Housing – Small Scale (H-1)

Housing – Small Scale (zoning code H-1) is a zone proposed by the City of Calgary’s [[Zoning Bylaw]] Draft.[1] It amalgamates all zones from the Low-Density Residential category in the Land Use Bylaw — including R-CG, R-2M, and other now-defunct zones like R-C1 or R-2.

It is intended to accommodate a variety of low-density residential developments, and discretionary Home Businesses.

Scale

H-1 is virtually identical to R-CG, copying its height, setback, and density restrictions almost directly.

The Zoning Bylaw includes suites in density calculations, so H-1’s 150 dwelling units per hectare is equivalent to R-CG’s 75.

List of Uses

Permitted

  • Housing*
  • Minor Utility
  • Protective and Emergency Services
  • Sign (Classes A and B)
  • Supportive Housing*
  • Urban Agriculture

* – uses become discretionary when a parcel is located in a heritage guideline area.

Discretionary

  • Child Care Service
  • Community Service
  • Home Business
  • Religious Facility
  • Sign (Classes C and E)
  • Temporary Sales Centre

Additional

The following additional uses are enabled as discretionary if they are located entirely within a heritage resource or pre-war home.

  • Health Care Service
  • Indoor Sales & Service
  • Neighbourhood Store
  • Office

Analysis

Home Business as a discretionary use, especially when paired with Class C or E signage, and accommodates more commercial opportunities than the “Home Based Business” use in the Land Use Bylaw.

Though, Home Business is not a commercial use, and does not accommodate the range of commercial opportunities present in Indoor Sales & Service, or Neighbourhood Store, for example.

Restricting these small commercial opportunities to “heritage” or “pre-war” areas is argued to make the retention of properties “more attractive”[2]. H-2 is slightly more relaxed than H-1, moving some of these Additional Uses into full-time Discretionary Uses.


  1. ↩︎

  2. pg. 28 ↩︎