RR-4: Rural Residential (Hobby Farm)

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house (with a secondary suite) or one duplex; a dwelling for a relative needing care is possible

Main uses

House or duplex; farming (no mink farms; up to 2 animal units of livestock and half a unit of poultry per hectare), veterinary clinic, kennel, home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

4 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.

The zone lists no farm-hand dwelling.

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; buildings with boilers or fan walls 15 m; other farm buildings 4.5 m. Livestock and poultry barns, stables, milking buildings, mushroom barns and confined livestock areas stay 15 m from a lake or stream (30 m for confined livestock areas of more than 10 animal units), and manure storage 30 m from wells and springs and 15 m from lakes and streams. Farm buildings have no height limit (s. 1.11(4)).

Kennel buildings and runs stay 60 m from every lot line (s. 1.10(2)).

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, another accessory dwelling, 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 once it's no longer needed, with a doctor's letter and a statutory declaration if asked and a $3,000 deposit.

Home based business (ss. 1.8, 3.3; offices, health and personal services, trades, crafts and teaching, computer services, bed and breakfast): run by the family living on the lot with at most two helpers from elsewhere, inside the house 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 and store outdoors, just not in 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; buildings for it up to 185 m² inside the ALR.

A home based business sign is unlit and at most 1 m² (s. 1.13).

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, not a duplex, breakfast for those guests only) is allowed as a home based business (ss. 1.8, 3.3). 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 an approved septic system; it goes, or becomes an accessory building, once the new house is occupied (s. 1.5).

An RV or park model trailer can't be used as a home (s. 1.4). Up to two RVs may be stored or used seasonally 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).

Fences up to 2 m, higher where needed to hold livestock or keep out wildlife (s. 1.15).

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, and above 750.11 m in elevation (ss. 2.2, 3.3).

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. 2.5, 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; the walls under a single-pitch roof may reach 1.5 m above the limit (ss. 3.2(6), 1.11(6)).

Every zone also allows parks, public utilities, highways and railways, surface parking, heritage sites and conservation areas (s. 1.3). Buildings stay 22 m from a controlled access highway unless the lot is on a frontage road (s. 1.6).

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, 1.21, 1.25, 1.27).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the floor of any living or business space sits above 751 m beside Lake Koocanusa, and 1.5 m above the high water mark of 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); no basement floor below 751 m; buildings with living space or goods that flood water would damage stay upland of the 750.11 m contour of the reservoir; fill and supports stay 15 m from 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: South Country Zoning & Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2320, 2011 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.