BC Home Renovations: What Can You Build, and What Limits Apply?
Surprisingly often what is in your mind a small modification to your own house often is a big deal to the city. I’ll share here some of the important regulatory complexities of renovating or expanding your home.
Many people get far down the path of designing their project without realizing that the configuration they’ve settled on or the expansion they’re planning is not allowed. Without taking into account all relevant municipal restrictions, you may waste a great deal of time and money before discovering that your planned renovation is either not permitted or will require far more than you’re willing and able to invest.
Confirm both the number of dwellings and their arrangement
Let’s say you want to keep your house, create a separate home for your parents, and perhaps add a rental unit or two to help pay for the work. You’ve checked the city’s zoning rules, and your property allows as many as four dwellings thanks to Bill 44. That’s a promising start, but how those dwellings are allowed to be arranged is a separate question.
A house with a secondary suite and a detached backyard dwelling contains three homes. A triplex also contains three homes, but all three are in one building. Permission for the total number of dwellings does not, by itself, permit the configuration you have in mind.
You need to establish next whether you can divide your existing house into additional dwellings, expand it to accommodate them, construct a separate residential building, or combine these approaches.
Municipal definitions determine which rules apply
Calling your proposed renovation a triplex does not establish how the municipality will classify it. Check whether the proposed arrangement meets the local definition and whether that housing form is permitted in your zone. Terms such as secondary suite, duplex, multiplex, and infill dwelling have specific meanings in municipal regulations, and each category has its own requirements.
Describe what you intend to do in straightforward terms: retain the existing house, divide it into two dwellings, and add a third dwelling in a rear addition, for example. Identify how many dwellings you propose and which will occupy the existing building, an addition, or a separate building. Then establish which regulatory category applies.
You must also identify whether you intend to own the whole property or sell the dwellings separately. Permission to construct additional homes does not establish permission to create separate titles, or separate titles may restrict how you may construct the additional dwelling units. If separate ownership is essential to your plan, investigate subdivision or strata requirements at the same time as the housing arrangement, before committing to a configuration. A design that accommodates your family today might not provide the ownership options you’re banking on later.
Investigate the alternatives that suit your renovation
You only need to investigate housing forms that suit your needs and retain the parts of the house you want to keep. For one additional dwelling, that could mean an internal conversion, an attached addition, or a detached building. Confirm which options are permitted and what conditions apply before investing in detailed floor plans.
Where municipalities differ
Vancouver and Coquitlam illustrate two different ways of classifying housing options. Vancouver distinguishes between secondary suites, laneway houses, duplexes, multiplexes, infill housing, multiple conversion dwelling, and character-house retention even though they appear to comprise only two configurations. In contrast, Coquitlam lumps many housing forms under a single, broader Small-Scale Residential category.
Advice about a renovation in another city may not apply to yours, since even familiar housing terms can have different definitions. Check the rules specifically for your city.
Check requirements that affect the design and budget
Where design guidelines or form-of-development controls apply, review them before developing the building’s exterior. Requirements concerning building form, entrances, landscaping, or the relationship between buildings can affect the proposed arrangement.
Investigate servicing requirements at the same stage. Establish whether the existing water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure can accommodate the project and what upgrades may be required. Coquitlam, for example, identifies stormwater-management and fire-flow requirements as matters requiring attention for new small-scale housing.
Identify applicable accessibility or adaptable-unit requirements before fixing floor levels and layouts. These requirements may affect entrances, circulation, and the space required within particular dwellings. Their applicability needs to be established under the relevant building regulations and any applicable local requirements. Each of these matters can change the scope or cost of your renovation. They belong in the feasibility assessment.
Resolve interpretations before relying on them
Some requirements will be straightforward. Others may need clarification from municipal staff. When seeking clarification, provide enough information for staff to assess the actual issue. Identify the property, describe the proposed work, and show which portions of the existing building will remain. A preliminary drawing may be necessary, but a completed design is not.
Ask specific questions about the requirements that could affect your decision. Record the response and any conditions or assumptions attached to it. Preliminary advice can guide design development, although it does not replace the required approvals.
If the project depends on a relaxation, variance, or another discretionary decision, establish the applicable process and who has authority to decide. Include that uncertainty in your assessment of the project. A configuration that requires an unresolved approval is less certain than one that meets the applicable requirements without it.
Where, and How Much, Can You Build?
Establish the maximum building envelope
The building envelope is the three-dimensional space within which construction is permitted and is defined by setbacks, rights-of-way or dedications, site coverage, building height, and total floor area.
Setbacks establish the minimum distances between buildings and property lines. The maximum building height limits the envelope’s height. Site coverage limits how much of the property buildings can occupy. Building separation requirements of both the zoning bylaw and the building code establish the minimum distances between buildings on the same property.
Floor-area limits impose another restriction. You may not be able to take advantage of the full building height if the maximum floor area has been used up before reaching the height limit. Similarly, the permitted lot coverage may prevent you from extending a building across all the space available between the setbacks - Burnaby is the notable instance of a city not having that floor space limit.
All of these requirements must be considered together. Checking each one independently will not tell you how much you can actually build.
Account for the house you intend to retain
The existing house already counts toward the permitted floor area and lot coverage. Calculate how much of each allowance it uses to determine how much you can add. You may have unused floor-area capacity but nowhere practical to put it while retaining the house. Alternatively, you may have plenty of yard space but have already reached the permitted floor-area limit. The location of the house matters just as much as its size. A house too close to the side or rear property line may preclude an addition on that side.
An accurate survey, measurements of the existing building, and a preliminary assessment of the allowable envelope will establish which additions deserve further investigation. They will also identify whether increasing the number of dwellings within the existing building is the more promising option.
Include the other demands on the property
The buildable envelope is not certain until you also include anything else which must be located on your property. The space outside the house must also accommodate egress and firefighter access paths, parking, utilities such as electrical transformers or stormwater detention, and landscaping. Tree protection can restrict excavation and foundation placement. Several examples of multiplexes in Burnaby were stopped mid-construction due to inadequate clearance to BC Hydro equipment. An easement or right-of-way can prevent construction in part of the property. Environmental protection or hazard such as waterfront or steep slopes can impose additional restrictions.
Where municipalities differ
Municipalities differ in both the dimensions they permit and the way they calculate them. Check the local definitions of floor area, building height (especially), basement, and lot coverage. Exemptions and similar allowances also vary. For example, several cities outside Vancouver don't include exterior insulation in the floor area calculation; you may have a more comfortable home without being penalized for it. Some cities include exterior stairs in your area limit while others do not. The same house design will have different size limitations under different rules.
For your renovation, establish the envelope using the current rules for your property. A nearby completed project may have been approved under different requirements – for example Burnaby’s first iteration of the SSMUH rules which allowed three-storey rear buildings - and a design from another municipality may not fit your allowable envelope.
Rather than commit to an architect’s full design fee which may not include an in-depth review of the building envelope before spending money on design, you could request a fixed-price predesign study to confirm what you’re able to build. This is one of the three primary functions of my RAD Study™. Instead of relying on general knowledge of a city’s regulations and proceeding with assumptions, I investigate all regulations, which typically involve utilities requirements and may include provincial or federal restrictions.
Having in hand all the rules that apply will give you confidence in assembling the new layout. The alternative is a gamble, hoping that the size and shape of home or homes you’ve designed will be allowed. The first step to getting this comprehensive report is booking a free Diagnostic Session™ with me to discuss your proposed renovation plans.
DISCLAIMER:
The information included in this article is to an extent generic and intended for educational and informational purposes only; it does not constitute legal or professional advice. Thorough efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of the article at the time of writing, but having read this article, you understand and agree that Daniel Clarke Architect Inc. disclaims any legal liability for actions that may arise from reliance on the information provided in this article. I am an architect in BC, but readers are recommended to consult with their own architect on their specific situations before making any decisions or exercising judgement based on information in the article.
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