R-3: Multiple Family Residential – Medium Density

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Multiple family dwellings (three or more homes in a building) at up to 62 homes per hectare, or a duplex

Main uses

Multiple family dwellings, duplexes; home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

1,000 m²

Lot coverage

60%

Height limit

Main buildings 12 m, accessory buildings 5 m

Setbacks

Main buildings: front 3 m on a strata access route, 4.5 m on a road; rear 7.5 m; sides 3 m (4.5 m beside a road). Accessory buildings: front 6 m, rear 3 m, sides 1.5 m (4.5 m beside a road)

The zone doesn't list a single family house or a secondary suite; duplexes were added in June 2026 (Bylaw 3457). A duplex needs two parking spaces per home (s. 3.02(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).

Home based business (ss. 1.09, 3.03; offices, health and social services including child care for up to eight children, personal care, business services, arts, crafts and teaching, trades, computer services, bed and breakfast): run by the family living on the lot with at most two helpers from elsewhere, inside the home or an accessory building with no outdoor storage or other outside sign of it, except on lots of 2 ha or more, where it may work outside the front yard. It sells only what is made on the lot, or items that go with its service; at most five students at a time; no business sign (s. 1.14).

Dwellings for a relative needing care aren't allowed anywhere in the bylaw area (s. 1.15).

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).

Fences and screens up to 1 m; no barbed wire or electric fencing (s. 1.16).

No outdoor storage (allowed only in the C-1 and M-2 zones; s. 1.16(4)).

No accessory building goes up before the main building (s. 1.10).

New lots also need at least 475 m² 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).

The bylaw doesn't list vacation or short-term rental as a use, and a bed and breakfast is a home based business only in a single family house, which this zone doesn't list (s. 3.03). Ask the RDEK before renting a home short term.

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.