A: Agriculture

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Outside the Agricultural Land Reserve, one single-family home per 15.0 ha of lot, and one on a smaller lot (s. 3.4 Table 3); in the ALR one home per lot of up to 410 m², one secondary suite and one secondary dwelling unit as the ALR Use Regulation allows, all homes together within a 500 m² footprint (s. 3.4 Table 3 and its note). Whether a secondary dwelling unit is possible outside the ALR is unclear: s. 2.1(4) names the A zone for one by Temporary Use Permit, but the zone's table and Part 5 don't

Main uses

Homes, agriculture including intensive agriculture, horticulture, forest fungi, forestry, parks, utilities; accessory home occupations, sale of the lot's forest products, wood processing on lots of 10 ha or more, occasional wood working, renewable power, a secondary suite, agri-tourism on a lot classed as a farm, and agri-tourism accommodation on a farm over 4 ha (s. 3.4 Table 1); a permanent sawmill on lots of 10 ha or more and buildings for selling farm products (s. 3.4 Table 2)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

15.0 ha (s. 3.4 Table 7); in the ALR a subdivision needs the Agricultural Land Commission's approval too

Lot coverage

35%, or 75% counting greenhouses (s. 3.4 Table 3)

Height limit

7 m for homes within 100 m of the sea, 9 m farther back; 6 m for accessory buildings; 15 m for farm and forestry buildings in the ALR, silos and grain bins aside; boathouses 4.5 m (s. 3.4 Table 4)

Setbacks

Homes and their accessory buildings 10 m from the front lot line, 4.5 m from the others; other buildings 10 m from the front and a side along a road, 4.5 m from the rear and interior sides, 15 m from a line shared with another zone; intensive agriculture and agri-tourism accommodation 30 m, sawmills 100 m, pit privies 8 m (s. 3.4 Table 5); 15 m from the sea, 30 m for farm buildings (s. 2.3)

The zone is the island's farmland; most of it is in the Agricultural Land Reserve, where the Agricultural Land Commission's rules also apply.

Secondary suite (s. 2.1(5)): one per lot, inside the walls of the home, with its own outside door, up to 40% of the home's floor area and 90 m², the owner or a resident manager living in the home or the suite, one parking space of its own, never subdivided or strata-titled; a written water plan first (s. 2.1(7)).

In the ALR, agri-tourism accommodation on a farm over 4 ha: up to four sleeping units as seasonal campsites or one cabin, the developed area under 1% of the lot, 30 m from every lot line, screened, with water and septic proven (s. 3.4 Tables 2, 3, 5 and 9; s. 2.7(5)).

Short-term rental (s. 2.1(2)): a home may not be rented as a vacation rental or to paying guests, except as home-based guest accommodation run as a home occupation (a bed and breakfast); secondary suites and secondary dwelling units may never be rented short term or to paying guests (the information note to s. 2.1).

Bed and breakfast (home-based guest accommodation, ss. 2.4(18) to (21)): inside the principal home, up to three bedrooms with two beds each, meals may be served and a second kitchen provided for guests; one parking space per guest room (s. 2.5(16)). The bylaw's guest accommodation is stays of up to 6 weeks in a row and 45 days a year (its definitions).

Home occupations (s. 2.4): offices, studios, personal services, trades, welding, repair and manufacture, food processing, daycare up to seven children, farm sales, car repair on lots over 2 ha; run as part of a lived-in home, using up to 60% of the home's floor area (on 1 ha or more, of the home and accessory buildings together), indoors in the home on a lot under 1 ha; one outside employee under 1 ha, two under 2 ha, three under 3 ha, four on larger lots; no sawmill; outdoor storage within 10% of the lot and screened (ss. 2.4(7) to (16), 2.7(6)).

A second or later principal home needs proof of enough water, by the bylaw's subdivision rules (s. 2.1(3)).

Accessory buildings and travel trailers may be slept in only now and then (up to 45 days a year, 30 in a row; ss. 2.1(10), (11) and the definition of occasional). A travel trailer or bus may serve as a home on a lot over 1 ha or where screened, on an approved septic system, counting as one of the lot's homes (s. 2.1(12)).

Water (s. 2.3): no building within 15 m of the sea or of a stream, lake or wetland (30 m for septic fields and farm buildings; 60 m from Chickadee and Graham lakes for everything, farm fencing included); boathouses 5 m from the sea; the lowest floor 1.5 m above the sea's natural boundary; no building within 15 m of a cliff edge.

Subdivision (s. 2.8): each new lot needs 20 m of road frontage (s. 2.8(7)), a width at least a third of its depth (s. 2.8(6)), proof of potable water (ss. 2.8(8) to (15)) and room for a septic system (s. 2.8(18)); outside the ALR, a lot must be at least 8 ha to be subdivided for a relative's home (s. 2.8(21)).

Numbered site-specific zones A(1) to A(15) change lot sizes or homes, or add a restaurant, a burial site or a hermitage, on named lots (s. 3.4 Table 8).

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 Islands Trust's office for the island before you buy or build.

Source: Section 3.4 of Denman Island Land Use Bylaw No. 186, 2008 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-11); zone map: Open Government Licence – Islands Trust.