Text Amendment - Residential Uses and Subsidiary Dwelling Units

Dark grey background with text that says Text Amendment

The City is considering a text amendment to the St. John’s Development Regulations to enable more residential uses and to change the requirements for Subsidiary Dwelling Units within a Single Detached Dwelling.

A Municipal Plan amendment is not required for these changes. They include:

Adding “Semi-Detached Dwelling” as a permitted use in the Residential 1 (R1) Zone. The R1 Zone already allows people to have a single detached house that has a main unit plus up to 2 subsidiary units in the house. Somone would need a lot area of at least 720 square metres to accommodate two (2) semi-detached dwellings. For comparison, a single house requires 450 square metres of land.

Changing “Dwelling Units above the second storey” in the Commercial Regional (CR) Zone from a discretionary use to a permitted use.
Changing “Accessory Dwelling Units” in the Industrial General (IG) Zone from a permitted use to a discretionary use.
Adding “Lodging Houses” and “Accessory Dwelling Units” as discretionary uses in the Agriculture (AG) Zone.
Adjusting the “Subsidiary Dwelling Unit (SDU)” requirements so the combined gross floor area of two SDUs within a Single Detached Dwelling can be larger than the main dwelling unit, so long as each subsidiary unit is smaller than the main unit.

You can learn more about this text amendment on the Planning St. John’s webpage at engagestjohns.ca/planning. The Planning St. John's webpage allows the public to learn more about planning applications, track progress, give feedback and ask questions all in one place.

View Text Amendment

Comment By

9:30 a.m. Tuesday, August 5th, 2025.

Comments

Provide your comments to the Office of the City Clerk including your name and address to cityclerk@stjohns.ca or P.O. Box 908, St. John’s NL A1C 5M2.

Comments received become a matter of public record and are included in the Council agenda for the date a decision on the application will be made. Any identifying information (including your name) will be removed prior to your comment being released publicly. If you are writing on behalf of a group, organization, business, etc. and wish to remain anonymous, you must indicate as such with your submission.

Collection of personal information is authorized under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 2015 and is needed to consider your comments on this application. Questions about the collection and use of your information may be directed to the City Clerk at 709-576-8229 or cityclerk@stjohns.ca.

Additional Information

Notices are sent to property owners within 150 metres of the application site. For more information call 709-576-6192, email planning@stjohns.ca.