R-1: Residential

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house (with a secondary suite) or one duplex (a duplex needs a lot of 2,140 m²)

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

1,670 m² for a house, 2,140 m² for a duplex

Lot coverage

30%

Height limit

Main building 9 m, accessory buildings 5 m

Setbacks

House: front 7.5 m, rear 1.5 m, sides 1.2 m (4.5 m beside a road). Accessory buildings: front 7.5 m (2.5 m for a garage or carport where the slope leaves no other place), rear and sides 1 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. Garage suites aren't allowed in the part of Wasa mapped in s. 1.21A.

Fences up to 1 m in the front yard and 2 m elsewhere (s. 1.15).

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

On an existing lot under 1,670 m², a building permit for a home needs proof that a septic system can be built first (s. 1.02).

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, 3.3).

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

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 150 m², with no outdoor storage and at most five customers at a time; on 2 ha or more it can use 1% of the lot up to 400 m² (150 m² inside the ALR), with its buildings and outdoor storage 10 m from lot lines and out of the yards facing a road. At most one commercial vehicle heavier than Class 4 on the lot. 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, not a duplex, breakfast for those guests only) is allowed as a home based business (s. 1.08). 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, with proof that a septic system can be built for it; it goes, or becomes an accessory building cut off from water and sewer, 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). In the Kimberley Rural Official Community Plan area an RV may be lived in only while a house is being built (s. 1.19). In the Wasa and Area Official Community Plan area up to two RVs may be stored or used seasonally on a lot in this zone, at least one registered to the owner, 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).

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, 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, 1.21, 1.25, 1.27).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the floor of any living or business space sits above 772 m (geodetic) beside Wasa Lake, at least 3 m above the high water mark of the Kootenay and Lussier rivers, Skookumchuck Creek, the St. Mary River and Perry Creek, and 1.5 m above any other stream, lake, marsh or pond (on the Lussier River fan mapped in Schedule B1, 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 those five rivers and creeks, 15 m from other streams and 7.5 m from any lake, marsh or pond. On the Argyle Creek hazard area (Schedule B2) the setbacks apply and an engineer assesses the site (Schedule B, Part 3).

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: Electoral Area E Zoning and Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2502, 2014 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.