C-2: General Commercial

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One accessory dwelling and up to two apartments built into the main building (above the first storey or behind the business, own outside door, at most 90 m² each; s. 8.10(4))

Main uses

Everything C-1 allows; veterinary clinic, feed and tack store, gunsmith, motel or hotel, greenhouse and nursery; light industry (signs, clothing, contractors, machinery and equipment rental and repair, machine and welding shops, secondary wood processing, storage and mini-storage, cardlock fuel, small engine repair); gravel processing and hauling (with a cement, concrete or asphalt plant on the side); campground

Smallest lot for a subdivision

0.6 ha

Lot coverage

50%

Height limit

15 m

Setbacks

Front 7.5 m; rear 15 m beside a residential or institutional designation or a lot with a home (4.5 m otherwise); sides 4.5 m; gravel work 60 m from neighbours' homes

Display, rental and sales areas have a dust-free surface.

Campgrounds follow the RDEK's Campground Bylaw No. 2403, which also lists what may go with them; north of Highway 3/93 they take no cottages or park model trailers (s. 5.15).

Outdoor storage is screened by a solid board fence or evergreen hedge at least 2 m tall on every side not facing a building on the lot, and a fence at least 2 m tall goes along a lot line next to a residential or institutional designation or a lot with a home (s. 5.14).

The accessory dwelling is as tall as the designation allows when built into the main building, otherwise at most 5 m as a manufactured home and 10 m as another detached home (s. 5.10(3)).

One kitchen per dwelling unit (s. 5.23).

Every lot needs at least 1,670 m² of usable land: one piece averaging 15% slope or less, with no land slip, avalanche, rock fall, flooding or high water table hazard (ss. 3.03, 6.01(2)). New bare land strata lots average at least the designation's lot size (s. 6.03).

Heights are measured from finished grade to halfway between the eaves and the ridge; a flat roof to its top; the walls under a single-pitch roof may reach 1.5 m above the limit (ss. 3.02(5), 5.10(6)).

Every designation also allows parks, public utilities, highways and railways, conservation areas and ecological reserves (s. 5.03). Buildings stay 22 m from a controlled access highway unless the lot is on a frontage road (s. 5.06).

Inside the ALR, farm uses and those the Agricultural Land Commission approves are permitted, as is cannabis production under the ALR Use Regulation (its buildings 15 m from the front and inner sides, 30 m from the rear and a side beside a road, no height limit); intensive agriculture is barred except on land in the ALR (ss. 5.04, 5.09(6), 5.10(5), 5.19, 5.21). The Commission's rules also apply to suites, farm-hand dwellings and dwellings for a relative needing care.

Floodplain (s. 5.17, Appendix A): the underside of the floor (or the pad) of any living or business space, or storage of goods that flood water would damage, manufactured homes included, sits above the flood construction level: 3.0 m above the high water mark of Sand Creek, 1.5 m above any other stream, lake, marsh or pond, the higher where two apply. Floodplain setbacks are 15 m from Sand Creek, Little Sand Creek and other streams and 7.5 m from a lake, marsh, pond or dyke, and fill holding up a floor stays out of them. Small additions, garages and carports, most farm buildings and some farm homes on 8.1 ha or more in the ALR are exempt, and the RDEK can relax a level or setback for one site on application; it may ask for a surveyor's certificate.

Four named lots have their own rules (s. 5.28): one may also be used for storage and mini-storage, two have smaller lot sizes (0.125 ha and 1,500 m²), and one may have a suite of up to 135 m² above the first storey of a detached garage.

Bylaw No. 1414 is a land use bylaw: it sets plan policies and zoning together, and calls its zones land use designations (s. 8.01).

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 RDEK's planning department before you buy or build.

Source: Section 8.10 of Jaffray, Tie Lake, Rosen Lake Land Use and Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 1414, 1999 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-07); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.