What is a temporary use permit in BC, and how long does it last?

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A temporary use permit lets the owner use land in a way the zone doesn't allow, for up to 3 years, renewable once, where the official community plan or zoning bylaw designates areas for it. It ends on its date, and the zone stays as it was. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. Where one can be issued: An official community plan or zoning bylaw may designate areas where temporary uses may be allowed and set general conditions for them (Local Government Act s. 492). There, on the owner's application, the council or board issues a permit by resolution (s. 493 (1) (a)). Outside a municipality, where no official community plan applies, a regional district can issue one by bylaw instead (s. 493 (1) (b)). What it can allow: A use the zoning bylaw doesn't permit, the conditions it is carried on under, and the buildings or structures for that use (s. 493 (2)). Where the council has delegated the decision to staff, the owner can ask the council to reconsider it (s. 493 (3)). Notice and hearing: Before issuing one by resolution, the council or board publishes notice of the permit's purpose, the land and where to read it, 3 to 14 days before the resolution (s. 494 (1) to (3)), and mails it to the owners and tenants nearby as for a public hearing (s. 494 (4)); no hearing is required. A permit issued by bylaw outside a plan area follows the public hearing rules for a bylaw (s. 494 (5)). Conditions and security: The permit can require the owner to undertake to remove buildings and restore the land by a set date, failing which the local government may do it at the owner's cost (s. 495), and to give security that is forfeited on default (s. 496). How long it lasts: The owner may use the land as the permit describes until the permit's date or 3 years after it was issued, whichever is first, and the permit may be renewed only once (s. 497). After that the use needs a new permit or a rezoning. On the title: The local government files a notice of the permit in the land title office, noted against the title, and the permit's terms then bind everyone who later acquires an interest in the land (s. 503). A buyer takes the permit and its end date with the land (our reading). Short-term rentals: The Regional District of East Kootenay and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District each say on their own pages that a temporary use permit is their route to a short-term rental the zoning doesn't allow; a report quotes that route with the zone's short-term rental rule where we've summarised the zone. The Province's principal residence requirement applies on top where it reaches (see short-term rentals). In the ALR and the Islands Trust: A permit doesn't override the farmland reserve: a non-farm use there still needs the Agricultural Land Commission's permission or one the ALR regulations allow (ALC Act s. 20). In a local trust area the local trust committee issues temporary use permits with the same Part 14 powers (Islands Trust Act s. 29). What it means for a buyer: A use running under a temporary use permit isn't a use the land has: check the notice on title for its date, ask whether it has already been renewed, and price the lot as if the use ends. If the use matters, ask whether the council would rezone instead.

What is a temporary use permit in BC, and how long does it last?

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