R-3-C zone in Victoria: Central Area Residential District

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

In short

Main uses: Multiple dwellings, Churches, Business or professional offices, including chartered banks and other financial lending institutions, Retail stores, Restaurants, and 4 more.

Zone rules

Main uses	Multiple dwellings Churches Business or professional offices, including chartered banks and other financial lending institutions Retail stores Restaurants Rest homes, nursing homes and hospitals Launderettes Theatres, auditoriums and places of recreation Private hospitals, intermediate care facilities and commercial care facilities
Minimum lot area	920 m²
Maximum lot coverage	50%
Maximum density	Floor space ratio 2.5 to 1, which may rise to 3.0 to 1 as site coverage drops (2.6 at 46%, 2.7 at 42%, 2.8 at 38%, 2.9 at 34%, 3.0 at 30%); never more than 3 to 1
Maximum height	37 m
Front setback	4.5 m from a street boundary
Rear setback	6 m from any lot line that is not a street boundary
Interior side setback	6 m from any lot line that is not a street boundary
Street side setback	4.5 m from a street boundary
Other rules	Uses other than residential may take up at most 20% of the allowable floor space ratio and only the floors below grade and the first and second storeys Open site space at least 40% of the lot, landscaped No street wall may run along one plane for more than 30 m Parking for multiple dwellings: 0.55 space per dwelling unit

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. 3.7 (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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