Municipal

Zoning for a shop, café or kitchen

Before you sign a lease, check that the zoning at that address allows your use. Cities split food businesses into separate uses — restaurant, take-out, drive-through, food processing, retail — and a use a zone doesn’t list is not allowed there; making food with no counter is often an industrial use. Victoria’s 2018 zoning bylaw bans drive-throughs in every zone it covers.

Changes are coming

  • No parking variance to move into an existing Victoria space — proposed, no date set; it may not happen. What changes
  • Saanich’s new parking and loading rules — proposed, no date set; it may not happen. What changes
Who issues it
Your municipality
Cost
Looking it up is free. A written confirmation costs $80 to $210 where a municipality sells one — see the table on this page.
Forms and pages

Do you need it?

You need it if

  • You are leasing or buying a space for a restaurant, café, take-out, bakery, shop or food processor.
  • You are changing what an existing space is used for — a shop becoming a café, an office becoming a kitchen.

You don’t need it if

  • You are working from your own home — that is home business zoning, a different set of rules.
Where this comes from

Sources

How to get it

Zoning says what a property may be used for. It is the one check that has to come before you sign anything: a lease on a space where your use isn’t allowed can’t be fixed with a permit.

  1. 1

    Name your use the way the bylaw does

    Bylaws split food businesses into separate uses — restaurant, take-out, drive-through, food processing, retail — and a use a zone doesn’t list is not allowed there. Oak Bay allows restaurants only in its C-2 and C-3 zones, up to 200 m²; North Cowichan allows food processing in its light-industrial zone but not its commercial ones; Duncan bans industrial activity in every zone.

  2. 2

    Look the address up

    Every municipality publishes a zoning map — see the table below for where.

  3. 3

    Ask the municipality to confirm, before you sign

    Planning staff will tell you whether your use is allowed. Several sell a written confirmation: $200 in Saanich and Oak Bay, $100 in Colwood, $210 in North Cowichan, $80 in Campbell River. In Victoria, also ask for the space’s legal use, which can differ from the zone.

  4. 4

    Check the limits that come with the use

    A use can be allowed with conditions: a maximum floor area, a number of seats, or parking — Campbell River asks one space per four restaurant seats where a shop needs one per 40 m².

Where this comes from

Sources

Checking zoning in each municipality

Where to look up what an address is zoned for, and who confirms it.

  • Look the address up on VicMap or email zoning@victoria.ca. Before you sign a lease, ask the City to confirm the space’s legal use too — it can differ from the zone.

  • Find the zone on SaanichMap. A Letter of Zoning Confirmation costs $200 and takes up to 10 working days.

  • The Parcel Information Map and the zoning map are on the City’s mapping page.

  • Check with Development Services (250-414-7103) before you sign a lease. A Property Information Letter stating the zoning costs $52.50 and must be requested in person.

  • Before leasing, confirm the use is permitted (planning@oakbay.ca). A Letter of Zoning Confirmation costs $200. Restaurants are allowed only in the C-2 and C-3 zones, up to 200 m².

  • Zoning is on Colwood’s GIS maps; questions to planning@colwood.ca. A written “comfort letter” on zoning costs $100.

  • Check with the Town before you commit to a lease — developmentservices@sidney.ca, 250-656-1725. The zoning map and SidneyMap are online.

  • NanaimoMap opens on the zoning layer; Current Planning staff will help confirm it.

  • Check with Development Services (250-746-6126) before you buy or lease; the zoning map is a PDF. Food processing isn’t defined and industrial activity is banned in every zone, so ask Planning where a processor fits.

  • Use the interactive GIS map. A File Review Letter giving the current zoning costs $210 and takes up to 10 business days. Food and beverage processing is allowed in the light-industrial zone, not the commercial ones.

  • Use the interactive zoning map, and email planning@courtenay.ca before you apply. Zoning Bylaw 3203 replaced the old Bylaw 2500 in March 2026.

  • The zoning map may be out of date — confirm with City staff (planning@campbellriver.ca). The licence review also checks your use is permitted. A bylaw compliance letter costs $80.

Where this comes from

Sources

Once you have it

  • Zoning follows the use, not the tenant. Turning a shop into a café later is a change of use, and needs a building permit even with no construction.
  • Your Business licenceYour municipality’s permission to do business there, renewed each year in most towns. It is separate from Island Health’s permits and from zoning: you usually need all three.All terms in the glossary application is checked against the zoning too, so a use that isn’t allowed is caught there — but by then the lease is signed.
Where this comes from

Sources

What comes next

Island Health plan approvalIsland HealthBuilding permit for a renovation or change of useYour municipality

Which businesses need it

Restaurants & cafésBefore you sign a leaseBakeriesBefore you sign a leaseCaterers & personal chefsIf you set up your own kitchenDelivery-only & ghost kitchensIf you set up your own kitchenPackaged food makersIf you set up your own kitchenKombucha, juice & coffee makersIf you set up your own kitchenBreweries, wineries, cideries & distilleriesCheck zoning for your production site firstGrocers & specialty food shopsBefore you sign a leaseButchers, delis & fishmongersBefore you sign a lease

The rules behind this page

Last checked 9 October 2026. We check this guide regularly against Island Health, provincial and municipal sources, but regulations and laws change often and we can’t guarantee it is complete or current. Confirm with Island Health and your municipality before you apply, build or sell.

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