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: front 7.5 m, rear 10 m, sides 5 m. 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. 1.31) is a manufactured home up to 9 m wide on a non-permanent foundation, on land assessed as farm: one where the farm's holdings are 8 ha or less, two where they are larger.

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 and other farm buildings 7.5 m; 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).

Intensive agriculture is barred on lots under 4 ha outside the ALR (s. 1.04).

Secondary suite (s. 1.22): one per lot, in a house (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, 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 later, with a doctor's letter if asked and a $3,000 deposit. The relative or the owner may live in it.

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 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. 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, 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; it goes, or becomes an unserviced accessory building, 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). On a lot of 1,670 m² or more, up to two RVs may be kept or used seasonally while there's no house, one once there is; one on smaller lots. An occupied RV is hooked to approved sewage disposal and meets the zone's setbacks, and none may be occupied in the Rockyview Official Community Plan area (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 (695 m² on a community water system): one piece averaging 15% slope or less, with no land slip, avalanche, rock fall, flooding or high water table hazard (ss. 2.03, 3.3).

Outside the ALR, a lot of at least 4 ha can be split once into two smaller lots to give a relative a home (s. 514 of the Local Government Act; s. 2.06).

Heights are measured from finished grade to halfway between the eaves and the ridge; a flat roof to its top (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 or in Moyie townsite (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 and farm-hand dwellings (ss. 1.20 to 1.22, 1.31).

Floodplain (Schedule B): the floor of any living or business space sits at least 3 m above the high water mark of the Moyie and St. Mary rivers and 1.5 m above any other stream, lake, marsh or pond (in the Special Policy Area mapped on Schedule B2, such as alluvial fans, 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 the Moyie and St. Mary rivers and Lamb and Braunagel creeks, 15 m from other streams, and 7.5 m from Moyie Lake, Monroe Lake and any other 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: Electoral Area C South Zoning & Floodplain Management Bylaw No. 2913, 2019 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Regional District of East Kootenay.