A: Agriculture

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house, plus either a secondary suite or one carriage house; one farm-help home on a lot of 2 ha or more; a temporary second house while the first is replaced

Main uses

Farming, forestry, cannabis production, kennels and stables, indoor animal day care and grooming, one house; bed and breakfast, carriage house, secondary suite, farm-help home, rural home occupation, short-term rental

Smallest lot for a subdivision

2 ha; width at least 20% of the lot's depth

Lot coverage

10% for homes and their buildings; 35% with farm buildings; 75% with greenhouses that have closed wastewater and stormwater systems and recirculating irrigation

Height limit

Main building 12 m; accessory buildings 13 m; farm buildings 16 m

Setbacks

Front 9 m, interior side 4.5 m, exterior side 9 m, rear 9 m. Farm buildings and uses 15 m from watercourses and wells on or off the lot; intensive farming 30 m from lot lines and watercourses and 60 m from the urban area boundary; composting and farm waste storage 30 m from all three; buildings with exhaust fans 15 m from lot lines (s. 9.2.3)

Residential accessory buildings together cover at most 200 m² (s. 9.2.2).

Farm garden stand up to 150 m², farm retail area 300 m², and a winery or cidery's food and drink area 125 m² indoors and 125 m² outdoors (s. 9.2.4).

A temporary second house may go up on a lot of 0.4 ha or more once the owner registers a covenant to demolish, move or make the old house uninhabitable (s. 9.2.5).

Only the residents' own RVs may be stored on the lot (s. 9.2.5).

An existing lot under 0.4 ha uses the RC zone's coverage, setbacks and height (s. 9.2.5).

An ALR subdivision the Agricultural Land Commission approves that adds no parcel, or only one more, is exempt from the 2 ha minimum (s. 9.2.5).

On lots in the Transitional Neighbourhood Overlay on the zoning map (Schedule B), the owner may develop under this zone's rules or the R4-S zone's, but not mix the two on one lot (s. 9.2.5.7).

Site-specific uses (s. 9.2.6): at 4560 Valleyview Road (Lot 1, Plan 29729, DL 190) a farm inn of up to 4 rooms; at 1379 Riddle Road (Lot 1, DL 369, Plan 22517) a vacation cottage of up to 82 m² for short-term rental; at 1175 Chapman Road (Lot 104A, DLs 199, 205 and 672, Plan 307, except Plan B487, Parcel B on Plan A203) a house let to travellers in up to 4 suites without kitchens, breakfast included; at 4650 Lakeside Road (part of the remainder of DL 196, hatched in Figure 14) a public parking lot that needn't be paved, lit or drained.

Agri-tourism accommodation (short stays on land classed as farm, up to 10 sleeping units, s. 3.2) is allowed at 1056 Corbishley Avenue (Lot 148, DL 187, Plan 450), 1291 Corbishley Avenue (Lot 128, DL 204, Plan 450), 3550 Valleyview Road (Lot 206, DL 587, Plan 466), 856 Carder Road (Lot B, DL 187, Plan 38091; up to 6 units), 3810 Valleyview Road (Lot 2, DL 587, Plan 15877 except Plans 20013 and 20826; up to 3 units) and 510 Naramata Road (Lot 4, DL 204, Plan 16456; one, in a carriage house) (s. 9.2.6).

At 468 Lower Bench Road (Lot 3, DL 187, Plan 23377): an extra short-term rental suite, and a 20-suite hotel with an operator's home, with 35% coverage for all buildings (s. 9.2.6).

At 398 Upper Bench Road South (Lot 6, DL 155, Plan 306 except Plan 21731): a landscaping contractor business, its heavy machinery kept to 5% of the property and screened from the road and neighbours, plus a carriage house and a bed and breakfast (s. 9.2.6).

At 948 Naramata Road (Parcel B, Plan B1152, Block C, DL 204, Plan 305 except part on Plan 35371): a craft brewery or distillery (s. 9.2.6).

Secondary suites (s. 8.1): one per home, inside it with its own door to the outside; needs a community sewer connection unless the lot is at least 830 m² and meets the provincial sewerage rules; never titled or strata-lotted apart from the home; 5 m² of private outdoor space; no parking space required (Table 6.6).

Carriage houses here (s. 8.2): one per property and not together with a secondary suite in the house; only with or after the house; on a lot without municipal sewer the lot must be at least 1 ha (s. 8.2.3); footprint up to 150 m² or 15% of the lot, whichever is less, and floor area up to 150 m²; 7 m and two storeys tall; anywhere on the lot, with the house's setbacks except 1.5 m at the rear; 5 m² of outdoor space and a 1.2 m hard-surfaced path to the street; never titled or strata-lotted apart; side windows within 1.5 m of a neighbour are opaque.

Bed and breakfast (s. 7.2): only in a single detached house, with the licensed operator living there; up to four guest rooms of two guests each; the house keeps its residential look; one guest room counts as a minor home occupation. Parking: one space per guest room up to three, plus one for the home (Table 6.6).

Rural home occupations (s. 7.5): as major ones, but up to 100 m² of home and accessory building together, two employees from outside and six clients at a time; with more than one home, each may have one within those combined limits.

Short-term rental is a permitted use. The bylaw counts any stay of 90 days or less as short-term (s. 3.2), and requires a City business licence; only the property's principal resident may rent it out; at most two guests per bedroom and eight in all; no alterations that change the home's residential look; on a lot with a house and a secondary suite or carriage house, only one of the homes may be rented this way (ss. 3.2, 7.6).

One metal storage container per lot (s. 4.8.4).

Accessory buildings go up only with or after the main building and can't be lived in except as a carriage house; in this zone, unlike others, they may stand in front of the house (ss. 4.2.1 to 4.2.4).

Fences up to 2.4 m (agricultural and industrial zones); barbed and electric wire allowed, razor wire not; nothing over 1.2 m in a corner visibility triangle (ss. 4.3, 5.4.1).

Living in an RV on a lot is limited to 10 days in any 30 (s. 4.8.2).

No development within 30 m of a watercourse, or the smaller distance a Qualified Environmental Professional sets under the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation and the official community plan's development permit areas (s. 4.14).

No building inside an existing or future collector or arterial road right-of-way shown in the official community plan; setbacks from those roads are measured from the future road line (s. 4.6).

Nothing, cranes included, may rise above the Horizontal Surface of the federal Penticton Airport Zoning Regulations without federal approval (s. 4.5).

On land in the Agricultural Land Reserve, the Agricultural Land Commission Act and its regulations come first and generally restrict non-farm uses and subdivision (s. 4.13).

Every zone also allows public parks, utility services, urban agriculture, cultural exhibits and a minor day care (up to 8 children) (s. 4.12).

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 Penticton's planning department before you buy or build.

Source: City of Penticton Zoning Bylaw No. 2024-22 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – City of Penticton.