Zoning Bylaw Rewrite

Thanks for your question! The short answer is yes, residential lots in Riverdale are able to develop both a living suite (which could be in the basement, but doesn’t have to be) and a garden suite. The zoning amendments passed by Council in April allow development of up to four units in all urban ‘single housing’ zones, of which two units can be living or garden suites. 

All developments must comply with the development regulations of the Zoning Bylaw with setbacks, site coverage, building height, and landscaping requirements being the same or similar to what’s allowed for a single detached house in the same zone. There is a relaxation for parking if you build two suites. 

If you’re interested in developing additional units on your residential property, we encourage you to attend one of our upcoming webinars, where we will provide an overview of the new housing regulations, discuss some design considerations, and be available for questions and comments. Follow the registration link on the Engage post if you’d like to attend. 

Hi Ruth, thanks for your question! There are no specific limits on the floor area you’re allowed to build, however there are some indirect constraints that could limit how large a dwelling you can build. These constraints include:

• Site Coverage: If you’re in Riverdale, you’re most likely in the RS zone, which has a site coverage limit of 40% for a single detached residence, and if you build a second (or more) unit, may be increased to 50%. So the amount of additional development you’d be allowed depends on your lot size, and the amount of the lot that is already covered by buildings. 
• Setbacks: All buildings need to be set back a certain distance from each property line, and from each other. Depending on the existing configuration of your lot, this could limit how much new building you can develop. 
• Parking: Each dwelling requires a parking space that must be provided on the lot (except if you build two suites – then a parking space isn’t required for the second suite). There is a maximum driveway width of 50% of the lot width (up to a maximum of 10 m for lots wider than 20 m). The remainder of the front yard should be landscaped with a suitable groundcover and trees or shrubs. 
• Building height: A second storey can provide additional living space while keeping the site coverage below the maximum. In the RS zone, the maximum building height is 10 m for a principal dwelling (or 7 m for a garden suite).

We hope this answers your questions! If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to this project to be notified of additional information we will be releasing in the coming months about building additional units on residential lots in the city. 

Thanks for your question. The new regulations apply to all urban ‘single detached’ residential zones, including the RS zone which covers most of Riverdale. You can review our map of affected zones here. 

All developments must comply with the development regulations of the Zoning Bylaw with setbacks*, site coverage*, building height, parking*, and landscaping requirements the being same or similar to what’s allowed for a single detached house in the same zone. These regulations are in place to ensure that new development respects existing patterns of site design and building form, and fits in with the surrounding neighbourhood. (Items with an asterisk (*) may have modest relaxations to these development regulations where additional units are provided). You can read more about the new regulations in our Housing-related Zoning Amendments – Guide to New Regulations document.

Hi Ron, thanks for your question. New developments will be required to demonstrate that servicing adequately supports the proposed additional development on a site. This includes water supply for domestic use, water supply for fire protection, sanitary servicing, and electrical servicing.  Where existing services are inadequate, the developer will be required to either: 

• Amend their design to reduce the service demand; 
• Upsize existing servicing at their cost; or 
• Wait for infrastructure upgrades to be carried out based on the City’s schedule for capital projects (or ATCO, in the case of electrical servicing)  
  
  

The proposed Zoning changes are likely to incrementally increase demand on the City’s existing utility infrastructure. Over the coming years, the City will continue to assess the current and planned capacity of utility services and may need to adjust its approach to infrastructure life-cycle management, depending on the actual rate of uptake under these changes.

The City is currently preparing to launch a new project to create a Development Funding Strategy which, once completed, will help to inform how the City funds new infrastructure and infrastructure replacements, with a goal to ensure that infrastructure costs are distributed equitably between existing and future residents. This strategy is expected to be completed by Spring 2025.

Hi Harold, great questions! The Whitehorse 2040 Official Community Plan (OCP) provides a 20-Year Residential Growth Strategy (see page 49) which includes a mix of greenfield development as well as residential intensification and redevelopment. These proposed zoning changes are not happening instead of greenfield development, but in addition to it, in an effort to encourage the construction of a range of housing types throughout the City. These changes will help to achieve more cost-efficient use of existing infrastructure and reduce the per-dwelling cost of new infrastructure.

Greenfield development is expensive because all of the inputs (materials, labour, and energy) required to design and build new subdivisions are a lot more expensive than they used to be. In addition, easy-to-build-on land has been largely used up, with remaining land presenting additional challenges such as shallow bedrock, or being on the other side of the river, which increases development costs. The OCP has identified two new growth areas to accommodate long-term growth: the South and North Growth Areas (as shown on maps 3 and 5 of the OCP). Planning for the South Growth Area is now progressing in the early stages. Due to the high cost of greenfield development, it will be important to ensure that these areas are developed efficiently, to reduce per-dwelling costs and extend how long these growth areas will be able to accommodate the City’s population growth. 

With regard to your question about the building code: the City uses the National Building Code, as adopted by the Government of Yukon, to ensure a minimum standard of safety, comfort, and energy efficiency for buildings in Whitehorse. The City believes these standards are fair and reasonable, and create a level playing field for building construction throughout Canada.  

Questions that are submitted directly on this platform will be published, unless they are offensive, contain sensitive information, or are completely unrelated to the topic. We don’t have the ability to edit questions that have been submitted by members of the public, so our only options are to publish it, or not publish it (and either answer privately, or ignore it). In this case, the project team determined that the question was one that was important to answer publicly, and that the presence of a municipal address, provided voluntarily by the asker, was not sensitive enough to withhold the question.

The City also receives relevant questions through other channels such as social media, or sent directly by email. In these cases, the questions are uploaded to this EngageWhitehorse platform by City staff, with a note disclosing that they were received through a different channel. Prior to uploading, these questions may be edited if needed to remove any identifying information, such as names or addresses.

A 4-unit development in a residential zone outside of downtown would be required to provide 4 parking spaces on the property, unless two of the units are living or garden suites, in which case the development would require 3 parking spaces. Parking spaces are required to be provided in accordance with the site design and parking regulations of the Zoning Bylaw – there are regulations around location and size of parking spaces and maximum driveway width to ensure good site design. As is currently the case, households with more vehicles than parking spaces may use on-street parking in accordance with the Traffic Bylaw and any parking signage erected by the City. The City will monitor demand for on-street parking and, if warranted, may deploy tools such as parking permits or other approaches to manage on-street parking.

Thanks for your question. Off-street parking (i.e. on private property) is currently required to be provided for all new developments at a rate of one space per dwelling unit throughout most of the City, except downtown where it is one space per two dwelling units. Under the proposed changes, most developments providing new residential dwellings will still be required to provide one space per unit, except where two living or garden suites are provided, in which case a parking space would not be required for the second suite. 

There are no proposed changes to the parking requirement for multiple housing in residential zones. Under the proposed changes, multiple housing in commercial zones (mostly downtown, and in urban centres in some neighbourhoods) would no longer be required to provide visitor parking spaces, but would still be required to provide resident parking at the current rate.

 On-street parking is regulated by the City’s Traffic Bylaw. The City will monitor demand for on-street parking and, if warranted, may deploy tools such as parking permits or other approaches to manage on-street parking. 

Thanks for your inquiry! A map has been added to the project page showing the affected zones. Here is a link to access it directly: https://www.engagewhitehorse.ca/40561/widgets/173867/documents/125554.

Great question! The proposed amendments are relating to the zones established by the City of Whitehorse Zoning Bylaw. You have correctly identified that your zoning is RS, which is among the zones that are included in the proposed amendments. 

 The RS1 ‘zone’ identified on your property assessment notice is relating to the class of use identified by the Property Assessment and Taxation branch of the Government of Yukon to determine the assessed value of your property for the purpose of taxation. The City, in turn, uses that class of use to determine the tax rate for your property (the tax rate varies depending on whether it is residential, non-residential, or agricultural), and that's why it appears on your property tax notice. However, it is not the same as the zoning established by the City through the Zoning Bylaw.