RM3: Multi-Unit 3 - Medium Density

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Multi-unit housing and row houses, up to 75 homes per hectare (95 with the density bonus) and a floor area ratio of 1.2 (1.5 with the bonus); no cap per hectare in a transit-oriented area; rooming houses of up to eight rooms

Main uses

Multi-unit housing, row houses, rooming house; home-based business; short-term rental or boarders in a house, house with suite or duplex; home daycare and licensed home care in an existing house

Smallest lot for a subdivision

836 m², 22 m wide and 22 m of frontage; row houses 557 m², 18 m wide (19.5 m on a corner)

Lot coverage

40% of the parent parcel, accessory buildings included; on a fee simple row house or bare land strata lot, accessory buildings 12% up to 80 m²

Height limit

4 storeys and 15 m (row houses with an interior side setback under 4.5 m, 2 storeys); in a transit-oriented area 10 storeys within 200 m of a transit exchange, 6 at 201 to 400 m; structures 18 m; accessory buildings 4 m (3 m under 10 m²)

Setbacks

Front 6 m (4.5 m for row houses of up to 2 storeys); sides 4.5 m (1.5 m for row houses of up to 2 storeys, 0 m at a fee simple party wall); side street 4.5 m; rear 7.5 m (6 m on a street or lane; accessory buildings over 10 m², 1 m, or 1.5 m beside a lane); 1.5 m between accessory and main buildings

Floor area ratio 1.2, 1.5 with the density bonus; in a transit-oriented area 3.5 within 200 m of a transit exchange and 2.5 at 201 to 400 m (s. 9.3.5).

Density bonus (s. 3.18): the higher figures need every added home kept as market rental, or 40% of them as affordable rental, or 20% of all homes as social housing, under a housing agreement that bars strata-titling them; in RM3, RM4 and RM5 the lot must also be within 200 m of a mixed-use centre in the official community plan.

Transit-oriented areas are the land within 400 m of a prescribed transit exchange, mapped in Figures 18 to 18.3 (Downtown, North Kamloops, Thompson Rivers University) (s. 4.5.5); there the figures given for 200 m and for 201 to 400 m from the exchange apply, and no cap on homes per hectare does.

Row houses (s. 9.3.8) need a rear lane, take all vehicle access and parking from it (end units on a corner may use the side street), run at most eight lots in a row, and need a development permit and a covenant on parking and access; split for separate ownership, inner lots are at least 126 m² and 4.5 m wide, end lots 168 m² and 6 m (7.5 m on a corner); a porch may reach 1.8 m into the front yard.

Site-specific uses (s. 9.3.3): commercial daycares at 1430 9th Avenue, 1050 McMurdo Drive and 1510 9th Avenue; a four-person office at 704 McGill Road; shoe repair and sales at 108/110 Vernon Avenue; a care facility and emergency shelter at 290 Maple Street; a 22-space daycare at 1580 Summit Drive; a student residence at 704 McGill Road / 620 Dalgleish Drive.

Site-specific densities (s. 9.3.6) set a fixed count or rate in 23 clauses, among them 10 homes at 1430 9th Avenue and 1050 McMurdo Drive, 220 at 30 Hudson's Bay Trail, 475 (140 per hectare) at 704 McGill Road and 620 Dalgleish Drive, 152 at 72 Whiteshield Crescent South, 125 per hectare at 176 Comazzetto Road, 129 per hectare at 5225 and 5250 Bogetti Place, and 82 homes at 1800 Copperhead Drive and at 1834–1844 Qu'Appelle Boulevard; check s. 9.3.6 for a given lot.

Accessory buildings: any size for shared parking, storage, assembly or recreation; one of up to 10 m² per home in its rear or side yard; none nearer an internal road than the home's wall, nor in a yard beside a City street (s. 9.3.7).

Rooming houses hold up to eight sleeping or housekeeping rooms and don't serve travellers (s. 2.2).

Short-term rental (stays under 30 days) or boarders are allowed only with a house, a house with a residential suite or a duplex, not in apartments, townhouses or row houses: the home must be the registered owner's principal residence (s. 2.2); one booking at a time on the property and in each home; residents, boarders and guests together stay within one household (a family alone; otherwise five people at most, or a family of more than three with at most two boarders or guests); never combined with a home daycare or a licensed home care facility (s. 3.20).

Home-based businesses (s. 3.3): up to 50 m² or 20% of the home, whichever is less; at most two helpers from outside (one in multi-unit or small-scale multi-unit housing, none for a business clients come to); no clients on the lot except music, art or tutoring lessons for up to two students, or, on a lot with only one house or one duplex (or a manufactured home on its own lot), a listed set of services for one client at a time and nine visits a day, with an extra parking space and no residential suite on that lot; no vehicle repair or sales; a nameplate of 0.28 m² at most; closed 10 pm to 7 am.

Wherever the water main can't supply 67 L/s of fire flow, a lot holds at most 2 homes, and in the Rayleigh Waterworks District service area (Figure 16) at most 1 (s. 3.19).

Parking (Table 5): 0.75 spaces per studio and 1 per home with a bedroom, plus 15% for visitors; less in the reduced parking area (s. 4.7) and for rental, social or seniors housing under a housing agreement; no residential minimum on a lot in a transit-oriented area (s. 4.5.2).

No repair, sale or salvage of vehicles other than the residents' own (s. 3.8).

Fences and hedges up to 1.2 m in a required front or side-street yard and 2 m elsewhere; no barbed or razor wire (ss. 5.7, 5.8).

No permanent shipping containers; only during construction under a building permit or for up to 30 days of a move (s. 3.11).

Beside a provincial highway, buildings and structures stand at least 4.5 m from that lot line (3 m where a public lane gives secondary access); less needs the Ministry of Transportation's consent and a variance (s. 3.15).

Below the 200-year flood level, floors used for living, business or storing goods in multi-unit or small-scale multi-unit housing and in garden or carriage suites sit above that level (s. 3.16).

A lot registered before this bylaw that is smaller or narrower than the zone's minimum may still be developed to the zone's density (s. 2.1.1).

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 Kamloops' planning and development department before you buy or build.

Source: City of Kamloops Zoning Bylaw No. 55, 2021 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Kamloops.