R1: Suburban Residential

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

At most 4 homes on a lot: a house or a plex home (a duplex, triplex or fourplex), with secondary suites (one per home in a plex home), a garden suite or a carriage home, all counted toward the 4; 6 within 400 m of a frequent bus stop. Inside a Transit-Oriented Area, no plex home: one house and one secondary suite, garden suite or carriage home

Exceptions (1)

• 6 homes, and a split into at most 2 lots of 3 homes each, on two lots the bylaw names by address

Listed in s. 2.4(n) of the bylaw.

Main uses

A house, a plex home (not inside a Transit-Oriented Area), a private care facility (a refuge for up to 10 women and children leaving abuse); a secondary suite, a garden suite, a carriage home, home occupations (a bed and breakfast counts as one, and a child care centre may, on conditions)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

557 m², 16 m of frontage (the frontage at least a tenth of the lot's perimeter, s. 2.3(g))

Lot coverage

36% (s. 5, R1 zone); a garden suite or carriage home at most 100 m² of ground floor, within that limit; accessory buildings at most 60 m² of floor area in all (s. 2.4(d))

Height limit

Main building 9.0 m (9.8 m with a sloped roof, for a three-storey building only), measured to midway between eave and ridge on a sloped roof; carriage home 6.8 m and 2 storeys; garden suite 4.6 m and 1 storey; accessory buildings 4.6 m

Setbacks

Main building: front 6.0 m, rear 6.0 m, sides 1.5 m (6 m for a second main building behind the first, or where the side yard is the home's private open space), street side 3.0 m. Garden suite: front 6.0 m, rear and sides 1.5 m, street side 3.0 m. Carriage home: front 6.0 m, rear and sides 4.5 m (3.0 m if its upper storey has only high clerestory windows toward them), street side 3.0 m. Accessory buildings: front 6.0 m, rear and sides 1.5 m, street side 3.0 m. Balconies 6.0 m from every lot line. Garden suites, carriage homes and accessory buildings no nearer the front than the main building and at least 1.0 m from it

Main buildings on one lot stand 6 m apart where they're one behind the other from the street, 2.4 m where side by side; a garden suite or carriage home stands 1.2 m to 4.5 m from the main building, or as the BC Building Code requires (s. 5, R1 zone).

A third storey is at most 50 m² for each home on it, or 80% of the ground floor where it steps back 1.2 m from the front or a side, whichever is more. No rooftop patios. Each home has private open space at least 6 m deep (s. 5, R1 zone).

A secondary suite: the owner lives on the lot; at most 100 m² and 40% of the building it's in; built to the BC Building Code, inspected under a building permit and entered in the City's suite registry (ss. 1.3, 2.4(c)). The zone's own rule points to a section numbered as in an older bylaw; we read s. 2.4(c) as the one meant (our reading).

A garden suite (one storey, at most 4.6 m) or carriage home (up to two storeys, at most 6.8 m) is a separate home behind the main building, and the owner lives on the lot (ss. 1.3, 2.4(d)).

Parking (s. 3.7): for R1 homes, 1.5 spaces for a home over 100 m², 1 for a smaller one, none within 400 m of a frequent bus stop. The same table also asks 2 spaces for a house, and s. 2.4(c) asks one space for a suite on top of a house's two, so the count for a house is unclear: ask the City.

Home occupations (s. 2.4(b)): run by people who live in the home with at most one employee from elsewhere, no sign of them outside but a name plate up to 0.2 m², no nuisance. A child care centre only on a lot without a suite, garden suite or carriage home and not in a plex home, and then no other home occupation.

Whether a lot is inside a Transit-Oriented Area (Langley City Centre or Willowbrook SkyTrain stations, the Langley Centre bus exchange; s. 2.5) or within 400 m of a frequent bus stop decides how many homes it may have. We don't read those maps: ask the City.

Short-term rental isn't a listed use in this zone, and uses the zone doesn't list aren't allowed (s. 1.4.7). A bed and breakfast (a room and a morning meal for stays up to 30 days) counts as a home occupation (s. 1.3), which R1 allows; the R2 zone names it as excluded and R1 doesn't, so we read it as allowed here (our reading). Ask the City before renting a home by the night.

Watercourse setbacks of 30, 15 or 5 m by the stream's class on Schedule B apply unless a qualified environmental professional sets others (s. 2.3(f)); development permits may be needed under the Official Community Plan.

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 Langley's development services department before you buy or build.

Source: the R1 zone (Section 5) of City of Langley Zoning Bylaw, 2025, No. 3300 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-04); zone map: Open Government Licence – City of Langley.