RD5 (By-law 150-85) zone, Cambridge: Residential Duplex RD5

What the RD5 zone permits

• Detached one-family dwelling
• Detached duplex dwelling (two dwelling units)
• Residential special care facility (max 10 residents; s.3.1.1.3)
• Uses permitted in all zones under s.2.1.1 (public uses and utilities, private home day care, crisis intervention home)
• Accessory uses, buildings and structures (s.2.1.11)
• Home occupation (s.2.1.17)
• Additional residential units: up to 2 per lot with a single detached, semi-detached or street townhouse dwelling (two attached, or one attached and one detached), By-law 23-077 s.3.1.1.11

Standards

Other provisions in this section

• Minimum gross floor area 75 m2 for the dwelling (s.3.1.2.2(h), by-law p.94, PDF p.112). A second dwelling unit (the second unit of a duplex) needs the minimum floor area set by the Building Code (s.3.1.2.2(i)).
• Attached garage or carport width max 50% of the lot width measured at the front wall, and the inside of the garage/carport at least 2.9 m x 5.5 m (s.3.1.1.10(a), by-law p.91, PDF p.109).
• Not more than one residential building (excluding accessory buildings) per lot in any R-, RR- or RS-class zone; one detached one-family dwelling per lot in any zone (s.3.1.1.1(a)-(b), by-law p.87, PDF p.105).
• Corner lots: the minimum interior side yard and minimum rear yard may be interchanged (s.3.1.1.2, PDF p.105).
• Landscaping: at least 30% of the lot landscaped, and at least 45% of the required or established front yard (whichever is less) kept as landscaped open space free of parking, driveways and accessory buildings (s.3.1.1.4, by-law p.88, PDF p.106).
• Residential special care facility (in a detached or semi-detached one-family dwelling or detached duplex): max 10 residents excluding staff; min lot frontage 12 m and lot area 360 m2; 200 m separation from any other such facility; annual registration; parking 2 spaces for the first 6 residents plus 1 per 2 additional residents (s.3.1.1.3, PDF p.105-106; s.2.2.1.1(h), PDF p.83).
• Commercial vehicles: no bus or commercial vehicle over 3,800 kg GVW, commercial/transport trailer or equipment parked in a residential zone, except one vehicle up to 5,600 kg GVW owned/operated by the resident inside a wholly enclosed private garage. Recreational vehicles, trailers and boats only by the resident owner, in the rear yard, a side yard (not within 1.2 m of the side lot line), a garage/carport, or on the front driveway from 1 April to 31 October (not within 3 m of the principal entrance) (s.3.1.1.8, by-law p.90, PDF p.108).
• Accessory buildings and structures (s.2.1.11.1, by-law p.50-51, PDF p.68-69): not attached to and not within 1 m of the principal building; not between the regulatory building line and the street line; not closer to a street than the required exterior side yard; at least 1.2 m from the interior side lot line when in a side or front yard; at least 0.6 m from interior side and rear lot lines when in a rear yard; all accessory uses/buildings together max 10% of lot area; max height 4.5 m and one storey; no human habitation or home occupation. A garage or carport attached to the house is not an accessory building (s.2.1.11.1(g)).
• Outdoor swimming pools/hot tubs: not in front of the regulatory building line; at least 1.0 m from interior side and rear lot lines; inground pools may sit in the exterior side yard at 1.0 m with the deck no more than 0.6 m above existing grade; pools don't count toward the 10% accessory limit; fencing per the City Fence By-law (s.2.1.11.2, PDF p.69-70).
• Permitted yard encroachments (s.2.1.15, PDF p.72-73): eaves, sills, chimneys, steps etc. 0.5 m into any yard; bay windows 1 m (max 3 m wide) into front, exterior side and rear yards; balconies on detached/semi-detached/duplex dwellings 0.6 m into front, exterior side and rear yards; open or covered unenclosed porches/decks/patios not over 3 m high 2.5 m into front, exterior side and rear yards; uncovered paved patios 2.5 m into the front yard, unlimited elsewhere; open decks not over 3 m high 0.2 m into the interior side yard; fire escapes 1.6 m (rear only); wheelchair ramps 5.0 m.
• Parking location: for a detached or semi-detached one-family dwelling or linear row house, no parking stall may be in front of the regulatory or established building line, whichever is less (s.2.2.2.3(c), PDF p.89); a supplementary tandem stall may be in the driveway, with the driveway max 7 m wide (10.5 m for a three-car garage) and no other part of the front or exterior side yard used for parking (s.2.2.2.3(d), PDF p.89).
• Driveways for detached/semi-detached dwellings and linear row houses: min 2.75 m, max 7 m wide; max 10.5 m for a three-car garage of a detached dwelling, duplex, triplex or converted dwelling; the 45% front-yard landscaping rule still applies (s.2.2.4.5, by-law p.78, PDF p.96). No residential driveway within 7.5 m of the intersection of two street lines (s.2.2.4.4, PDF p.95).
• Parking stalls: at least 2.9 m x 5.5 m (6.5 m long if parallel) under the general table in s.2.2.3.1-3 (PDF p.92). The extra allowances in s.2.2.3.9-10 (steps projecting 0.5 m into a space; a garage wall projecting 0.5 m for up to 1.5 m) name only R-, RS- and RM-class zones, and the RR- and RD-classes are separate zone classes (s.1.1.2.1, PDF p.49), so those allowances do not apply here by their terms.
• Home occupations (s.2.1.17, by-law p.55-56, PDF p.73-74): craftsperson workshop, instructor's classroom, business office, private home day care, personal services incl. hairdressing, computer services, small-goods repair, caterer; conducted wholly inside the dwelling by residents with at most one non-resident employee (who needs one on-lot parking space, tandem allowed); no outside storage, no exterior alteration, no commercial-vehicle shipping; max two clients at a time (five children for home day care).
• Setback from designated roads: on streets in the Table of Designated Road Allowances, buildings must be set back from the original centreline by the required yard plus half the designated road allowance (s.2.1.19, by-law p.57-61, PDF p.75-79).
• Corner-lot sight triangle (15 m along the travelled edges): nothing over 0.75 m high, except on lots inside the shaded areas of Special Area Maps Z4, Z5 and Z6, where s.2.1.14 does not apply (s.2.1.14, PDF p.72); fences within 3.0 m of a street line max 0.9 m (s.2.4.4, PDF p.100).
• Garbage stored only inside a building or in a container in the side or rear yard (s.2.1.16, PDF p.73).
• Additional residential units (ARUs), added to 150-85 by By-law 23-077 (enacted 12 September 2023; text from the Council agenda copy, eSCRIBE DocumentId 8407), which repealed By-laws 22-017 and 108-18 and applies to all residentially zoned land: a maximum of two ARUs per lot with a principal dwelling (single detached, semi-detached or street townhouse): two attached, or one attached and one detached (s.3.1.1.11 paras. 3-4). Not permitted with a group home or a boarding, lodging or rooming house (s.3.1.1.11 para. 5), on hazard lands (s.3.1.1.11 para. 8), or on a lot with a bed-and-breakfast hostel (s.2.1.20.8). Parking: one additional space per ARU, which may be tandem and may sit between the building line and the street line; no new driveway or access may be created for an ARU (s.3.1.1.11 para. 6). Where municipal services are available, the principal dwelling and its ARUs must all be connected to municipal water and sewer of adequate size; where they are not, private water and sewer must be shown, to the City's satisfaction, to be capable of serving them all (s.3.1.1.11 para. 7). The ARU entrance may be at most 45 m from the street or highway (s.3.1.1.11 para. 9). Attached ARU: where access is from the interior side yard, the entrance at least 1.2 m from the interior side lot line; where the entrance is a side- or rear-yard door, an unobstructed path at least 0.9 m wide and 2.1 m high from that door to the street; notwithstanding s.2.1.15, only steps or landings up to 1.1 m deep and 0.6 m high may project into the path, and they must keep access to the rear yard and positive drainage on the lot (s.3.1.1.11.1). Detached ARU: in the interior side, exterior side or rear yard; at least 1.2 m from the interior side lot line and the rear lot line (on a through lot accessed by a laneway, 3.0 m from the lot line along the laneway); exterior side yard as for the zone; at least 3 m from the principal dwelling; maximum height 4.5 m; maximum lot coverage 10%; an unobstructed path at least 0.9 m wide and 2.1 m high from the street to its entrance (s.3.1.1.11.2). A detached ARU also counts toward the 10% lot-area cap on accessory buildings (s.2.1.11.1(d), as amended by 23-077 s.3; the by-law cites it as '1.1.11.1(d)', a slip, since s.1.1.11 of 150-85 is Consolidated Multiple Lot Development).
• Converting a detached or semi-detached house into more units outside the ARU rules is a site-specific permission only: s.4.2.8 (by-law p.262-266, PDF p.280-284) lists the addresses and the total units allowed at each, with a 40 m2 minimum for each added unit, a zone-specific minimum for the main unit (90 m2 in RR1/RR2/R4; 120 m2 in R1/R2/R3; 75 m2 in R5/R6/RS1/RM), and 1 parking space per unit. Bed-and-breakfasts in residential zones are likewise limited to the addresses in s.4.2.9.
• (H) holding prefix (s.2.1.4, by-law p.45, PDF p.63): until Council removes the (H) by amendment, the land may only be used for farming (no intensive animal, fur or fish farming), market or landscape gardening, and uses permitted in all zones under s.2.1.1. Map codes such as (H1), (H2), (H3) are numbered holding provisions set by site-specific amendments and are not described in the 2012 consolidation.
• (F) floodplain prefix (s.1.1.2.2(b)(iii), s.2.1.8, by-law p.33, 48-49, PDF p.51, 66-67): land below the regulatory flood line. No new habitable room below the flood line; no hospital, home for the aged, group home or domiciliary hostel on land more than 1 m below it, and no access to such uses below it; no bulk storage of dangerous materials below it. The same rules apply to flood-prone land outside the Special Policy Area (Map Z3). Grand River Conservation Authority approval is also required.