RR-4: Rural Residential (Hobby Farm)

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 (no confined livestock areas), veterinary clinic, kennel, home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

4 ha

Lot coverage

35% (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.

A farm-hand dwelling (s. 1.25) is a manufactured home up to 9 m wide on a non-permanent or pier foundation, on land assessed as farm: one where the farm's holdings are 8 ha or less, two where they are larger; none for a cannabis operation.

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(7)).

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.

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 (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.

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 (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, 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 (ss. 2.02, 3.3).

Outside the ALR, a lot can be split once into two smaller lots to give a relative a home if it is at least 4 ha, or 2 ha in the St. Mary West subarea away from St. Mary Lake (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; 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.