What can I build on my North Vancouver lot?
There are two North Vancouvers, and they now give opposite answers. The City allows up to six homes on an ordinary lot. The District caps almost every lot at three, and has no multiplex zone anywhere. Tell the tool which one you are in and it runs that by-law.
Run the numbersThe two municipalities diverged in 2026, and most guides still treat "North Vancouver" as one place. The City adopted Bylaw 9137 on 8 December 2025, creating the Ground Oriented zone with four or six homes at up to 1.00 floor space ratio. The District went the other way: it voted 4 to 3 against the Bill 25 changes on 13 April 2026, let the 30 June provincial deadline pass, and on 20 July 2026 adopted Bylaw 8799, which replaces the old RS zones across roughly 20,000 properties with R1 and R2. Neither of those permits a multiplex. We queried the District's own mapping and found zero parcels zoned for one.
Your lot
The City is the compact older area around Lonsdale, roughly from the harbour up to 29th Street, plus Lower Lonsdale and the Shipyards. The District is everything else: Lynn Valley, Deep Cove, Edgemont, Capilano, Blueridge, Seymour, Upper Lonsdale above 29th. If your property tax notice says "City of North Vancouver" you are in the City.
A word about lot area in the District. The District does not calculate from your lot area. It uses Net Lot Area, which strips out the panhandle of a panhandle lot, anything below the natural boundary of a creek, river, lake or the ocean, anything inside the riparian strip between a watercourse and the top of its bank as fixed by a BC Land Surveyor, and anything inside a transmission line right of way. If a creek and its bank take 120 square metres off a 700 square metre lot, the whole by-law treats you as a 580 square metre lot. Enter your Net Lot Area above if you know it.
The same lot, two municipalities
A 550 square metre lot, which is an ordinary North Shore size, on each side of the boundary:
| District of North Vancouver | City of North Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Homes | 3 | 4 or 6, by designation |
| Floor area | 442 m² (4,758 sq ft) | 468 to 550 m² counted, before deductions |
| How it is calculated | a formula on net lot area, plus a fixed bonus | a floor space ratio from the community plan map |
| Form | house, suite inside it, detached coach house | up to six ground oriented homes |
| Secondary suites | yes, one | not permitted in the Ground Oriented zone |
| Coach houses | yes in R2, never in R1 | not permitted in the Ground Oriented zone |
| Storeys | 2 at the street, 3 behind the front 6.1 m | 3, and the basement is one of them |
| Parking | deferred to Part 10, which we could not obtain | 0.5 spaces per home |
Note what that table actually says. The District gives you the bigger single house. The City gives you more homes. If your plan is a large family home with a suite and a coach house, the District is not the obstacle people assume. If your plan is four to six sellable homes, the District cannot do it at all and the City can.
In the District, zoning was never the constraint
Coach houses have been permitted on most single family lots in the District since its changes following the 2023 provincial legislation. Permission has not been the obstacle. At the April 2026 council meeting one delegate told council that roughly eight coach houses had been built in the District in the last ten years, and another described District consultant, servicing and infrastructure requirements as adding around 25 per cent to project cost.
Those are delegates speaking at a council meeting, not audited figures, and we present them as such. But the direction is not in doubt, and it matches what we see on our own files. The geotechnical report, the arborist report, the survey, the civil design, the servicing upgrade and the development permit process are where District coach houses die, not the zoning bylaw.
That is a process and cost problem, and it is the one we are actually useful for. We coordinate the geotechnical, arborist, survey and civil work as one package rather than handing you six phone numbers and a schedule that does not line up.
Net Lot Area is not your lot area
Before any District calculation begins, four things come off: the panhandle strip, land below the natural boundary of a watercourse or the ocean, the riparian area up to the surveyed top of bank, and transmission line rights of way. On the North Shore, creeks and steep bank are common, so this is not a rare deduction. It needs a BC Land Surveyor to fix it, which is why we get the survey done early rather than late.
A bigger lot can allow a smaller house
The District formula uses a generous 0.70 multiplier up to 464.5 square metres and a much stingier 0.55 above it, switching all at once with no taper. A 464 square metre lot gets about 418 square metres of house. A 465 square metre lot gets about 349. You have to grow to roughly 591 square metres before you are back where the smaller lot started. If you are buying land or adjusting a lot line, 464.5 is the number to know.
In the City, the basement is a storey
The Ground Oriented zone permits three storeys and 10.0 metres, measured from the lowest floor to the highest ceiling, and a floor partly or wholly below ground counts as one of the three. Almost everyone reads it as three storeys plus a basement. It is not. That single definition changes what a six home project can actually look like, and it is the first thing we test on a City site.
Very large District lots gain nothing
Total floor area stops at 650.3 square metres, or 696.8 with a coach house, and both ceilings are reached at about 1,013 square metres of Net Lot Area. A half acre and a full acre get exactly the same house. Extra land beyond that buys garden, privacy and setback comfort, not building.
What this tool cannot tell you
- Your Net Lot Area, in the District. The riparian deduction requires a BC Land Surveyor. We ask you to enter it; we cannot compute it.
- Your land use designation, in the City. Four homes or six comes off the Official Community Plan map, not off your title, and the zoning layer does not carry it. Send us the address and we will look it up.
- Whether your District lot carries an S1, S2 or S3 modifier. Those change the subdivision minimum from 660 square metres to 335, 1,100 or 4,000. They affect subdividing, not building on what you have.
- Whether a coach house is possible on your particular District lot. The adopted Schedule A contains no lane requirement and no exemption map, but the District has previously controlled coach house vehicle access by road classification. Worth confirming.
- Parking in the District. Both zones defer to Part 10 of the bylaw, which we could not retrieve. We would rather show nothing than a number we have not read.
- The 266 legacy lots. That many District parcels still carry old RS family zone codes and run on different rules entirely. Two rule sets are live at once.
What it costs to build
Eurohouse builds new multi-unit work at $450 to $650 per square foot, subject to access, lot terrain and finishes. That is construction only. It excludes land, municipal fees and development cost charges, consultants, geotechnical and arborist reports, survey, landscaping and furniture. The number we stand behind is the fixed price after we have walked the lot.
On the North Shore, terrain moves that range more than anywhere else we work. A flat Lynn Valley lot and a steep Deep Cove lot with rock and a creek setback are different projects at the same square footage. A coach house sits in the upper half of the range because it is a small floor plate with a great deal of envelope per square foot, so a 130 square metre coach house is realistically $850,000 to $975,000 before District consultant and servicing costs.
These are construction ranges for planning purposes, not quotes.
Questions we get asked
Can I build a fourplex in the District of North Vancouver?
No. The District rejected the four to six unit option in June 2024 and adopted a three unit approach instead, then voted 4 to 3 against the Bill 25 changes on 13 April 2026 and let the 30 June 2026 provincial deadline pass. Bylaw 8799, adopted 20 July 2026, replaced the old RS zones with R1 and R2, and neither permits a multiplex. We queried the District's own mapping and found zero parcels in any multiplex zone. The ceiling is a house, a secondary suite and a coach house.
How many homes can I build in the City of North Vancouver?
Three on a lot of 280 square metres or less. Above that, four in a Low Rise Neighbourhood 1 area at 0.85 floor space ratio, or six in Low Rise Neighbourhood 2 and Residential Level 4 areas at 1.00. The count comes from the Official Community Plan map rather than from your lot size, which is why the tool has to ask.
Why does my District lot allow less house than my neighbour's smaller one?
Because of the 464.5 square metre threshold. Up to that figure the formula multiplies Net Lot Area by 0.70; above it, by 0.55. There is no taper. Every lot between 464.5 and about 591 square metres allows less floor area than a 464.5 square metre lot does. Coverage drops from 55 per cent to 45 at the same line, and the landscape requirement rises from 35 per cent to 45.
Do garages and basements count in the District now?
Broadly yes, and this is where most of the confusion sits. An enclosed garage has no floor area exclusion in the new tables; the 400 square foot exclusion that people remember now applies to open carports. Full in ground basements are not banned, they simply stopped being exempt: a crawl space up to 1.5 metres is excluded, and anything above that counts. So the accurate sentence is that both now count against your floor area, not that either is prohibited.
Can I have a secondary suite and a coach house in the City?
Not in the Ground Oriented zone. It permits neither. The homes are the homes, and you cannot add a suite inside one to reach a seventh unit. That is a real difference from the District, where a house plus a suite plus a coach house is the standard three unit arrangement.
My property is in a City heritage area. What applies?
Probably the old RS-1 or RS-2 rules. Roughly 260 to 410 properties in the City's heritage character and conservation areas were left out of the Ground Oriented zone. Bylaws 9153 and 9154 would have brought them in, but Council referred them back to staff on 11 May 2026 and they had not returned by the last posted minutes of 20 July 2026. Treat that position as under active change.
How current are the District numbers on this page?
Bylaw 8799 was adopted on 20 July 2026, but the District has not published the adopted Schedule A at any address we can reach, and the consolidated bylaw PDF cannot be read past Part 4. The figures here come from Schedule A as presented to Council on 2 June 2026, stamped "Bylaw Under Consideration". Amendments between third reading and adoption are normal, so confirm with District planning on 604-990-4111 before committing money. We say this rather than presenting the numbers as settled, because we would rather be trusted than confident.
Does Eurohouse work on the North Shore?
It is where most of our work is. We are a licensed general contractor building across North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler, on custom homes, coach houses, multiplex and infill work, commercial tenant improvements and insurance restoration. Call 604-728-5682 or email info@eurohouse.ca.
Primary sources
- District of North Vancouver, Schedule A to Bylaw 8799, R1 and R2 zones, 2 June 2026, marked "Bylaw Under Consideration". Bylaw 8799 was adopted 20 July 2026.
- District of North Vancouver, Zoning Bylaw 3210 consolidated, updated August 2026
- District of North Vancouver, Bylaw 8698, the three unit approach adopted in place of the four to six unit option
- City of North Vancouver, Extract from Bylaw 9137, Zoning Bylaw Amendment, adopted 8 December 2025
- City of North Vancouver, Ground Oriented Zone handout
- City of North Vancouver, Minutes, Regular Council Meeting, 11 May 2026, referring Bylaws 9153 and 9154 back to staff
- Province of British Columbia, Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing Provincial Policy Manual
Send us the address and we will tell you which side of the line you are on
We will confirm the municipality, the zone, the land use designation in the City, and the Net Lot Area deductions in the District, then tell you what is genuinely buildable rather than what the by-law permits on paper. No charge for the first conversation.
604-728-5682 Send us the address