RR-8: Rural Residential (Country)

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house (with a secondary suite) or one duplex, and farm-hand dwellings; a dwelling for a relative needing care is possible

Main uses

House or duplex; farming, processing and hauling gravel dug on the lot, forestry, portable sawmill, equestrian centre; veterinary clinic, kennel, home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

8 ha

Lot coverage

10% (75% for greenhouses with closed waste and storm water systems)

Height limit

House 10 m, accessory buildings 12 m

Setbacks

House 7.5 m from every lot line. Accessory buildings: front 7.5 m, rear and sides 5 m

All dwellings stay within one contiguous area of the lot of at most 2 ha.

Portable sawmills need a lot of 8 ha or more and stay 100 m from lot lines and from neighbours' homes; at most 50 m³ a day, sawdust piles under 10 m, and a 15 m fire guard.

A farm-hand dwelling (s. 1.26) is a manufactured home up to 9 m wide on a non-permanent foundation, on land assessed as farm: one where the farm's holdings are 8 ha or less, two where they are larger.

Farm buildings (s. 1.20): dairy, livestock, fur and poultry buildings 15 m from lot lines (confined livestock areas 30 m) and 30 m from a well or spring; mushroom barns 7.5 m and other farm buildings 4.5 m; manure storage 30 m from wells and springs and 15 m from lakes and streams. Farm buildings have no height limit, except under the Cranbrook Airport's approach and outer surfaces, where the airport zoning regulations govern (s. 1.11(4)).

Kennel buildings and runs stay 60 m from every lot line (s. 1.10).

Secondary suite (s. 1.21): one per lot, in a house that isn't a manufactured home (a building with a suite isn't a duplex), at most 49% of the house's habitable floor space, built to the BC Building Code, on approved sewage disposal and never strata-titled. Or above the first storey of a detached garage, with its own outside door: 70 m² on lots under 0.4 ha, 90 m² on 0.4 ha or more; the garage up to 7.5 m tall, 7.5 m from the front and 3 m from the rear and sides (4.5 m beside a road), and not on a lot with a duplex, a farm-hand dwelling or a dwelling for a relative needing care.

A dwelling for a relative who needs care (s. 1.14): one manufactured home up to 9 m wide on a non-permanent foundation, under a housing agreement to remove it later, with a doctor's letter if asked and a $3,000 deposit.

Home based business (s. 1.08): run by people living in the home with at most two outside employees, selling only what is made, grown or assembled on the lot (up to 10 m² of display). On lots under 2 ha it stays inside the house or an accessory building, up to 185 m², with at most five customers at a time; on 2 ha or more it can use 1% of the lot up to 400 m² (185 m² inside the ALR), with its buildings and outdoor storage 10 m from lot lines. Child care for up to seven children.

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. 1.08). Ask the RDEK before renting a home short term.

No accessory building goes up before the house, except farm buildings (s. 1.09).

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 approved sewage disposal; it goes, or becomes an accessory building, once the new house is occupied (s. 1.05).

An RV or park model trailer can't be used as a home (s. 1.04). At most two RVs on a lot, sited like an accessory building (s. 1.19).

No vehicle wrecking or repair outdoors, and at most one derelict vehicle, kept out of the front yard (s. 1.17).

New lots also need 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. 2.02, 3.03).

Outside the ALR, a lot of at least 4 ha can be split once into two smaller lots to give a relative a home (s. 2.05, which cites the old s. 946 of the Local Government Act, now s. 514).

Heights are measured from finished grade to halfway between the eaves and the ridge; a flat roof to its top (ss. 3.02(6), 1.11(6)).

Every zone also allows parks, public utilities, highways and railways, surface parking, heritage sites and conservation areas (s. 1.03). Buildings stay 22 m from a controlled access highway unless the lot is on a frontage road (s. 1.06).

Inside the ALR, farm uses and those the Agricultural Land Commission approves are permitted, as is cannabis production under the ALR Use Regulation; the Commission's rules also apply to suites, farm-hand dwellings and dwellings for a relative needing care (ss. 1.14, 1.20 to 1.22, 1.26).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the floor of any living or business space sits at least 3 m above the high water mark of the St. Mary River and Perry Creek and 1.5 m above any other stream, lake, marsh or pond (in a Special Policy Area, such as an alluvial fan, the highest of 1 m above the ground, 0.6 m above anything that could pond water, or an engineer's level); fill and supports stay 30 m from the St. Mary River and Perry Creek, 15 m from other streams and 7.5 m from any lake, marsh or pond.

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: Wycliffe Zoning & Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2256, 2010 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.