I5: Special Industrial Zone

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Only on listed lots: an accessory home at 378 Marion Road and 28813 Fraser Highway, up to two at 39623 Old Yale Road, and one on each lot allowed all I2 uses (I2 lists an accessory home); at most 95 m², or 90 m² where the zone applies I2's rule (see notes)

Main uses

Nothing generally; each listed lot has its own uses (see notes): sawmilling and woodworking, a furniture factory, pallet making, freight and warehousing, or the I2 uses with salvage yards or outdoor storage of building materials

Smallest lot for a subdivision

1.0 ha (1.5 ha for new lots at 2087 Queen Street)

Lot coverage

75%

Height limit

Set per lot: 20.0 m (accessory buildings 8.0 m) at 378 Marion Road; 12.0 m (a building with a home 8.0 m, accessory buildings 4.6 m) at 39623 Old Yale Road; I2's 12.2 m on the other listed lots

Setbacks

7.5 m from all lot lines (0.0 m along a railway); 3.0 m between the main building and an accessory building with a home; at 28813 Fraser Highway, every use at least 3.0 m from all lot lines (s. 650.6.8(b))

No uses are listed for the zone as a whole; only the uses named for each lot are allowed there (ss. 650.1, 650.2). No density limit is set (s. 650.3.1).

Site-specific uses (s. 650.2): at 378 Marion Road (Parcel "A" (Reference Plan 10309) Lot 3 Section 2 Township 19 NWD Plan 7470), a cedar shake mill, making, assembling and warehousing fishing gear, woodworking (no permanent sawmill), portable sawmilling and an accessory home; at 39623 Old Yale Road (Parcel "A" (Reference Plan 21782F) of the North East Quarter of Section 2 and the South East Quarter of Section 11, Township 19 NWD), a furniture factory and up to two accessory homes; on part of Lot 4 Except the part on Explanatory Plan 9376, Section 18 Township 16 NWD Plan 3552, pallet making; at 2131 Queen Street (PID 027-147-401), 2141 Queen Street (PID 009-313-265), 2087 Queen Street (Lot B Section 13 Township 13 NWD Plan 10532, a historic description of part of the lot), 2035 Queen Street (PID 027-030-687) and parts of 3095 McCallum Road (Lot 127 Except By-law Plan 54337, Sections 21 and 22 Township 16 and District Lot 47 Group 2 NWD Plan 52611), all I2 uses plus an automobile recycling and salvage yard; at 28813 Fraser Highway (PID 009-862-803), freight handling, warehousing, commercial vehicle repair, an automobile body shop and an accessory home; at 355 Riverside Road (PID 026-080-559), all I2 uses plus outdoor storage of building materials.

Lots under I2 uses also take I2's setbacks, height, storage, office and accessory home rules as s. 650.6 lists them for each lot (I2's lot size too for some).

For salvage yards on the Queen Street and McCallum Road lots, s. 650.6 applies ss. 630.3.4, 630.3.5 and 630.6.4 of the I3 zone, which now hold I3's spacing between buildings, its height and its truck-parking washroom rule, while I3's salvage yard rules sit at s. 630.6.5; which rules are meant is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

The zone caps an accessory home at 95 m² (s. 650.6.10) while the I2 rule it applies to several lots caps it at 90 m² (s. 620.6.6); it also requires all storage inside a building (s. 650.6.11) while applying I2's outdoor storage rule to most lots and allowing outdoor storage of building materials at 355 Riverside Road; it sets 7.5 m setbacks (s. 650.3.2) while applying I2's 0.0 m and 3.0 m setbacks to several lots. Which figure governs on a given lot is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

The accessory home here is one dwelling for an owner, operator, manager, caretaker or the like and their family, inside the main building, one per lot unless the bylaw says otherwise (s. 120).

Short-term rental (paid nightly accommodation where no guest stays more than 30 days in any 12 months, s. 120) isn't a listed use in this zone, and a use a zone doesn't list isn't allowed (s. 130.1).

Accessory buildings go up only with or after the main building or use; one attached to the main building counts as part of it and keeps its setbacks (s. 140.4.1).

Chimneys, sills and bay windows may reach 0.6 m into a setback; steps, eaves, canopies, cantilevered balconies and open porches 1.2 m into front, rear and side-street setbacks and 0.6 m into interior side setbacks and between buildings; below-grade window wells, stairs and ramps anywhere (s. 140.4.2).

The bylaw sets no fence height in this zone; no barbed, razor or electric wire (s. 140.5.2).

No vehicle, recreational vehicle or trailer may be parked or stored on a lawn or landscaped area (s. 140.5.4(d)).

Garbage, compost and recycling bins for apartments, commercial and industrial uses are screened to 2.0 m, kept out of the front setback and away from homes; a townhouse lot of 5 or more homes has a central bin area or pick-up for each home (s. 140.4.5).

Landscaping (s. 140.7): the front setback is a continuous landscaped strip at least 3.0 m wide, and parking, loading and outdoor storage are screened from a street by 3.0 m of landscaping and from a neighbouring lot by 1.5 m; the rest of the lot not built on or paved is landscaped.

Industrial lots may narrow the landscaping beside a street to 1.5 m, and drop it beside another industrial lot, if the total landscaped area stays the same (s. 140.7.2(b)(iv)).

New development in I and P zones inside the stormwater management area (Figure 6) follows the Stormwater Source Control Bylaw (s. 140.5.5).

Land given up for road widening, a corner cut or a walkway still counts in the lot area for density and floor space ratio (s. 140.4.10).

Parking (s. 150.3): manufacturing and warehousing 1 space per 200 m² of floor area plus 1 per 40 m² of office, sales or display; self-storage 1 per 800 m². A commercial or industrial building of 500 m² or more has a loading space (s. 150.14).

A parking area of five or more spaces, driveways included, is paved, marked and lit without glare onto neighbours (s. 150.12).

No building within 15.0 m of the natural boundary of a lake, slough, swamp, pond or watercourse (tributaries included); 30.0 m from Nathan Creek, Poignant Creek, Clayburn Creek east of Old Clayburn Road and the Sumas River in its floodplain; 60.0 m from the Fraser River in its floodplain; 15.0 m from the inside toe of a dyke or its right-of-way, whichever is more; 7.5 m from a ditch. Fill used to raise a building stays out of these setbacks (ss. 140.8.7, 140.8.8).

Floodproofing (s. 140.8, Schedule E): in the Sumas Lake Bottom, Sumas Prairie, Huntingdon, Matsqui Prairie, Glen Valley and Sumas River areas (A to G), the Fishtrap Creek 100-year floodplain (H) and the watercourse setback areas, floors of living space sit at or above the area's level in Table 1 (for example 11.1 m GSC in areas A, B and D, 9.8 m in Matsqui Prairie, 8.5 m in Glen Valley), or at a lower "reduced" level in areas A, B, E and F where the owner signs a covenant with the City and the Province; farm buildings, renovations and small additions can be exempted under a covenant (s. 140.8.6). The rule printed as floors "not less than 1.5 m above the natural boundary" of a watercourse (s. 140.8.3(c)) reads as a prohibition of floors that high, so how high a floor near a watercourse must sit is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

Nothing may be built on the river side of a dyke or on an island in the Fraser River (s. 140.8.2).

At street corners, a sight triangle (Figure 2) is kept clear of buildings, structures and plants between 1.0 m and 3.0 m above the street (s. 140.4.9).

No vehicle, recreational vehicles included, may be lived in, except that a visitor's RV may be used for up to 72 hours in a row in any 30 days (s. 140.4.11).

Wrecked vehicles only where the zone allows them or a business on the lot needs them, and then inside a building or behind a fence or wall that hides them (s. 140.5.3).

Growing, processing, storing or selling cannabis is not allowed in any zone unless the bylaw provides for it, subject to the provincial ALR rules (s. 140.2.5); cannabis production is a farm use only in the A1 to A6 zones (s. 120).

Every zone also allows public service works and utilities, parks, and seasonal Christmas tree sales (s. 140.1); an emergency shelter on a lot that doesn't border one with homes, under a housing agreement (s. 140.2.3); a temporary accessory emergency shelter during a declared emergency or an extreme weather alert, except on lots whose zone allows farming or in the ALR (ss. 140.2.1, 140.2.2); and soil extraction inside the official community plan's Soil Removal Eligibility Area, under the soil bylaw (s. 140.2.4).

Site-specific exceptions listed in the bylaw by legal description can add or change uses for one property, and development permit areas, the ALR and building rules apply on top. Confirm with the City of Abbotsford's planning and development services before you buy or build.

Source: Section 650 of City of Abbotsford Zoning Bylaw No. 2400-2014 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – City of Abbotsford.