N30: Comprehensive Development Thirty Zone

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Up to 1,400 principal homes across the sub-areas: 580 single detached houses, 120 duplex homes, 260 townhouses and 440 apartments (each type may vary by 20% within a sub-area's total); one secondary suite or one coach house per house where the sub-area lists them

Main uses

A planned neighbourhood in seven sub-areas: houses and duplexes (Sub-Areas 1, 2, 3, 5), townhouses (1, 2, 4), apartments (2, 4, 4A), a commercial node (4A), parks and limited civic uses (community centres, clubhouses, interpretive centres) in all; residential care and supported housing in houses (and residential care in duplexes); boarding, Level 1 and 2 home occupations, secondary suites, coach houses (Sub-Areas 1 and 5), short-term rental (Sub-Area 1)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

House on a lot without lane access 420 m², 13.4 m wide (corner 480 m², 16.0 m), 25.0 m deep, or 540 m², 15.0 m (corner 610 m², 18.0 m); house with rear lane access 300 m², 9.5 m wide, 31.0 m deep (corner 360 m², 11.5 m); duplex 510 m², 22.0 m wide (corner 530 m², 24.0 m)

Lot coverage

Houses and duplexes 33% (lot of 1,620 m² or more), 40% (540 m² or more), 45% (under 540 m²), 55% (lane lot of 360 m² or less); apartments and townhouses 40%; commercial 50%

Height limit

Houses and duplexes 9.5 m or 3 storeys, whichever is less; apartments 14.2 m or four storeys; townhouses 11.0 m or three storeys; commercial-only buildings 9.0 m or two storeys (14.2 m or four with apartments above and the upper floors stepped back); accessory 4.5 m

Setbacks

House or duplex without lane: front 5.0 m (garage 6.0 m), rear 7.5 m, interior side 1.5 m, exterior side 4.5 m; with lane (lot under 420 m²): front 3.0 m, rear 11.5 m, interior side 1.2 m, exterior side 3.0 m. Apartments: street lot lines 3.0 m, interior 7.5 m (4.5 m beside the Sub-Area 6 park). Townhouses: front 4.0 m, other lines 7.5 m (4.5 m beside the park, 1.5 m beside a townhouse, duplex or house facing the street). Commercial: street lines 0.0 m; interior 3.0 m (0.0 m beside commercial, 7.5 m beside a house, duplex or narrow lane, and for floors with homes)

Homes per sub-area (s. 830.01): Sub-Area 1, 190 (130 houses, 20 duplex homes, 40 townhouses); Sub-Area 2, 270 (10 houses, 60 townhouses, 200 apartments); Sub-Area 3, 60 (40 houses, 20 duplex homes); Sub-Areas 4 and 4A, 400 (160 townhouses in 4, 240 apartments across both); Sub-Area 5, 480 (400 houses, 80 duplex homes); Sub-Area 6 parks and civic uses only.

The sub-areas and the planned layout are shown on the zone's plans (ss. 830.36, 830.37).

Houses and duplexes (s. 830.13): floor space ratio 0.5 on lots of 540 m² or more, 0.65 under 540 m², 0.75 on a lane lot of 360 m² or less. The table sets no density or coverage for a lane-access lot larger than 360 m², so which figures apply to one is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

Accessory buildings of houses and duplexes (s. 830.14): a detached garage rear 1.0 m and side 0.6 m on a lot without lane (2.5 m rear on a lane lot); other accessory buildings behind the front of the house, rear 1.0 m, interior side 0.6 m; a coach house rear 2.5 m, interior side 1.2 m, exterior side 3.0 m; 6.0 m between the house and a coach house or accessory building (s. 830.15).

Secondary suite (s. 830.10): one per lot, at most 90 m² or 40% of the house's net floor area, whichever is less, only on a lot of 540 m² or more, never with a coach house, residential care, supported housing or boarders.

Coach house (s. 830.11): only where it and the lot's parking are reached from a lane 10.0 m wide or less; floor area no more than the detached garage's, and at most 55 m²; the owner lives in it or the house; never with residential care, a secondary suite, supported housing or boarders. Boarding and residential care are each excluded with a suite, coach house or supported housing (ss. 830.09, 830.12).

Short-term rental is listed only in Sub-Area 1 (s. 830.02).

Apartments (ss. 830.17, 830.18): 35% of the site landscaped, with common outdoor space of 3.0 m² per home; in a mixed building, not on the first storey, with a 3.0 m³ storage locker per home and parking kept apart from the other uses. Townhouses (s. 830.24): private outdoor space of 15 m² (no side under 3.0 m), a ground-level entrance and a 3.0 m³ storage locker each; porches and steps may come to 2.5 m from the front line (s. 830.30).

Sub-Area 4A commercial (ss. 830.06, 830.31, 830.32): animal hospital, assembly, child care centre, coffee shop, commercial school, drive-through restaurant, financial institution, funeral parlour, garden centre, liquor store, media studio, mobile food vendor, off-street parking, personal service, pet daycare, restaurant, retail (no used goods), apartments only in a building with another principal use; floor space ratio 1.3; storage indoors.

Short-term rental is a permitted accessory use here. The bylaw defines it as paid nightly accommodation, accessory to a home, where no guest stays more than 30 days in any 12 months (s. 120), and requires that the host's principal residence must be on the lot; only in a single detached house or a duplex, plus, for each principal home, one of its secondary suite, garden suite, coach house or accessory farm home; at most six guests and three guest bedrooms per principal home; one parking space for each rental on top of the lot's other parking; never on a lot with boarders or a boarding house (s. 140.3.1).

Secondary suites here follow this zone's own accessory use rules and conditions (s. 140.3.8(b)). Parking: one space (s. 150.3).

A coach house is a home on the second storey of an accessory building; a garden suite is a home in a one-storey accessory building. Either belongs to a single detached house or a duplex on the same lot and stays part of the same property (s. 120). Sizes, heights and setbacks are set in each zone that lists them. Parking: one space each (s. 150.3).

Small-scale multi-unit housing (s. 140.2.12): inside the official community plan's Urban Development Boundary, a lot zoned for a single detached house or a duplex, and allowing fewer than three homes, may hold three homes if 280 m² or smaller and four if larger, as houses, duplexes, secondary suites and (only where the zone lists them) garden suites or coach houses, under the zone's own development rules. This doesn't apply to lots of 4,050 m² or more, heritage-protected lots, or lots in a transit-oriented area.

Boarders (s. 140.3.2): in a house or duplex, up to four in the principal home, two per bedroom, never together with a short-term rental; in an apartment, townhouse or rowhouse, one boarder, not in a building with supported housing or congregate care. Parking: one space per bedroom in a house or duplex (s. 150.3).

Home occupation, Level 1 (s. 140.3.5(a)): inside the home, by its residents only; no nuisance (noise, smell, traffic and the like), no outside storage, and no outward change to the home's residential look; no customer visits and no sign. No extra parking (s. 150.3).

Home occupation, Level 2 (s. 140.3.5(b)): in the principal home or an accessory building, up to 50 m²; residents plus one employee from outside; no nuisance (noise, smell, traffic and the like), no outside storage, and no outward change to the home's residential look; no repair of cars, farm, recreational or commercial vehicles; one sign of 0.4 m². One extra parking space (s. 150.3).

A Level 1 home occupation may also run in a secondary suite, garden suite, coach house, accessory farm home or lock-off unit, by someone living in that home (s. 140.2.10).

Residential care is licensed personal care in a single detached house: up to eight people in day care, and overnight up to ten people of whom at most six are in care (s. 120).

Home child care in a single detached house, run by someone living there: up to 8 children in any zone allowing a house (s. 140.2.9); up to 16 children except on a lot whose zone allows farming (the A zones, RR and CR among them) or in the ALR, and never on a cul-de-sac (s. 140.2.8). Neither on a lot with boarders, a boarding house, a secondary suite, residential care, supported housing or a home occupation of Level 2 or higher, and the larger one not with a coach house or garden suite either.

Home child care for up to 25 children is allowed in a zone permitting apartments or townhouses, one per lot, outside the homes themselves (s. 140.2.8(b)).

Urban beekeeping on a lot with only one single detached house, by a beekeeper registered with the Province: none under 540 m², two hives (and two nucleus colonies) from 540 m², four from 1,000 m², six from 2,000 m²; hives behind the house, behind a 1.8 m solid fence or hedge, their entrance 6.0 m and their sides 3.0 m from lot lines, with water on the lot; not on lots that allow farming (s. 140.2.11).

Mobile food vendors and non-permanent stalls stand on a lot and leave every night; food vendors stay 50 m from a restaurant (ss. 140.3.6, 140.3.7).

Parking (s. 150.3): 2 spaces per single detached house or duplex home; 1 per secondary suite, garden suite, coach house or accessory farm home; 1 per short-term rental; 1 per boarder's bedroom; 1 or 2 more for a home occupation's employees (Level 2 or higher).

Parking (s. 150.3): townhouses of 3 or 4 homes 1.5 spaces per home; of 5 or more, 2 per home (one in a garage or underground) plus 0.2 per home for visitors; rowhouses 2 per home (one in a garage or underground), plus 0.2 for visitors unless each is on its own lot.

Parking (s. 150.3): apartments 1 space per studio, 1.25 per one-bedroom and 1.5 per larger home, plus 0.2 per home for visitors (a den over 6.5 m² counts as a bedroom, s. 150.2.4); congregate housing 1 per home or 0.5 per sleeping unit plus 0.2 for visitors.

Parking (s. 150.3): retail and personal services 1 space per 35 m² of floor area, offices 1 per 40 m², financial and health care offices 1 per 30 m², restaurants 1 per 20 m², pubs and assembly 1 per 10 m², tourist accommodation 1 per room; over 2,500 m² of commercial floor area on one lot, 1 per 35 m² for all of it (s. 150.2.7).

Fences and walls up to 1.2 m between the house and the front lot line and beside it along a flanking street, and up to 1.8 m behind and beside it elsewhere (Figure 3); measured from existing grade, a fence within 1.0 m of a retaining wall counting the wall's height; no barbed, razor or electric wire (s. 140.5.2).

A shipping container may not be used for storage where a single detached house or duplex is the main use in this zone (s. 140.5.1).

Section 140.7.2's landscaping rules (a 3.0 m landscaped front setback, landscaped strips between parking and streets or neighbours) don't apply in N zones where a single detached house or duplex is the principal use; this zone lists houses or duplexes alongside townhouses (and in some zones apartments or shops), so whether those rules apply to its townhouse, apartment and commercial sites is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

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).

Every single detached house, in any zone, may hold one secondary suite, a home inside it that stays part of the same property (ss. 120, 140.3.8(a)).

No commercial vehicle or trailer over 5,500 kg, and no boat over 8.6 m, parked or stored outside a building (s. 140.5.4).

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).

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).

A density figure ending in a half home or more rounds up; less is dropped (s. 130.2.2).

For a strata development, lot width, coverage, density and floor space ratio are measured on the whole strata plan, not each strata lot (s. 130.2.4).

New residential buildings give each home with required parking an energized outlet for Level 2 charging (s. 150.6).

Inside a transit-oriented area (s. 150.5.6, Figure 2), homes need no minimum parking, though accessible spaces are still required (s. 150.7.5); other uses keep their rates.

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