Building on a lot in Cumberland.

For anyone buying a lot in Cumberland, on subjects, or planning a suite, a laneway home, a shop or a shed: the short version of the rules that decide what you can build. Everything here comes from Cumberland’s new Zoning Bylaw No. 1238, 2025 (adopted February 9, 2026) and Amendment Bylaw 1266, 2026, plus the Floodplain, Building, Noise and Business Licence bylaws, read in September 2026. Where a rule couldn’t be confirmed from the document itself, this page says so rather than guess.

Cumberland rewrote its zoning this year. Zoning Bylaw No. 1238, 2025 was adopted February 9, 2026 and repealed Bylaw 1027; Bylaw 1266 amended it in 2026. The residential zones are now:

• R-1 Infill Residential
• R-2 West Dunsmuir Residential
• R-3 Large Lot Residential
• R-MU Multi-Unit Residential and R-RTMU Rental Tenure Multi-Unit Residential
• R-MHP Manufactured Home Park Residential

The new zones are built for infill — more than one home on a lot. The unit counts and lot-size thresholds sit in Part 10 of the bylaw and were changed again by Bylaw 1266, so confirm the number for your lot with the Village before you plan around it.

What’s settled:

• No coach-house loophole. Accessory buildings can’t contain a dwelling or sleeping unit (s.6.1(3)), so a backyard or laneway home has to be allowed as a dwelling unit in its own right.
• Rear homes need access. Where there’s no lane at least 6.0 m wide, a 1.5 m emergency-access path has to run from the front to the rear unit (s.5.3.1). In R-1, the rear setback is 1.5 m where the rear line meets a lane.
• Secondary suites — one per main home, built into it with its own entrance, not linked by a breezeway or garage, and not stratified (s.6.7). Suites aren’t charged development cost charges.

• Fences — 1.2 m in the front yard, 2.0 m elsewhere; no building permit up to 2.0 m (Table 7.4).
• Decks — a permit for decks more than 0.6 m above natural grade and for covered porches; lower roofless decks are exempt.
• Sheds — no permit under 10 m². One accessory building up to 25 m² can go up before the house, for storage only (s.6.1(2)).
• Retaining walls — 1.2 m or more needs a building permit and an engineer; lower landscape walls are exempt.
• Pools — need a building permit, a fence at least 1.4 m high and a self-closing, self-latching gate.
• Trees — no tree bylaw on private land. New homes must plant: one tree per unit for up to three units.
• Wood stoves — no woodstove, fireplace or pellet stove in any new home (Bylaw 1091).
• Home business — minor (inside the home, up to 20 m² or 25%, no employees), standard (up to 50 m², one employee) or major (up to 100 m², two).
• B&Bs and short-term rentals — both need the operator’s principal residence on the lot, and a licence. B&Bs: 2 sleeping units, 4 guests. Short-term rentals: 3 sleeping units, 6 guests, with the licence number in every listing. The provincial principal-residence rule applies. Ask the Village which zones allow them.
• Hens and bees — up to 6 hens, no roosters, rear yard. Up to 2 hives on lots of 550 m² or more, 6.0 m from sidewalks and neighbouring residential lot lines (Table 6.8).
• Burning and noise — no yard-waste fires; recreational fire permits are free. Construction 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays and holidays.

This page covers the rules across Cumberland. A report reads them against one lot. The free check gives you the lot’s size, its zone, the units the provincial housing rules allow, and flags for floodplain, farmland, streams and wildfire.

A LotSimple report ($50) adds setbacks and buildable area sketched on your lot, the permit areas on it and what each triggers, a LotSimple score, and 12 months of alerts if the rules change. See a sample of every tier.

Buying in Cumberland with a subject to remove? Answer these first:

• Which zone is the lot actually in? Check the zoning map, not the listing.
• Is it in a permit area, floodplain or stream setback? Each adds steps and cost.
• Is it on Village water and sewer, or septic? That decides what you can add.
• What’s on title? Covenants and rights-of-way can limit a lot more than zoning does.
• Anything you’ll spend money on: confirm it with the Village of Cumberland planning office.

• Floodplain. Floodplain Bylaw 962 sets the Comox Lake flood level at 137.5 m, floors 3.0 m above the Puntledge and Trent Rivers with a 30 m setback, and 1.5 m above other streams with a 15 m setback.
• Wildfire permit area. The Wildland-Urban Interface development permit area applies to single-lot projects too. Ask the Village whether your lot is in it.
• Heritage core. Downtown is a heritage conservation area: building, altering or demolishing there needs a heritage alteration permit.
• Near the landfill. No homes within 500 m of a refuse disposal facility.