RA-3: Apartment

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Apartments (three or more homes, each entered from a shared entrance or hallway) and congregate housing (serviced homes for people 65 or older or with disabilities, with shared dining and housekeeping); the zone sets no count of homes, only floor space: a floor space ratio of at most 1.20 (ss. 710.1, 710.3, 2). No house, secondary suite or garden suite (not listed uses here)

Main uses

Apartments, congregate housing, home occupations (only an office or child daycare, s. 5.6), accessory buildings, produce sales at the front of the lot (s. 710.1)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

No minimum set in the zone

Lot coverage

35% for all buildings and structures together; accessory buildings together 10%; parking at most 30% of the lot; floor space ratio at most 1.20 (ss. 710.2, 710.3, 710.7(c), 710.8(a))

Height limit

Apartment or congregate housing buildings 11.5 m, with at most five levels of usable space, no more than four of them for living in (a fifth, not lived in, with its ceiling no higher than the lot's average natural grade), and at most 55.0 m wide; accessory buildings 3.75 m (ss. 710.6(b) to (d), 710.7(b))

Setbacks

Apartment or congregate housing buildings: 7.5 m from a line on a street and from inside side lines, 12.0 m from a rear line not on a street; accessory buildings 7.5 m from a line on a street, 1.5 m from inside side and rear lines (ss. 710.6(a), 710.7(a))

The zone is for apartment buildings and congregate housing (s. 710.1). A home here is most often in a strata building: what an owner may do with it is in the strata's bylaws as well, so read them.

Open space: a continuous landscaped area of 10% of the site, outside the setbacks and parking, 1% less for each 1% that coverage falls under 35% (s. 710.4). Facing walls of buildings on the lot are spaced so a living room window has 15.0 m clear in a 90-degree arc, other habitable rooms' windows, walls and corners 12.0 m (s. 710.5).

Parking: not within 7.5 m of a front line or of a rear line on a street, 3.0 m of a street side line, or 3.0 m of a habitable room's window; lights aimed onto the parking only (s. 710.8).

Home occupations here are only an office or child daycare: an office with no clients, customers or employees coming to it, at most 15 m² of the home and two per home, with no sign on the lot; a child daycare at most 12 children (ss. 5.5(m), 5.6).

Produce sales: one stand in the front yard, 0.6 m from every lot line, at most 1.8 m high and 3 m² (s. 5.38).

Non-market housing developments are allowed on any lot inside the Sewer Service Area or the Urban Containment Boundary that isn't zoned industrial, under Schedule I's rules, which we haven't summarised (s. 5.39).

Short-term rental (stays under 30 days) isn't among the zone's listed uses (s. 2 defines it apart from bed and breakfast); ask the District whether and how a home here may be rented that way.

Sections 5, 6 and 7 and Schedule B (outdoor lighting) of the bylaw also apply (s. 710.9).

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 District of Saanich's planning department before you buy or build.

Source: Schedule 710 of District of Saanich Zoning Bylaw No. 8200 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-06); zone map: Saanich Data Catalogue Licence (based on the Open Government Licence – British Columbia).