RR-2: Rural Residential (Small Holding)

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 mink farms or confined livestock areas), veterinary clinic, kennel, bed and breakfast cabins, home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

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

All dwellings stay within one contiguous area of the lot of at most 1 ha.

A farm-hand dwelling (s. 1.25) is a manufactured home up to 9 m wide including additions and 5 m tall (s. 1.11(3)) 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 in this zone, which permits farming (s. 1.11(4)).

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

Intensive agriculture is barred on lots under 4 ha outside the ALR (s. 1.4).

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), built to the BC Building Code, on approved sewage disposal and never strata-titled; inside the house at most 49% of its habitable floor space. 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, a bed and breakfast cabin 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 including additions, on a non-permanent foundation (likely 5 m tall at most if it counts as an accessory dwelling, s. 1.11(3): confirm with the RDEK), 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.

One kitchen per home (s. 1.22).

Home based business (ss. 1.8, 3.3; a preschool or child care for up to seven children, and a bed and breakfast, count too): run by people living in the home, with at most two helpers from elsewhere. On lots under 2 ha it stays inside the house or an accessory building (at most 150 m² of floor space), with no outdoor storage or other outside sign of it beyond two work vehicles, and at most five clients or students at a time (not counting bed and breakfast guests). On 2 ha or more it may store and park outdoors, just not in the front or a side yard beside a road, with its buildings and storage 10 m from lot lines and at most 1% of the lot or 400 m², whichever is less (150 m² inside the ALR). Either way, one heavy commercial vehicle at most; it sells only what is made on the lot, or items that go with its service, from at most 10 m² of display.

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, breakfast for those guests only) is allowed as a home based business (ss. 1.8(9), 3.3), with up to two bed and breakfast cabins (each at most 5 m tall and 50 m², and needing the Agricultural Land Commission's approval inside the ALR; s. 1.28). Ask the RDEK before renting a home short term.

While a home is being built or rebuilt under a building permit, one extra dwelling (meeting every zone rule but the number of homes) or an RV may be lived in on the lot, with proof that a septic system can be built for it. Once the new home is occupied, the dwelling goes or becomes an accessory building cut off from water and sewer; the RV is cut off and left empty then, or when the original permit expires if that comes first (s. 1.5).

An RV or park model trailer can't be used as a home (s. 1.4). At most two RVs may be placed and occupied on a lot, hooked to an approved septic system and sited like a building in the zone; in and around the Wardner townsite (the bylaw's Figure 2), only while a home is being built (s. 1.19). How long an RV may be occupied isn't set, so ask the RDEK.

No outdoor wrecking or repair of vehicles other than the household's own (or a home based business that follows the rules), and at most one derelict vehicle outside a building, kept out of the front yard (ss. 1.17, 3.3).

Fences up to 2 m, higher where needed to control livestock or wildlife that can jump a 2 m fence (s. 1.15).

A new lot on its own well and septic system must be at least 1,670 m² for a house and 2,140 m² for a duplex (s. 2.3). In a bare land strata, the zone's minimum lot size is the minimum average (s. 2.2).

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. 2.4, 3.3).

Outside the ALR, the approving officer may allow a lot of at least 4 ha to be split once into two smaller lots to give a relative a home (s. 2.7, which cites the old s. 946 of the Local Government Act, now s. 514).

Parking (s. 3.2(4)): two spaces per home, one for a secondary suite, one per bed and breakfast room or cabin, and up to two for a home based business's clients (s. 3.1(9)).

Heights are measured from finished grade (on lots under 1,670 m², the natural ground) 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), 3.3). Chimneys, antennas, silos, solar collectors, spires and the like are exempt (s. 1.11(2)).

Every zone also allows parks, public utilities, highways and railways, heritage sites, conservation areas and reserves (s. 1.3). Billboards and third-party signs are banned everywhere (s. 1.13). Buildings stay 22 m from a controlled access highway unless the lot is on a frontage road (s. 1.6). Section 1.29 adds uses on four named lots: a solar farm, indoor RV storage, a residential treatment centre, and three guest ranch cabins with kitchens.

Inside the ALR, farm uses and those the Agricultural Land Commission approves are permitted, as is cannabis production under the ALR Use Regulation (its buildings 15 m from the front and inside side lot lines and 30 m from the rear and a side beside a road); the Commission's rules also apply to suites, farm-hand dwellings and dwellings for a relative needing care (ss. 1.10(6), 1.14, 1.20, 1.21, 1.25, 1.27).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the floor of any living or business space, or space for goods that flood water would damage, sits 3 m above the high water mark of the Kootenay, St. Mary, Wild Horse and Bull rivers, and 1.5 m above that of any other stream, lake, marsh or pond; fill and supports stay 30 m from those four rivers, 15 m from other streams and 7.5 m from a lake, marsh or pond. In the Special Policy Area on Schedule B1 (the Bull River hazard area: alluvial fans and fast water), the floor sits at the highest of 1 m above the ground, 0.6 m above anything that could pond water, or an engineer's level. Renovations, small additions, carports, garages and entrance foyers are among the exemptions (Schedule B2).

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: Steeples Zoning & Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2615, 2015 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.