RM2: Low Density Multiple Housing

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Apartments, townhouses and cluster housing up to 1.0 FAR; congregate housing; secondary suites

Main uses

Apartments, townhouses, cluster housing, congregate housing, major day care; secondary suite, minor home occupation, short-term rental

Smallest lot for a subdivision

540 m², 18 m wide (19.5 m on a corner)

Lot coverage

50%

Height limit

Main buildings 12 m (3 storeys per the zone's purpose); accessory buildings 4.5 m

Setbacks

Front 3 m (9 m on Lakeshore Drive West); interior sides 1.5 m (accessory buildings 1.2 m); exterior side 4.5 m (accessory buildings 1.2 m); rear 6 m

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).

A home facing the back of the lot gets a 1.2 m clear path from the front (s. 10.4.3).

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. 10.4.3.2).

Amenity space: 10 m² per home, a quarter of it at ground level, and at most a fifth of it indoors (s. 10.4.4).

Lower density caps on three lots (s. 10.4.5): 0.92 FAR at 2922 Wilson Street (Lot 2, DL 116, Plan 9696), 0.85 FAR at 476 Lakeshore Drive West (Lot 1, DL 4, Plan 2689) and 0.94 FAR at 680 Westminster Avenue West (Lot 2, DL 2, Plan 3520). As printed they sit below the zone's own 1.0 FAR, set by Bylaw 2026-21.

At 337 Hastings Avenue (Lot 24, Plan 932): lot width 14.6 m, 0.90 FAR, 48% coverage, 7 m height, interior side 1.6 m, one visitor space waived (s. 10.4.5).

At most 4 homes at 452 Lakeshore Drive West (Lot 1, DL 4, Plan 2444) and 533 Forestbrook Drive (Lot 3, DLs 202 and 249, Plan 3350) (s. 10.4.5).

At 850 Wiltse Boulevard and 160 Crow Place (by the Hawthorn Drive cul-de-sac) no apartments, and main buildings up to 3 storeys (s. 10.4.5).

Site-specific uses (s. 10.4.5): at 1050 Churchill Avenue (Lot A, DL 3, Plan KAP74500) a bed and breakfast and an emergency shelter; at 396 Lakeshore Drive West (Lot 1, DL 4, Plan 26701) a bed and breakfast; at 633 Winnipeg Street (Lot 6, DL 202, Plan 804) licensed congregate housing for up to 12 residents; at 125 Eckhardt Avenue East (Lot 10, Block 32, DL 202, Plan 269) assembly and offices; at 765, 769, 777 and 781 Ontario Street (Strata Plans EPS5000, EPS4999, EPS5614 and EPS5613) two homes with access from the street.

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).

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).

Parking (Table 6.6): 1 space per house or duplex unit; 1 per apartment, townhouse or cluster home plus 0.2 for visitors; none for a secondary suite or carriage house; 0.5 per non-market home.

Parking may be paid for in cash instead, but not below one space per home (s. 6.1.2).

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).

Landscape buffers, for commercial uses and for housing of 5 or more homes: 3 m wide beside R4-L and R4-S lots and along highways other than lanes, with a visual screen at least 1.2 m high beside residential zones (Table 5.1); waste bins screened (s. 4.10).

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

One recreational vehicle may be parked outside per home, more only inside a building, and no vehicle over 5,600 kg unless it is enclosed (s. 6.1.1).

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

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.