A2: Intensive Agriculture

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

One house, which may hold a secondary suite (s. B.3)

Main uses

Farming and growing, intensive farming, aquaculture, a farm winery, brewery or distillery (only in the ALR), soil processing (outside the ALR unless the Agricultural Land Commission allows it), forestry; with buildings on at most 10% of the lot, farm education, nature study, wildlife enhancement, hunting and survival training, commercial and hobby kennels and agri-tourism; horse riding, training and boarding (up to 40 stalls); farm sales, primary processing of the farm's products, a private airport on 16 ha or more, bed and breakfast, boarders, short-term rental, soil amendment, a cogeneration plant with a greenhouse (s. B)

Smallest lot for a subdivision

4 ha, in or out of the ALR; at least a tenth of the lot's perimeter wide; no minimum depth (s. C)

Lot coverage

No limit set, except 10% for aquaculture and for the uses listed with that limit (ss. B.8, E)

Height limit

House 9 m; other main buildings 12 m; accessory buildings 9 m; structures 12 m (s. G)

Setbacks

House and its accessory buildings, and uses not listed below: front 7.5 m, rear 12.0 m, sides a tenth of the lot's width (at least 3.0 m, at most 13.5 m), street side 7.5 m; no part of the house more than 50 m from the front lot line (or, on a corner lot, from the flanking street). Farm, winery, processing and cogeneration buildings: front 30 m, rear and sides 15 m, street side 30 m. Kennels and horse facilities: 30 m all round (rear and sides 15 m with a front yard of 90 m or more). Intensive farming and aquaculture buildings: front 90 m, rear and sides 15 m, street side 30 m, and 30 m from any other zone. Private airport buildings 30 m all round (s. F)

The zone is for general and intensive farming in or out of the ALR, and to keep land the Official Community Plan designates Agricultural free of uses that don't fit with farming (s. A). It differs from A-1 mainly in allowing intensive farming and aquaculture outside the ALR and soil processing, with a 4 ha smallest lot everywhere (our reading of ss. B and C).

Farm and processing buildings whose rear or sides border land designated Residential keep exhaust fans and machinery 24 m from every lot line, at most 60 dB at the lot line (s. F.1, note 1).

The house, its outbuildings and yard sit in a farm residential footprint of at most 2,000 m², no deeper than 60 m from the front lot line (s. J.10).

A house is at least 84 m² on the ground floor and 7 m wide (s. D.1); the zone sets no floor area ratio. On ALR land the Agricultural Land Commission's rules apply as well (s. J.1).

Farm sales: mostly the farm's own products, in a building, at most 125 m²; a farm winery's shop and lounge at most 125 m² indoors and 125 m² outdoors (ss. J.5, J.6). Primary processing: at least half of it the farm's own products or its feed (s. J.7).

Land in the ALR used for farming must be classed as a farm by BC Assessment (s. J.2).

Trucks over 5,000 kg: those serving the lot's non-residential uses, or on a working farm up to 2 (3 on 4 ha or more) parked in the farm residential footprint, owned or run by the owner or occupant and outside the setbacks (s. H.2). A bed and breakfast or boarders need 1 more parking space for up to 3 guests, 2 for 4 or more (s. H.1).

Bed and breakfast: at most 6 guests in 3 bedrooms, with the owner living in the home; boarders or lodgers: at most 2 per home, owner living there; at most 6 guests for both together (Part 4, s. B.7).

Short-term rental only where the owner of the lot lives on it as their principal residence: in the house or the homes of a multi-unit building, and in at most one secondary suite, coach house or garden suite per lot (Part 4, s. B.7(d)).

A secondary suite is a home inside a house or duplex, at most 40% of the floor area of the home it belongs to, never its own strata lot and not allowed in a houseplex. A coach house sits above or beside a detached garage; a garden suite is a ground-level home of its own; both belong to the main building on the lot (Part 1 definitions).

Uses the zone doesn't list aren't allowed (Part 2, s. A).

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 City of Surrey's planning and development department before you buy or build.

Source: Part 11 of Surrey Zoning By-law, 1993, No. 12000 (summarised in our words, checked 2026-10-06); zone map: Open Government Licence – Surrey.