R-1: Single-Detached Housing

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house, with a secondary suite and up to two detached suites: at most 4 homes on a lot connected to City services, in at most 3 residential buildings, and the house must hold at least half the lot's residential floor area (ss. 8.3, 8.4, 4.20, 4.21). No duplex in this zone

Main uses

A house; accessory buildings, a bed and breakfast, detached suites, a secondary suite, home occupations (business and office)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

550 m², 15.0 m wide

Lot coverage

40%; at least 50% of the front yard left open

Height limit

11 m for the house (6.4 m wide at least); accessory buildings two storeys and 7.0 m, or the house's height if lower

Setbacks

House: front 7.5 m, sides 1.5 m (3.0 m on a street), rear 7.5 m; where there is no street side or lane to reach the back, one side yard is 3.0 m (s. 8.4)

The density rule counts 4 homes on a lot connected to City services; how many a lot without them may have the bylaw doesn't say, so that is unclear: ask the City.

A secondary suite: one per house or duplex unit, at most 90 m² or 40% of the home's habitable floor area, whichever is less, built to the BC Building Code's suite rules, never subdivided or strata-titled, and not inside a detached suite (s. 4.20).

Detached suites (a garden or carriage home in a building of its own): at most two on a lot, only where there is a main home, and allowed inside an accessory building such as a garage (s. 4.21). Shipping containers and temporary storage structures can't be one (s. 4.25).

Accessory buildings: built only with or after the main home, not in the front yard, 1.0 m from interior side lines, 3.0 m from a street side, 1.5 m from the rear line and from other buildings, 0.3 m more at the side and rear for each metre over 7.0 m high; at most two storeys and 7.0 m or the main home's height, whichever is less; all of them together at most 10% of the lot or 90 m², whichever is less, in materials and colours like the main home's (s. 4.18). The bylaw counts detached suites among accessory buildings (s. 4.18.1), so the floor area cap appears to include them (our reading).

A bed and breakfast: licensed by the City, inside the house only, the owner living in the house, at most 3 guest rooms, one more parking space per guest room and stays of no more than 30 days in a row (s. 4.23).

Commercial temporary accommodation (rooms for the travelling public for 30 days or less) is prohibited in residential zones (s. 4.2.6, definitions in s. 3), so renting a home by the night isn't allowed here; ask the City.

Home occupations need a business licence and a resident operator; at most two per home, one of them a business. A home business uses at most 25% of the home or 90 m², one employee from outside, up to 20 customer visits a day and one more parking space; a home office at most 25 m², no customers and no outside employees (s. 4.22).

Parking and loading (Section 5), landscaping, fencing and the other general regulations (Section 4) also apply.

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 Fort St. John's planning department before you buy or build.

Source: Section 8 of City of Fort St. John Zoning Bylaw No. 2470, 2019 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-04); zone map: Open Government Licence – City of Fort St. John.