C-1: Mixed Use Village Commercial

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Multiple family dwellings at up to 50 homes per hectare; in a building with businesses, homes take at most 25% of the first storey's floor area

Main uses

Assembly (churches, community and social halls and the like), convenience food and retail stores (up to 600 m² each), restaurants, cafes and neighbourhood pubs, farmers market, hotel, medical clinics, museum, professional offices, personal care and personal services, multiple family dwellings

Smallest lot for a subdivision

300 m²

Lot coverage

75%

Height limit

12 m

Setbacks

Front 0 m on a strata access route, 4.5 m on a road; rear 7.5 m; sides 0 m (3 m beside an access route, 4.5 m beside a road)

In a building with homes and businesses, the businesses stay on the first storey or in the basement (s. 4.07(4)).

Across the whole bylaw area, homes (not counting secondary suites) may not exceed 7.4 per hectare overall, whatever a zone allows (s. 1.01).

Outdoor storage is screened by a tight board fence or evergreen hedge of even height, with nothing stored above it (s. 1.16(3)).

Equipment outside or on a roof is screened from neighbours and streets, as are garbage areas.

While a home is being built or rebuilt under a building permit, one extra dwelling or an RV may be lived in on the lot, on sewage disposal the province has approved; it goes, or becomes an accessory building cut off from water and sewer, once the new home is occupied (an RV also when the permit expires) (s. 1.06).

An RV or park model trailer can't be used as a home (s. 1.05), and an RV may be placed and lived in only in a zone that allows campgrounds (RES-1) or while a home is being built (s. 1.20).

No vehicle wrecking or outdoor repair, and no derelict vehicles (s. 1.17).

The bylaw sets no fence height for this zone; no barbed wire or electric fencing (s. 1.16).

New lots also need at least 300 m² (the zone's minimum lot) of usable land: one contiguous piece averaging 15% slope or less, with no land slip, avalanche, rock fall, flooding or high water table hazard, and at an elevation of at least 750.11 m (ss. 2.02, 3.03).

Parking for multiple family homes (ss. 3.01, 3.02): 0.75 spaces per bachelor home, 1 per one-bedroom, 1.5 per two-bedroom and 2 per larger home, plus 0.15 visitor spaces per home in buildings of more than six; parking areas no steeper than 8%; for every three parking spaces, one golf-cart space.

A new lot needs both a community water system and a community sewer system, unless it is for a park, public utility, solid waste facility, parking lot or access route (s. 2.01(3), (4)). In a bare land strata, the zone's minimum lot size is the minimum average lot size (s. 2.01(A)).

Heights are measured from finished grade to halfway between the eaves and the ridge of the main roof (s. 3.03); chimneys, antennas, solar collectors, spires and the like are exempt (s. 1.12(2)).

Every zone also allows parks, public utilities, highways and strata access routes, heritage and archaeological sites, and conservation, recreation and ecological reserves (s. 1.04). Salvage yards and third-party advertising are banned everywhere, and intensive agriculture outside the ALR (s. 1.05). Buildings stay 22 m from a controlled access highway unless the lot is on a frontage road (s. 1.07).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the underside of the floor of any space for living, business or goods that flood water would damage sits above 751.0 m beside Lake Koocanusa, and 1.5 m above the high water mark of any other watercourse; such buildings stay upland of the 750.11 m contour of the reservoir; fill and supports stay 10 m from the lake's natural boundary (mapped on Schedule B1) and 15 m from other watercourses. Renovations, small additions, carports, garages and entrance foyers are among the exemptions (Schedule B2).

Basements are allowed only upland of the basement suitability line on Schedule B1, with the underside of the floor no lower than 751.0 m (Schedule B, s. 1.02(3)); the bylaw's definition of a basement also says none below the basement suitability elevation of 753.5 m (s. 3.03). How the two levels fit together is unclear, so ask the RDEK.

Geotechnical hazard (Schedule C, mapped on Schedule C1): on land rated Zone B, a subdivision or building permit needs a qualified professional's report that the land is safe for the use; on Zone C, no habitable buildings.

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: SweetWater Zoning & Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2127, 2009 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.