RS-4: Residential (Acreage)

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; beekeeping and horticulture, small farm animals (up to 40 rabbits and 15 poultry, no geese, turkeys or ratites; s. 1.24), home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

0.4 ha

Lot coverage

30%

Height limit

Main building 9 m, accessory buildings 5 m

Setbacks

House: front and rear 7.5 m, sides 2 m (4.5 m beside a road). Accessory buildings: front 7.5 m, rear 2 m (3 m on a lane), sides 2 m (4.5 m beside a road)

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.

Fences up to 2 m (s. 1.15).

A home based business sign is unlit and at most 0.5 m² (s. 1.13).

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.

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).

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).

On an existing lot under 1,670 m², a building permit for a home needs a septic permit first (s. 1.2).

No accessory building goes up before the house, except farm buildings (s. 1.9).

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.