Skip to content

Zoning bylaw for Area B heading to CSRD board

Draft zoning bylaw for the rural area around Revelstoke has been sent to board of Columbia Shuswap Regional District for 1st reading.
76244revelstokeimage001
This map shows the existing zoning for the South Revelstoke area. SH is for Small Holdings

A draft zoning bylaw for Area B, the rural area around Revelstoke, has been sent to the board of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District for first reading.

The proposed bylaw would establish land-use regulations for the rural regions surrounding Revelstoke, which stretches from Mica in the north to Trout Lake in the south, and Glacier National Park in the east to Eagle Pass in the west. Currently only rural Revelstoke is covered by a zoning bylaw; the new bylaw would replace the current bylaw and extend it to cover the entire Area B.

“It will essentially provide land-use regulations for the entire electoral area,” explained Jan Thingsted, a planner with the CSRD. “It provides the regulatory component the OCP doesn’t offer.”

The bylaw sets regulations for everything from parcel sizes to set backs to the number of rooms allowed in a bed & breakfast (three). It also maps out current land uses in the region and sets out new zoning options, such as rural resource, three types of residential, comprehensive development, highway commercial, industrial, park and more.

“It means there will be a more orderly type of development occurring in the areas now that they’re all zoned,” said Thingsted. “Previously people have been building without any land-use regulations.”

Loni Parker, the director for Area B, said reception to the bylaw has been positive, so far. “People in the Trout Lake, Galena Bay, Beaton area are looking forward to being able to shape the growth of their communities.”

She added that it will also help smooth over the re-zoning applications for the Shelter Bay development, which is currently in the works.

Ender Ilkay, who is the proponent behind the massive Shelter Bay development, said the regulations in the bylaw were in line with what his team was working on for its development.

“You can’t have OCP and zoning that are in conflict with one another,” he said. “Because they’re happening at the same time, both parties have to talk to make sure we’re not going on a different path than they are and what we’re looking for is actually reflected in the bylaw.”

The draft will go to the CSRD Board of Directors for first reading at its meeting on July 19. After that, it will be sent to the Area B Advisory Planning Commission and then for public hearings in Revelstoke and Trout Lake in August.

Once initial amendments are made, it will go to First Nations and agency review, following which it will go back to the board of the CSRD for second reading.