 92.
- Clearwater 47
- BC 92
The record
- Police service
- The Clearwater RCMP detachment (rural; inferred)
- Crime severity index, 2025
- 47 (BC 92)
- Violent / non-violent index
- 50 / 47 (BC 98 / 91)
- Crime severity index, 2015
- 65 (BC 93)
- Change since 2015
- Down 27% (BC unchanged)
- Break and enter, per 100,000 people, 2025
- 168 (BC 281)
- Theft of a vehicle, per 100,000 people, 2025
- 126 (BC 138)
- Theft from a vehicle, per 100,000 people, 2025
- 105 (BC 441)
- Violent crime, per 100,000 people, 2025
- 1,090 (BC 1,531)
- All Criminal Code offences (not traffic), per 100,000 people, 2025
- 3,687 (BC 6,943)
Inferred: the RCMP detachment named for this town. BC's police boundaries aren't open data, and a detachment's figures cover the countryside it polices as well as the town.
The crime severity index weighs each offence by how serious it is (one assault counts for more than several thefts), with Canada in 2006 set at 100. Rates are per 100,000 people living in the police service's area, so places with many visitors, commuters or seasonal homes read high, and in small places a few incidents swing the figures a lot. These are crimes reported to police, not all crime.
In BC only Surrey, the Township of Langley, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam publish reported property crime block by block under an open licence; reports there count what was reported within 500 m of the lot. The police here don't, so the figures above are for the whole area they cover.
Police calls to a particular address aren't published in BC (privacy law keeps police records about identifiable people closed), and neither is whether a home was used as a grow-op or drug lab: where a council acted on one, its order or a note on the title can show it. Ask the seller for the Property Disclosure Statement, and your lawyer for the title search.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0063-01, Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, police services in British Columbia (Statistics Canada Open Licence); Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0184-01, Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, police services in British Columbia (Statistics Canada Open Licence).
What police-reported crime figures say about a place, and what isn't public →
Was this house a grow op? What the records show, and what the seller must say →
Nothing to flag4
Checked, and nothing here to look into.
§01Road access Nothing to flag
A mapped public road runs along or through the parcel: Miller Road (local road, unpaved) and Davy Road (local road).
The recordroads on the plan
- Roads along the parcel
- Miller Road (local road, unpaved); Davy Road (local road)
- Nearest public road
- Along the parcel
- Who maintains the road
- Unclear whether the Province maintains the road along the lot: the nearest road on the Ministry of Transportation's road inventory, Highway H5 (service area 15, Thompson-Nicola district), is mapped about 31 m from the lot line, and the two maps can sit apart. Ask the Ministry's district office or the District of Clearwater who clears the road to the lot in winter.
- Snow clearing priority
- The District of Clearwater clears its own streets in winter, but publishes no snow-clearing priority map we can use. Ask the District of Clearwater which priority the street along the lot has, and how soon after a snowfall it is usually cleared.
From OpenStreetMap's road lines: a road whose centreline is within 25 m of the lot line counts as running along it. The map isn't proof of legal access: a road can be private, unbuilt or not maintained in winter, and reaching a lot across someone else's land needs a registered easement. The title search and the local government (or the Ministry of Transportation outside towns) confirm both.
Sources: OpenStreetMap road data as of 2026-10-18, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); Ministry of Transportation Road Features Inventory and District Boundaries, Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§07Water and streamside setbacks Nothing to flag
No mapped stream, lake, river, wetland or shoreline within 30 m of the parcel.
The recordwater and 30 m strip on the plan
- Within 30 m
- None mapped
- On the parcel
- None mapped
The Freshwater Atlas is mapped at 1:20,000: small, seasonal or ditched streams can be missing. Look for water on the ground and ask the local government whether it has finer mapping.
Source: Freshwater Atlas (streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, coastline), Province of BC (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§10Farmland reserve (ALR) Nothing to flag
Not in the Agricultural Land Reserve; the reserve's edge is about 45 m from the lot.
The recordfarmland reserve on the plan
- In the ALR
- No
- Nearest ALR land
- About 45 m away
Measured from the Agricultural Land Commission's map of the reserve to the parcel map's lot line; both are drawn from surveys, so expect a few metres either way. Land next to the reserve can be affected by farm noise, dust and spraying, which BC's Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act protects when they follow normal farm practice.
Source: Agricultural Land Reserve polygons, Agricultural Land Commission (Open Government Licence – British Columbia).
§26Speculation and vacancy tax Nothing to flag
Clearwater is outside the Province's speculation and vacancy tax area, so the tax doesn't apply to a home here.
The record
- Place
- Clearwater
- In the taxable area
- No
Sources: Taxable areas for the speculation and vacancy tax, Province of BC (page updated December 8, 2025) (summarised in our words); Speculation and vacancy tax rates and exemptions, Province of BC (summarised in our words, read 2026-10-04).
Where the speculation and vacancy tax applies, and who pays →
§28Questions to ask
These come from what the records found, plus the basics for any purchase. Tick them off as you go (this browser remembers them), or print the page.
For what we found
What this report flags, the questions it raises, and whom to ask. Start here.
The report About 9,680 m² (18%) of the lot is clear of steep slope and water setbacks; 82% is steeper than 30%. Buildable area
- Ask your home inspector or a specialist
The report Within 1 km: 3 approved cutblocks not yet logged. What's planned nearby
- Ask the seller or their agent
- Ask the local government
The report A main railway line (Clearwater Subdivision, Canadian National Railway) is about 1.6 km from the lot line. Noise sources nearby
- Ask the seller or their agent
Worth confirming
The report points to an answer for each of these; ask to confirm it holds for this lot.
The report Zone: RL-1 (Rural). What you can build (zoning)
- Ask the local government
The report An evacuation alert covered this lot in July 2017 (Little Fort Complex Wildfire, District of Clearwater); no order since April 2017. Evacuation orders and alerts
- Ask the seller or their agent
The report No open map shows the District of Clearwater's water and sewer service. Most lots in its built-up parts are on it, though rural parts often aren't; ask the District of Clearwater to confirm this one. Water wells nearby
- Ask the seller or their agent
The report Nearest fire station: Clearwater Fire Department, 6.5 km, on the Province's list (in a straight line). Services nearby
- Ask your insurer
The report Within about 1 km of the lot, the federal broadband map records 50/10 Mbps or faster over a wired line and over fixed wireless. Internet
- Ask the seller or their agent
No answer yet
The public records don't answer these: ask.
The seller or their agent
Your lawyer or notary
Your home inspector or a specialist
The school district
Find the people
Official public registers: find someone near you, or check that the one you've found is licensed.
- Lawyer · title search, conveyancing, easements and covenants
Law Society of BC lawyer directory - Notary · conveyancing and title search
Society of Notaries Public of BC roll of notaries - Land surveyor · lot lines, building locations, a survey certificate
Association of BC Land Surveyors member directory - Well driller or pump installer · a new well, a flow test, pump work
BC register of well drillers and well pump installers - Septic practitioner · septic inspection, design and installation
ASTTBC registrant directory (pick ROWP under Sub Class) - Agrologist · soil, farm capability and ALR applications
BC Institute of Agrologists directory of registrants
Buying from outside Canada or through a company, or working out the property transfer tax: AcreScout sets out who can buy land in BC and what the transfer tax comes to. Confirm with your lawyer or notary.
§29The parcel record
- Parcel type
- Subdivision
- Owner type
- Private
- Plan
- KAP34263
- Mapped area
- 5.28 ha (13.04 acres)
Mapped area is from ParcelMap BC and can differ from the surveyed area on title. Owner names, assessed values and title charges aren't public data; a title search at the Land Title and Survey Authority shows easements, covenants and liens.
Source: ParcelMap BC parcel fabric (Open Government Licence – British Columbia), updated 2026-09-08.
§30Names on the map
4 official place names within 5 km of the lot; the nearest community is Birch Island.
The names (4)
- McDougal Creek, 1.5 km southwest · official since 1978
- Raft River, 2.8 km west · official since 1966
- Foghorn Creek, 3.8 km southeast · official since 1961
- Birch Island, locality, 4.1 km southeast · official since 1982
Old newspapers mentioning Birch Island: UBC's BC Historical Newspapers.
Official names from the Canadian Geographical Names Database, with distances from each name's point to the lot's middle; a creek's or a range's point is one spot on it. Many BC names have origin notes (who or what a name recalls, when it was adopted) on BC Geographical Names: each linked name opens its page there. Old newspapers on UBC's BC Historical Newspapers can be searched for the nearest community; its terms allow research or private study.
Source: Canadian Geographical Names Database (Natural Resources Canada), via the GeoNames API (OGL-Canada).
Land for sale nearby
The 5 nearest listings on AcreScout within 25 km, nearest first.
| Listing | Asking price | Size | Per acre | From the lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1711 Burman RoadClearwater, listed 63 days ago | $599,900 | 48 acres | $12,498 an acre | 2.4 km |
| 943 Raft River RoadClearwater, listed 509 days ago | $450,000 | 36 acres | $12,500 an acre | 3.4 km |
| Lot 2 Barber RoadClearwater, listed 99 days ago | $349,900 | 34.8 acres | $10,043 an acre | 4.3 km |
| 1111 Barber RoadClearwater, listed 99 days ago | $299,900 | 34.8 acres | $8,608 an acre | 4.6 km |
| 268 Birch RoadClearwater, listed 55 days ago | $399,900 | 3.4 acres | $117,618 an acre | 4.9 km |
Distances are straight lines from the lot's middle to the listing's pin. Where AcreScout places a listing only roughly, no distance is given, only the place it's near. Per acre is left out under about an acre. Asking prices are what sellers ask, not what land sells for.
Listings: AcreScout, a Buretto site; active listings as of 2026-10-23. Asking prices set by the sellers; not a valuation.
Checked 2026-10-23. General information from public records, not an inspection, survey, appraisal or legal advice. Confirm with the local government and a professional before you buy or build.