RS-1: Single Family Residential

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house (with a secondary suite) or one duplex

Main uses

House or duplex; beekeeping and horticulture, small farm animals (rabbits up to one animal unit, up to 15 ducks, chickens and similar poultry, no geese, turkeys or ratites; s. 5.27(2)), home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

0.3 ha

Lot coverage

25% with a house, 35% with a duplex

Height limit

Main building 9 m, accessory buildings 6 m

Setbacks

Main building: front 7.5 m, rear 2 m, sides 2.1 m (4.5 m beside a road). Accessory buildings: front 7.5 m, rear and sides 1 m (4.5 m beside a road)

Secondary suite (s. 5.22): one per lot, inside a house only (not in a duplex or a manufactured home), at most 90 m² or 40% of the house's living space, built to the BC Building Code, on approved sewage disposal and never strata-titled.

Fences up to 1.5 m in the front yard and 2 m elsewhere (s. 5.14).

Home based business (ss. 3.03, 5.08; it may be a preschool, child care or a bed and breakfast, never a sawmill, campground, RV park, salvage yard or storage for others): run by people living in the home with at most two helpers from elsewhere. On lots under 2 ha it stays inside the house or an accessory building, with no outdoor storage or other outside sign of it bar two vehicles and its sign, at most 150 m² of buildings and five customers or students at a time (seven children for child care). On lots of 2 ha or more, outdoor storage and its vehicles stay out of the front and flanking side yards, its buildings and storage stay 10 m from lot lines, and it uses at most 1% of the lot or 400 m², whichever is less (150 m² inside the ALR). One heavy commercial vehicle at most; it sells only what is made on the lot or goes with its service, from at most 10 m² of display.

The bylaw doesn't list vacation or short-term rental as a use; a bed and breakfast (up to four guest rooms in a house, breakfast for those guests only) is allowed as a home based business (s. 5.08(8)). Temporary Use Permits are considered anywhere in the bylaw's area (s. 4.03(A)). Where zoning doesn't allow commercial accommodation, the RDEK's route to a short-term rental is a Temporary Use Permit, which it issues in Electoral Areas A, B, C, E, F and G: one per dwelling unit (never a cabin, RV, park model trailer, tent or yurt), at most 10 guests on a lot, with extra parking for guests, valid for up to three years and renewable once (the RDEK's short-term rental page, checked October 3, 2026). Ask the RDEK before renting a home short term.

While a house is being built or rebuilt under a building permit, one extra dwelling or an RV may be lived in on the lot, on a septic system the health authority approved; it goes, or becomes an accessory building, once the new house is occupied (s. 5.05).

Up to two RVs on a lot, sited like an accessory building (s. 5.18).

No vehicle wrecking or repair, and at most one derelict vehicle, kept out of the front yard (s. 5.16).

One kitchen per dwelling unit (s. 5.23).

Before the house (or other main building) is built, accessory buildings total at most 66 m² (the designation's table).

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).

On an existing lot under 0.3 ha, a building permit for a home needs a septic permit first (s. 5.02(2)).

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 8.03 of Jaffray, Tie Lake, Rosen Lake Land Use and Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 1414, 1999 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-07); Short-Term Rentals and STR Temporary Use Permits, Regional District of East Kootenay (checked 2026-10-03); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.