C5: Urban Centre Commercial

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Homes on the second storey or higher, up to 6.0 FAR on the lot

Main uses

Downtown core: shops, grocery and convenience stores, restaurants, liquor primary premises, cannabis store, craft brewery or distillery, offices, financial, health and personal services, high-tech and business support services, artisan crafts, government service, tourist accommodation, assembly, auctions, commercial school, custom indoor manufacturing, indoor amusement and recreation, animal clinic and day care, bakery, funeral service, household repair, on-site beer and wine making, community garden, outdoor market, public parking, major day care, homes above the ground floor; bed and breakfast, minor home occupation, short-term rental

Smallest lot for a subdivision

275 m², 9 m wide

Lot coverage

100%

Height limit

36.6 m; 15 m on the 100 to 300 blocks of Main Street and on Front Street

Setbacks

0 m from every lot line

Floor area ratio (FAR) is net floor area divided by lot area (s. 3.2); land given up for a road still counts in it and in coverage (s. 4.6.4).

No parking or loading spaces are required for any use, homes included (Table 6.6).

Cornices, balconies and trim may reach 0.4 m out and canopies 1.5 m, at 2.8 m above a sidewalk or street and 4.5 m above a lane (s. 11.5.3).

Whether a bed and breakfast can operate here: the zone lists it, but s. 7.2.1 allows one only in a single detached house, which the zone doesn't list, so this is unclear; ask the City of Penticton.

Ground-floor homes allowed by site-specific clause (s. 11.5.4): 285 Nanaimo Avenue West (Lot 1, DL 4, Plan EPP57755); 532/536 Main Street (Lot 5, Block 19, DL 202, Plan 269), behind the shops; 456 Main Street (Lot 9, Block 15, DL 202, Plan 269), one home behind the shop; 461 Martin Street (Lot B, DL 4, Plan 574), up to two homes; 333 Martin Street (Lots 1 to 11, Block A, DL 4, and Lot A, Plan KAP49367), congregate housing above and, in the areas shown in Bylaw 2003-67, on the ground floor.

Other site-specific uses (s. 11.5.4): an emergency shelter at 123 Nanaimo Avenue East (Lot 1, Plan KAP56198); a craft brewery or distillery at 260 and 270 Martin Street (Lots A and B, Plan EPP106220) and, with a cidery, at 249 and 285 Westminster Avenue West (Lots 1 and 2, DL 4, Plan EPP99696); a winery at 361 Martin Street (Lot 1, DL 4, Plan EPP63826); self-storage up to 505 m² at 352 Winnipeg Street (Lot A, DL 4, Plan KAP49367). At 56 Forbes Street (Veterans Way; Lot B, Plan 36574) building parts more than 3 m above grade stand 6 m from the north lot line.

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).

Minor home occupations (s. 7.3): in the home, a suite, carriage house or accessory building; residents only; up to 25% of the home's floor area and 20 m²; one client visit and one commercial vehicle visit (8 am to 6 pm) a day; no outdoor storage or work; no vehicle repair, welding, cabinet making, manufacturing and similar uses.

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).

No drive-through (s. 4.11.3).

Metal storage containers only during construction under a building permit (s. 4.8.4).

Transit-oriented areas (Schedules C to E, around the bus exchanges at Penticton Plaza, Peachtree Square and Cherry Lane Mall; Area 1 within 200 m, Area 2 200 to 400 m, s. 3.2): residential buildings, and mixed-use ones at least half residential, need no parking for homes and may reach 6 storeys and 2.5 FAR in Area 1 or 4 storeys and 1.5 FAR in Area 2, or the zone's own figures where higher (s. 4.16).

Accessory buildings go up only with or after the main building, stand behind its front face (those of 10 m² or less anywhere behind it), and can't be lived in except as a carriage house where allowed (ss. 4.2.1 to 4.2.4).

Fences and walls up to 1.2 m, or 1.8 m behind the front yard setback and in side and rear yards, or 2.4 m beside a controlled-access highway; nothing over 1.2 m in a corner visibility triangle; no barbed, electric or razor wire (ss. 4.3, 5.4.1). Retaining walls 1.2 m in required yards, 2.4 m elsewhere (s. 5.4.2).

Waste and recycling bins screened from neighbours and streets (s. 4.10); the C5 zone is left out of the landscape buffer table (Table 5.1).

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).

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.