RS-1: Residential (Urban)

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house (with a secondary suite) or one duplex

Main uses

House or duplex; beekeeping and horticulture, small farm animals (up to 40 rabbits and 15 poultry, no geese or turkeys; s. 1.30), home based business

Smallest lot for a subdivision

555 m²

Lot coverage

30% with a house, 35% with a duplex

Height limit

Main building 9 m, accessory buildings 5 m

Setbacks

House: front 6 m, rear 1.5 m (3 m on a lane), sides 1.2 m (4.5 m beside a road). Accessory buildings: front 6 m (2.5 m for a garage or carport where the slope leaves no other place), rear 1 m (3 m on a lane), sides 1 m (4.5 m beside a road)

The zone list (s. 4.01) names this zone Residential (Urban); the heading of s. 4.03 calls it Residential (Semi-Rural).

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.

Fences up to 1 m in the front yard and 2 m elsewhere; no barbed wire or electric fencing (s. 1.15).

On an existing lot under 1,670 m², a building permit for a home needs a sewage system permit first (s. 1.02).

New lots need 555 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. 2.03, 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 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).

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.