GRD-1 zone in Victoria: General Residential District – 1 Zone

Victoria, British ColumbiaDraft, not yet reviewedBylaw read 2026-11-07

In short

Main uses: Assembly, Civic Facility, Food and Beverage Service, Heritage Conserving Infill, Personal Service, and 3 more.

Zone rules

Main uses	Assembly Civic Facility Food and Beverage Service Heritage Conserving Infill Personal Service Residential Retail Trade Utility Non-residential uses are only allowed on the first storey of buildings where over 50% of the floor area is dwelling units, and the lot is next to a Transit Priority Network street, next to an LVD-1, CVD-1 or TCD-1 lot, or is a corner lot.
Also allowed (secondary uses)	Accessory Building Home Occupation
Extra uses on specific lots	Many individual lots have extra permitted uses, density or other limits listed by address in section 8 (Site Specific Regulations); not itemized here
Minimum lot area	460 m² (buildings with less than three Dwelling Units); not applicable (Heritage Conserving Infill); 360 m² (3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units); 540 m² (more than 3 storeys with three or more Dwelling Units)
Minimum lot width	Street frontage 10.0m (buildings with less than three Dwelling Units, Heritage Conserving Infill, and 3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units); more than 3 storeys with three or more Dwelling Units: 15.0m up to 4 storeys, 30.0m up to 5 storeys, 36.0m over 5 storeys
Maximum lot coverage	40% (less than three Dwelling Units); 50% (Heritage Conserving Infill); 45% (3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units); 55% (more than 3 storeys with three or more Dwelling Units)
Maximum density	0.5:1 (lots with less than three Dwelling Units); 1.6:1 (Heritage Conserving Infill); 1.6:1, subject to Schedule C – Density Benefits (lots with three or more Dwelling Units)
Maximum height	7.6m (less than three Dwelling Units); Heritage Conserving Infill: greater of 7.6m or 80% of the height of the Heritage Designated Building; 12.0m (3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units); over 3 storeys: 14m up to 4 storeys, 17m over 4 and up to 5 storeys, 20.5m and 6 storeys elsewhere, 32m and 10 storeys within 200m of a Transit Oriented AreaBuildings over four storeys are only allowed on lots in a Priority Growth Area or Transit Oriented Area.
Front setback	4.0m; for corner lots with 3 storeys or less and three or more Dwelling Units: 2.0m up to 15.0m from the flanking street lot line, then 4.0m; 4.0m for all other lots
Rear setback	6.0m (less than three Dwelling Units); 5.0m (Heritage Conserving Infill); 3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units: 5.0m for corner lots, 8.0m for all other lots; over 3 storeys: 8.0m or 25% of lot depth, whichever is greater
Interior side setback	1.5m (less than three Dwelling Units); Heritage Conserving Infill: 2.0m for one side yard when no flanking street, 3.0m for all other side lot lines; 3 storeys or less with three or more units: 4.0m to a Primary Façade, 1.5m to all other façades; over 3 storeys: 7.5m to a Primary Façade up to 4 storeys, 9.0m to a Primary Façade above 4 storeys, 1.5m to other façades up to 4 storeys, 3.0m to other façades above 4 storeys
Street side setback	Flanking street: 4.0m (less than three Dwelling Units, Heritage Conserving Infill, and over 3 storeys); 2.0m (3 storeys or less with three or more Dwelling Units)
Other rules	Open lot space: at least 30% More than one Building is permitted on a Lot On a Waterfront Lot, no Building may be more than 36.5m from the Front Lot Line

Source: Zoning Regulation Bylaw No. 80-159 (consolidated on October 17, 2019 up to Bylaw No. 19-074; zone Parts amended to Bylaw 24-060, August 2024) and Zoning Bylaw 2018 (consolidated on June 9, 2022 up to Bylaw No. 22-048), s. 4.1 (read 2026-11-07)

Rules in the bylaw's general sections (parking, fences, suites, home businesses) also apply, and a lot can have site-specific rules. Victoria has two zoning bylaws in force. Zoning Bylaw 2018 (zones GRD-1, LVD-1, CVD-1, TCD-1, CBD-1, CBD-2, MRD-1, OTD-1, IAI-1, MI-1, LI-1, HI-1; https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/zoning-bylaw-2018) applies to the areas on its Map 1: the Downtown Core Area and most commercial and low-density residential properties in town centres, urban villages and residential fabric. The Zoning Regulation Bylaw No. 80-159 (one PDF per zone) still governs the rest, including most industrial, medium and high density residential outside downtown, comprehensive development districts and some commercial properties. The City says its website bylaws are office consolidations provided for convenience; refer to the bylaws and amendments at City Hall. In text.txt every file starts at a '[source <url>]' line; the first file is the Introduction & General Regulations of Bylaw 80-159 and the Zoning Bylaw 2018 is appended at the end. Zones whose PDF has no text layer (image-only; no OCR was run) have no lines or pdf_page, only source_url; 179 codes, listed in places/victoria/no-text-layer.txt. For zones with text, pdf_page is the page inside that zone's own PDF (always the first page). Zone pages are taken from the bylaw text by a research agent and have not yet been reviewed by a person: confirm with the bylaw before you rely on them. How answers are checked.

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