What Zoning Bylaw No. 12375 and the provincial SSMUH rules actually require, in plain language.
Written by Serge, Founder, Kelowna Carriage Homes
Carriage houses and secondary suites in the City of Kelowna are governed by Zoning Bylaw No. 12375. The City also publishes a plain-language summary on its carriage houses and secondary suites page, which is a faster reference than the full bylaw text for a general understanding, though the bylaw itself governs in case of any conflict.
As of November 2023, provincial legislation known as Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing (SSMUH, Bill 44) sits on top of the municipal bylaw and requires most single-family zoned lots across BC to permit more housing units than they previously did. The provincial SSMUH overview explains the policy; in practice, it has expanded what qualifies on a typical Kelowna lot rather than restricting it.
A secondary suite is a self-contained unit inside or attached to the principal house. The requirements that trip people up most:
A basement with a ceiling height below 1.95 m (about 6’5”) generally cannot be legalized as a suite without structural changes to lower the floor or raise the house, which is a significant added cost most owners choose not to take on. This is the single most common reason a basement does not qualify as-is. A separate entrance, whether new or existing, is required, along with its own smoke and fire separation from the rest of the house per BC Building Code requirements for secondary suites.
A carriage house is a detached structure and carries its own set of limits:
Only one carriage house is permitted per lot, and it cannot be subdivided or sold on a separate title from the main house — it stays tied to the property as a whole. The 90 m² (about 970 sq ft) cap applies to the carriage house itself; combined with other accessory structures like a shed or detached garage, total accessory site coverage is generally held near 14% of the lot, depending on the specific zone. One additional parking stall, at minimum dimensions of 2.75 metres by 6.0 metres, is required for the unit.
For a clean, complete application, the City of Kelowna’s review generally takes 4 to 6 weeks. Incomplete submissions, or ones that need a variance, take longer, since they require an additional review or public notification step. Combined with drawings and engineering, most projects budget 3 to 5 months from the start of design work to permit issuance. The building permits guide covers the submission requirements and typical review steps in more detail; we handle the City submission directly as part of our fixed-price contract.
Everything above describes the City of Kelowna’s bylaw specifically. West Kelowna, Peachland, Lake Country, Summerland, and Vernon each maintain their own zoning bylaw, and while SSMUH applies province-wide, the local floor area caps, site coverage percentages, and parking requirements are not identical to Kelowna’s. A lot in Lake Country, for instance, may allow a different maximum floor area than an equivalent lot inside Kelowna city limits. The permits & zoning page covers our process for confirming this across all six municipalities we serve; in practice we check the applicable bylaw for your specific address as part of the feasibility study rather than relying on general figures.
The most common error is assuming a lot qualifies based on its zoning designation alone (RU1, RU2, and so on) without checking actual setbacks, site coverage already used by the existing house, and lot width. Two lots with the same zoning code can have very different buildable areas once an existing garage, pool, or mature tree canopy is accounted for.
The second is treating a variance as a formality. A variance application adds time and is not guaranteed; where a lot needs one, we flag that clearly in the feasibility study rather than assuming approval. The third is starting construction before a permit is issued — even minor site work can trigger stop-work orders and fines if it begins ahead of City sign-off.
Zoning determines what you are legally allowed to build before a single drawing is worth paying for. A designer can produce an attractive floor plan for almost any lot; whether the City will permit it depends on setbacks, site coverage already used, lot width, and access, none of which show up on a real estate listing. We check these against your specific parcel in the free feasibility study, before any design work is contracted, precisely to avoid paying for a plan that a bylaw rules out later.
Setbacks are the distances a structure must keep from property lines, and they apply separately at the front, rear, and sides of a lot. A carriage house typically needs a smaller rear-yard setback than the main house, often in the range of 1.2 to 1.5 metres from the rear property line where a lane exists, though this varies by zone and is confirmed against your specific bylaw section rather than assumed from a general figure.
The City of Kelowna regulates removal of certain trees above a minimum trunk diameter, separately from zoning bylaw requirements, and a permit may be needed before removing a tree to make room for a carriage house footprint. This is checked as part of site assessment, not assumed to be a formality.
Servicing — the connection points for water, sewer, and power — is technically a servicing bylaw matter rather than a zoning matter, but it interacts directly with where a structure can be placed on a lot. A rear-yard carriage house needs a servicing route back to the street, and the distance and any grade change involved affects both feasibility and cost. We map this out as part of the same site visit that confirms zoning compliance, so both are answered together rather than in separate steps.
A development variance permit is a formal application to deviate from a specific bylaw requirement — typically a setback or a height limit — when a lot’s shape or existing structures make strict compliance impractical. It generally requires notifying neighbouring property owners and a decision from City staff or Council, depending on the scope of the variance requested, and adds measurable time to a permit timeline compared to a straightforward, compliant application.
Not every lot needs one. Most standard rectangular lots with typical dimensions do not require a variance for a compliant carriage house or suite design. Older, irregular, or unusually narrow lots are where a variance more often comes up, and we identify that possibility during the feasibility study rather than after a design is already drawn to a non-compliant footprint.
Meeting zoning requirements — floor area, setbacks, coverage, parking — gets an application past the planning review. A full building permit also requires structural and mechanical drawings sealed by the relevant professionals, a servicing plan, and confirmation that the design meets BC Building Code requirements for fire separation, egress, and, for a secondary suite specifically, sound transmission between units. These are reviewed separately from zoning compliance, on a similar timeline, and both need to be satisfied before construction can start.
In practice, this means two lots that are equally compliant on paper with the zoning bylaw can still see different permit timelines depending on how complete and coordinated the building-code side of the submission is. We manage both sets of requirements together under one submission rather than treating zoning and building code as separate processes handled by different people, which is where delays most often creep in on projects we take over partway through.
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Costs, timelines, rents, and incentive amounts on this page are estimates from the sources cited, current as of September 2026. Each is confirmed in writing in your free feasibility study. Licensed and insured; documentation available on request.