Zoning Bylaw Rewrite

On Monday, October 6, City Staff presented the proposed new Zoning Bylaw to City Council for consideration of adoption. This is the culmination of a 2 year process including background research, public engagement, key stakeholder and government engagement, drafting the text, and preparing the maps. The proposed Zoning Bylaw implements the land use policies of the Whitehorse 2040 Official Community Plan (adopted in 2023), as is required by the Municipal Act following the adoption of a new Official Community Plan.

Proposed Zoning Bylaw 2025-37

Administrative Report to Council – Zoning Bylaw 2025-37

Proposed Changes Comparison Guide (Current Zoning Bylaw ➜ Draft Bylaw ➜ Proposed Bylaw)

What’s next?

Council will consider giving the bylaw first reading on October 14, 2025. If it passes first reading, a date will be set for the public hearing, and the formal public hearing period will begin. The anticipated date for the public hearing is November 24 at a regular meeting of Council.

Anyone can submit written input on the proposed bylaw prior to the public hearing by sending an email to publicinput@whitehorse.ca, or by delivering a letter to City Hall.

Anyone can speak to Council at the public hearing either in person, or by electronic means if arranged in advance.

You can check the proposed zoning of your property in two ways:

1. Look at the maps at the back of the proposed Zoning Bylaw 2025-37 (maps in pdf format); or
2. Use our online interactive mapping tool to review the proposed zoning and compare with the current zoning. Use our quick guide on how to view the proposed zoning.

How to read the proposed Zoning Bylaw:

Once you have found the zone code in the maps, you can review the corresponding regulations for that zone in Part 6 of the proposed Zoning Bylaw. The zone regulations list what uses are allowed, and provide development regulations such as building heights, setbacks, site coverage, and site density.

If the zone code has a ‘x’ in it, that means there are special modifications that apply to the lot or area. For zones with special modifications, all of the typical regulations for that zone apply, except as modified in the corresponding subsection. For example, if the zone code is RSDx(b), all of the typical zone regulations for the RSD zone apply, except as modified by subsection (b) in the special modifications section of the RSD zone regulations. Read more here about our approach to special modifications.

In addition to the zone-specific regulations, all developments must comply with the applicable regulations in Part 4 – General Regulations, and Part 5 – Specific Use Regulations:

• Part 4 – General Regulations provides regulations on building design, site design and landscaping, parking requirements and signage. These regulations apply to development in any zone.
  Part 5 – Specific Use Regulations provides additional regulations that apply to specific uses, regardless of what zone it’s in. For example, Home-Based Businesses are allowed in many zones, and there are regulations that apply to any Home-Based Business, regardless of the zone, to ensure the business does not negatively impact the residential character of the surrounding area.

Not sure what a ‘use’ means? All uses listed in the zone regulations have corresponding definitions in Part 3 – Definitions. This section also provides definitions for other terms commonly used throughout the bylaw.

Want to take a deeper dive? Have a look at Part 1 – Purpose, which identifies the purpose, enabling legislation, and interpretation of the bylaw, as well as procedures for amending the bylaw, and tools for enforcing the bylaw. Part 2 – Development Process describes the requirements for development permit applications, and the City processes for reviewing and deciding on development permit applications.

The Zoning Bylaw contains maps showing the zoning designation of all land within the city. These maps are found in Schedule A at the back of both the current Zoning Bylaw 2012-20 and the proposed new Zoning Bylaw 2025-37. But how were these zoning designations determined?

Alignment with Official Community Plan (OCP): The zoning bylaw must align with the OCP. The OCP provides land use designations, such as Residential – Urban, Mixed-Use – Downtown Core, and Industrial (and many others), which are shown in Map 5 of the OCP. The zone designations and corresponding regulations are designed to implement the policies for each land use designation, as outlined in Section 15 of the OCP.

Zone Conversion Table: The proposed bylaw introduces updated zone names and codes to be applied city-wide. In most cases, existing zones will be converted to new ones using the Zone Conversion Table. When drafting new zone regulations, care was taken to ensure that uses allowed under the current bylaw are generally maintained in the new zones. Likewise, development regulations, such as setbacks, site coverage, and building heights, are designed to be at least as permissive as those in the current bylaw for the corresponding zones.

Exceptions to the Zone Conversion Table: In some cases, the zone identified in the Zone Conversion Table is not appropriate. These exceptions fall into two categories:

1. OCP-Driven Changes: Where the default conversion does not align with the land use designation in the OCP, a different zone that aligns with the OCP has been selected.
2. Other Map Changes: In a few instances, successor zone from the conversion table is unsuitable for reasons unrelated to the OCP. For example, some properties currently zoned CM1 or CM2 are located outside the downtown area. The successor zone in the conversion table is the CMD (Commercial – Mixed-Use Downtown) zone, which is only appropriate downtown. As a result, a more suitable commercial zone has been selected for these properties.

A full list of affected areas is provided in the OCP-Driven and Other Map Changes document.

The current Zoning Bylaw has 86 special modifications, and each one has been carefully reviewed in the development of the proposed Zoning Bylaw. For each special modification, we assessed whether it should be deleted, modified, or kept substantially the same. Special modifications are proposed to be deleted if they are more restrictive than the standard zone or if they are no longer warranted in relation to the OCP. Special modifications are proposed to be kept or modified if they remain relevant and do not conflict with the OCP.

In total, 40 special modifications are carried forward into the proposed bylaw. Additionally, 6 new special modifications have been introduced to support specific OCP policies or to address situations where standard zone conversion is not appropriate for a particular site.

All retained special modifications have been rewritten for consistency and clarity, ensuring they are easier to understand and apply.

A complete list of the special modifications from the current Zoning Bylaw, including the proposed action (delete, modify, or keep) and the reason, and all newly introduced modifications, is provided in the List of Special Modifications document.

A proposed Zoning Bylaw will be introduced to the City Planning Committee on October 6.

The proposed Zoning Bylaw was developed following extensive public engagement over the past two years.

Read a What We Heard Report from the most recent round of public engagement here.

Read about the big changes in the proposed Zoning Bylaw here.

See a comparison between the current Zoning Bylaw and the proposed Zoning Bylaw here.

Members of the public can provide input on the proposed Zoning Bylaw be emailing publicinput@whitehorse.ca.

Residents will also have the opportunity to provide input at a Public Hearing later this fall (date to be confirmed).

We will update this page once the dates for the Council process have been confirmed, including the date for the Public Hearing.

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the second round of engagement we conducted between May 16, 2025 and June 20, 2025 on the Draft Zoning Bylaw. We are excited to release the Engagement Summary Report which summarizes the input we received.

It is anticipated that a comprehensive Proposed Zoning Bylaw will be ready for Council consideration by October 2025. You will have an opportunity to provide input on the Proposed Zoning Bylaw at an upcoming Public Hearing at City Hall. Dates for the Council process, including the Public Hearing, will be provided as they become available.

The survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey!

We are now preparing a What We Heard report summarizing the input received through the survey and open houses.

Your feedback, along with interested party feedback and best practices data, will be used to inform the draft Zoning Bylaw to help the City finalize the bylaw for Council review and approval.

Local builders, developers, and property owners are invited to participate in a Small-Scale Multi-Unit Development Design Workshop hosted by the City of Whitehorse and Kobayashi + Zedda Architects.

Developer Workshop
Date: Monday, January 20
Time: 8 am to 12 pm
Location: Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre – Lu Zil Män / Multi-Purpose Room (1171 1st Avenue)
Register Here

General Public Workshop
Date: Tuesday, January 28
Time: 5 pm to 9 pm
Location: Baked Café (100 Main Street)
Register Here

In April 2024, Council adopted Bylaw 2024-16, a bylaw to amend the Zoning Bylaw to enable a wider range of opportunities for residential development within the City’s neighbourhoods. This included permitting up to four units per lot on all urban residential lots.

The workshops are an opportunity for builders and property owners to learn more about these changes, and design considerations, and workshop a small-scale multi-unit housing design with local architects and City staff. Attendees will be able to workshop their own designs and plans, with the local architects and City staff available to assist and answer questions. Attendees will also have the option of working on a sample design. To have materials prepared for your design, please submit the materials you have here one week before the date you wish to attend.

Kobayashi + Zedda architects will be facilitating the workshops and will lead a presentation on considerations for the development of small-scale multi-unit housing in Whitehorse and facilitate the following workshop.

The General Public workshop is intended for individuals interested in developing dwelling units on their own property.

The Developer Workshop is intended for businesses and organizations who undertake development as a profession, including: builders, land developers, governments, non-profit organizations, and development professionals (e.g. architects, designers, etc.).

Light refreshments will be provided. Attendance is limited, please register in advance to secure your attendance.

To host these workshops, The City of Whitehorse received financing from CMHC, however, the views expressed are the personal views of the author and CMHC accepts no responsibility for them.

Thank you to those who were able to attend the webinar(s) for a Guide for Developing Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing. Please take a few minutes to complete our exit survey and let us know to what degree the webinar was useful for you. We would also appreciate feedback on the topics covered, and if you would like any future events and materials to cover additional topics or certain topics in more depth.

Exit Survey Link

If you were not able to attend or would like to review the webinar, the webinar recordings and slide deck are available at the links below and on the left of this page under Documents and Videos.

Webinar Slide Deck

Webinar General Public

Webinar Professional Developers

If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback directly, please email planning@whitehorse.ca

The City has published a Guide for Developing Small-Scale Multi-Unit Housing. The guide is intended to communicate the new zoning changes for anyone interested in adding additional dwelling units to an urban residential lot.

This guide is also intended to highlight various site and building design considerations that must be addressed when developing up to four dwelling units on an urban residential lot.

This is a living document and will be updated as new regulations come into effect. Notably, a new Zoning Bylaw will come into effect in 2025. The names of zones may change and/or some zones may consolidate into one zone. Development regulations may also undergo further changes