RES-1(C): Recreation Residential (C)

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Houses at up to 1 per 4 hectares of usable land and 6 at most, each with one guest cottage; one secondary suite per lot, inside a house

Main uses

Houses, farming, guest ranch, forestry; guest cottages, home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

60 ha

Lot coverage

20%

Height limit

Houses 10 m, accessory buildings 12 m

Setbacks

Houses: front and rear 10 m, sides 5 m. Accessory buildings: front 7.5 m, rear and sides 5 m

The zone's density overrides the one-house-per-lot rule of s. 1.18, so a lot can hold several houses.

A guest cottage is an accessory building not lived in year round: at most 30 m² with two sleeping rooms (s. 1.09(6)).

Secondary suite (s. 1.21): one per lot, inside a house only, in a house that isn't a manufactured home, at most 49% of its habitable floor space, built to the BC Building Code, on approved sewage disposal and never strata-titled.

A guest ranch needs a lot of at least 16 ha assessed as farm, with up to 12 m² of guest space per hectare (720 m² at most) (s. 1.23).

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)).

Fences up to 2 m (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 (ss. 2.02, 3.3).

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.

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).

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.