R2: Rural Residential

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One single-family home per 4.0 ha of lot; one on a smaller lot (s. 3.3 Table 3); a secondary suite inside the home (s. 3.3 Table 1, s. 2.1(5)); a detached secondary dwelling unit only by Temporary Use Permit (s. 2.1(4))

Main uses

Homes; parks and utilities; accessory home occupations, horticulture and farming, intensive agriculture on lots over 2 ha, forest fungi on lots of 2 ha or more, occasional wood working with the lot's own wood, renewable power, agri-tourism on a lot classed as a farm, and agri-tourism accommodation on a farm over 4 ha by Temporary Use Permit (s. 3.3 Table 1); one produce stand up to 4.6 m² (s. 3.3 Table 2)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

2.0 ha, and 4.0 ha on average, no more than half the new lots under the average (s. 3.3 Table 7, s. 2.8(4))

Lot coverage

25% (s. 3.3 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 buildings used only for farming; boathouses 4.5 m (s. 3.3 Table 4)

Setbacks

7.5 m from the front lot line, 3 m from the rear and interior sides, 4.5 m from a side along a road (s. 3.3 Table 5); pit privies, feeding troughs, manure piles and animal buildings 8 m from every lot line, chicken coops 3 m (s. 3.3 Table 5); 15 m from the sea (s. 2.3)

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)).

Secondary dwelling unit by Temporary Use Permit (ss. 2.1(4), (6); Part 5, Area 2): a detached second home of up to 140 m², within 60 m of the house unless the permit says otherwise, on an approved septic system, with at least 1,000 gallons of rainwater storage; a temporary permit, not a right.

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 R2(1) to R2(8) add a kennel or riding stable, or change the homes or lots allowed on named lots (s. 3.3 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 3.3 of Denman Island Land Use Bylaw No. 186, 2008 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-11); zone map: Open Government Licence – Islands Trust.