RM4: Multi-Unit 4 – Medium-High Density

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Multi-unit housing and row houses, up to 125 homes per hectare (160 with the density bonus) and a floor area ratio of 1.5 (1.9 with the bonus); no cap per hectare in a transit-oriented area; also a house, house with a residential suite or duplex under R2's rules; rooming houses

Main uses

Multi-unit housing, row houses, commercial conversions (offices and personal services), rooming house, house, house with a residential suite, duplex; 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, 23 m wide; row houses 557 m², 18 m wide (19.5 m on a corner)

Lot coverage

60% 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 4.5 m; sides 4.5 m (1.5 m for row houses of up to 2 storeys, 0 m at a fee simple party wall); rear 4.5 m (accessory buildings over 10 m², 1 m, or 1.5 m beside a lane)

Floor area ratio 1.5, 1.9 with the density bonus (s. 9.4.5).

Where the floor area ratios of 3.5 (within 200 m of a transit exchange) and 2.5 (201 to 400 m) apply: the table prints them under the density bonus row with no transit-oriented area heading, unlike the zone's height rows and the other RM zones, so whether they need the bonus or only a transit-oriented area location is unclear; ask the City of Kamloops.

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. 9.4.9) 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.

Commercial conversion (ss. 9.4.8, 3.7): an existing house can hold offices or personal services, with homes inside it, keeping to R2's height, setbacks and coverage, with parking reached from the rear, none in the front yard and no more than 30% of the lot paved for it, additions of at most 50% of the floor area, and the commercial development permit guidelines.

Commercial conversions are barred in the Downtown Plan area except on 14 listed lots on St. Paul Street, Battle Street and 6th Avenue (s. 9.4.8(b)), unless the building also holds homes.

Site-specific (ss. 9.4.3, 9.4.6): daycares at 677 and 622 St. Paul Street; personal and professional services at 666 St. Paul Street; a 110-seat restaurant at 1250 Trans Canada Highway West; fixed densities in 20 clauses, from 8 homes at 868 and 876 St. Paul Street and 565 and 585 8th Avenue up to 301 homes at 821 McGill Road (with 415 per hectare and a floor area ratio of 2.56 on 0.2 ha of it) and 290 homes at 1415 Summit Drive; check s. 9.4.6 for a given lot.

Accessory buildings: any size for shared parking, storage, assembly or recreation; on bare land strata and fee simple row house lots in the rear yard; none in a yard beside a street (s. 9.4.7).

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.