Updates to Residential Rental Districts
Part two of "Fast-tracking rental housing"
Fast-Tracking Rental Housing – Updates to Residential Rental Districts. Staff report, 180 pages. This is item 11 on the agenda for the May 19 council meeting.
Residential Rental Districts Schedules Design Guidelines. Policy document, 49 pages. Approved January 2022.
This is part two of a planning initiative to streamline six-storey rental projects. Part one was the C-2A zone:
Part two is intended to make six-storey rental projects more economically viable, given that costs are up and rents are declining. It’s based on a December 2025 staff report, Supporting Development Viability and Unlocking New Housing Supply. Previously:
From the December 2025 report:
To support the continued delivery of low-rise rental housing, staff are preparing updates to the Secured Rental Policy and Residential Rental (RR) zones for six-storey residential and mixed-use developments.
In RR-2 zones, where six-storey residential projects are currently required to include below-market rental units, staff propose removing the below-market rental requirement to permit six-storey 100 per cent market rental projects.
In RR-3 zones, which apply to six-storey mixed-use developments, the proposed approach would vary by location to better reflect market conditions. On the east side of the city, staff propose removing the below-market rental requirement; on the west side, adjustments to the required depth of affordability are proposed.
To summarize the current proposal: the RR-2x schedules are 100% residential (“apartments”), and can be either on an arterial street or on a local street. Coriolis did an economic analysis of three example sites, one on the west side and two on the east side, based on a snapshot of current costs and asking rents.
RR-2A (four storeys) - no change
RR-2B (five storeys) - allow six storeys instead of five storeys. There’s no increase in FSR: 2.4 for a mid-block site, 2.7 for a corner site. Coriolis found that this is viable on the west side, marginal on the east side.
RR-2C (six storeys with 20% below-market) - remove, it’s not viable.
The RR-3x schedules are mixed-use, with commercial on the ground floor. They’re only allowed on arterial streets.
RR-3A (four storeys) - no change
RR-3B (six storeys with 20% below-market) - reduce the affordability requirement from 20% below CMHC average rents to 10% below CMHC average. Intended for the west side, where rents are higher.
RR-3C - new schedule, six storeys with no below-market requirement. Intended for the east side, where rents are lower and there’s no room to pay for below-market rentals. FSR is 3.4. Coriolis found that this was viable for one of the east side sites, not viable for the other.
There’s four rezoning applications previously approved by council. Staff is proposing that they be updated to use the latest schedules.
Land assembly requirements: it looks like this isn’t changing. The minimum frontage is 66 feet (two standard lots) for RR-2x, 99 feet (three standard lots) for RR-3x.