RR1: Rural Residential One – Passage Island

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One dwelling per lot (s. 5.1(2)); no cottage or suite, and accessory buildings can't be lived in (s. 3.5(1))

Main uses

A house; accessory uses such as home occupations and one boathouse (s. 5.1(1)); horticulture, conservation, trails, water supply, small wind and solar for the lot (s. 3.1)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

1.6 ha (s. 5.1(11))

Lot coverage

25% (s. 5.1(3)); the house's floor area at most 0.2 times the lot area (s. 5.1(4))

Height limit

9 m for the house (s. 5.1(7)); 3.7 m and one storey for accessory buildings (s. 5.1(8)); fences 1 m (s. 5.1(9)); wind turbines 15 m (s. 3.4(2))

Setbacks

7.6 m from the front and rear lot lines and the sea, 3 m from the sides (s. 5.1(6)); 30 m from a stream, wetland or lake (s. 3.3(4))

The zone is for the homes on Passage Island (s. 5.1's purpose).

Up to three accessory buildings per lot, one of them a boathouse (s. 5.1(5)); above-ground water and septic tanks screened from the road and neighbours (s. 5.1(10)).

A few lots the bylaw names have their own setbacks or heights: closer to the sea or a side lot line for a house, deck, landing or accessory building, a taller house on one, a taller accessory building on another (s. 5.1(6)(c) to (j), (7)(a), (8)(a)).

Short-term rental (s. 3.6 and the definition of residential): renting out a dwelling for under 30 days isn't residential use and isn't a home occupation (s. 3.6(2)(a), (c)), so a whole house by the night isn't allowed (our reading). What the bylaw does allow is commercial visitor accommodation, a home occupation giving paying guests a bed and meals: up to 4 guests in up to 2 bedrooms, only inside the house, no guest staying more than seven nights in any 90 days (s. 3.6(1)(f)), with the owner or an employee living on the lot (s. 3.6(5)). Ask the Islands Trust.

Home occupations (s. 3.6): crafts, repairs, a professional practice, a service to clients or making a product, inside the house or a permitted accessory building, up to 47 m² in all on the lot, one employee from off the lot, the owner or an employee living there, storage indoors, no noise heard at the lot line or the shore; no campground, rentals other than a house for 30 days or more, boat charters, food service or selling goods not made or repaired there.

Water (s. 3.3(3), (4)): no building or structure within 7.6 m of the sea, bar a boathouse, stairs or walkways to the shore up to 2.5 m wide, a deck up to 1.2 m high and 17 m² and a few small items; nothing but a fence or utility shed, septic fields and tanks included, within 30 m of a stream, wetland or lake. Docks are set by the water zone in front of the lot: in Marine General (W1), one per lot up to 65 m², nothing built on it (s. 5.6); the Marine Protection (W3) zone that covers other water allows none (ss. 4.2(5), 5.8).

Development permit area DP-1 (riparian areas), mapped in the Gambier Associated Islands Official Community Plan, needs a permit before building, clearing or subdividing there (Part 8).

No living in a mobile home, RV or boat (s. 3.2(4), (5)), and no RV parked or stored on a lot (s. 3.9); accessory buildings can't be lived in (s. 3.5(1)). A storage building, utility shed or boathouse may go up before the house; other accessory buildings only once the house has a building permit (s. 3.5(2), (3)).

Subdivision (Part 7): each new lot's road frontage at least 10% of its perimeter unless the committee exempts it, no deeper than three times its width (s. 7.6); a lot for a relative only from a lot of 8 ha or more (s. 7.5); a water-access-only subdivision dedicates road access to a neighbourhood dock site (s. 7.9); covenants against further subdivision where a new lot is twice the average or more (s. 7.3).

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 5.1 of Bowyer and Passage Islands Land Use Bylaw, 2011 (Bylaw No. 114) (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-11); zone map: Open Government Licence – Islands Trust.