SSMUH 2g: Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing Two - Greenfield

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Three homes on a lot of 280 m² or less, four on a larger lot: a house (two houses on a lot at least 24.0 m wide) or a duplex, with secondary suites, and one garden suite or one coach house (not both)

Main uses

Houses, duplexes, residential care, a boarding house; short-term rental, boarders, a coach house, a garden suite, home occupation (Levels 1 and 2), secondary suites

Smallest lot for a subdivision

495 m², 20.0 m wide, 22.5 m deep (corner lot 585 m², 23.0 m wide); no through or panhandle lots

Lot coverage

Buildings 45%; all hard surfaces 65%

Height limit

Main buildings 9.5 m or three storeys, whichever is less; garden suite 4.5 m or one storey; coach house building 7.5 m or two storeys; other accessory buildings 4.5 m

Setbacks

Main buildings: front 3.0 m (6.0 m to a garage facing it), rear 4.5 m, interior side 1.2 m (6.0 m where a home's front or rear faces the side lot line), exterior side 3.0 m (6.0 m to a garage facing it); garden suite and coach house building rear 1.5 m, interior side 1.2 m, exterior side 3.0 m; other accessory buildings front 6.0 m, rear and interior side 1.0 m, exterior side 3.0 m

The bylaw codes this zone "SSMUH 2-g"; it is for greenfield lots the official community plan designates SSMUH 2.

Floor space ratio at most 0.65 for a house or a duplex, not counting a garden suite or coach house (s. 353.3.2).

Separation (s. 353.3.7): 2.4 m between buildings with homes in the front row, and in the rear row; 6.0 m between front and rear buildings with homes; 1.5 m between any others.

Two houses only on a lot at least 24.0 m wide (s. 353.6.3); a duplex built on an interior side lot line needs no setback there (s. 353.6.5).

Driveways: at most 6.0 m of paving from the street to the garages, 11.0 m with three or four homes (s. 353.6.1).

Where a duplex or two houses share a lot, each principal home may have one attached garage, at most 6.0 m wide on a lot with a front lot line of 24.0 m or more and 4.0 m otherwise (s. 353.6.4).

Floor area under a ceiling more than 4.3 m high counts twice toward gross floor area (s. 353.6.2).

Garden suite (s. 353.6.6, 353.6.7): one per lot, up to 15% of the lot area or 100 m², whichever is less, in a building no bigger than that; not between the main building and the front lot line; no basement; may be a CSA A277 or Z240 manufactured home; not with residential care, supported housing, boarders or a coach house on the lot.

Coach house (s. 353.6.8): one per lot, only on a lot with a rear lane; no bigger than the detached garage's floor area, 15% of the lot area or 100 m², whichever is least; not between the main building and the front lot line; not with residential care, supported housing, boarders or a garden suite on the lot.

A coach house built before "the effective date of this Bylaw" needs only 0.6 m from an interior side lot line (s. 353.6.8(f)). Which bylaw's effective date that means is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

A Level 2 home occupation isn't allowed on a lot with a duplex or more than one house (s. 353.6.9).

A house may have a floor space ratio of 0.55 at 3016 Princess St (PID 030-821-878, Lot B, Section 19, Township 16, NWD Plan EPP86413), 3010 Princess St (PID 030-821-860, Lot A, same plan) and 2384 Beaver Street (PID 031-180-191, Lot 1, Section 17, Township 16, NWD Plan EPP100807) (s. 353.2.1), less than the 0.65 the zone allows any house. What this clause changes for those lots is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

Secondary suites (s. 140.3.8(c)): one per principal home; smaller than half the home's floor area, an attached garage not counted; not on a lot with residential care, a boarding house, supported housing or home child care. Suites registered before Bylaw No. 3249-2022 was adopted are exempt from these three conditions. Parking: one space (s. 150.3). Section 130.1.2(b) says the A1 zone's further rules apply to a use wherever it is allowed in the City, and A1 limits secondary suites to one per lot and 100 m² (s. 210.7.2), while s. 140.3.8 sets other limits outside the farm and rural zones; whether the A1 limits also apply here is unclear; ask the City of Abbotsford.

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).

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).

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).

Boarding house (s. 140.3.3(a)): rooms let in a single detached house to up to six people, two per room; needs a business licence; not on a lot with a short-term rental, coach house, garden suite, secondary suite, residential care, supported housing, home occupation or a second house; the house keeps its residential look. Parking: one space per room (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).

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

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).

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).

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

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.

On this zone's lots, the landscaping beside a neighbouring lot may be 1.2 m, or none where two lots share a drive aisle (s. 140.7.2(b)(iii)).

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)).

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.

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).

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).

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)).

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.

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).

Supported housing (s. 140.2.7), always under a housing agreement with the City: in an apartment or dormitory in any zone, on the RMM zone's terms, except on a lot whose zone allows farming or in the ALR; and in a single detached house in any residential zone outside the farm zones and the ALR, for up to ten residents, at least 200 m from other supported housing or a school (homes licensed before April 1, 2008 aside), never on a lot with a secondary suite, garden suite, coach house, residential care, boarding house, home child care or home occupation, and with no outward sign of a non-residential use.

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).

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.

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