Patio Covers, Motorized Screens & Outdoor Heating in Coquitlam

The City's homeowner and residential building projects page groups "Decks, balconies, awnings, retaining walls over 1.2 m" together as exterior work that changes the building or property, and states a permit is generally required for it. Confirm your own project with the City.

The Building Division FAQ listing when a permit is required names building a deck or gazebo outright, and separately names "Adding an accessory building, equipment room, shed, or detached garage over 10m2". A freestanding covered structure is going to be read against that second line.

Read the exemptions before assuming a cover is included. The published list includes decks less than 0.6 metres above grade, sidewalks or patios on private property, fences, retaining walls under 1.2 metres, installation of a new roof on an existing building, and storage or garden shed structures under 10 square metres subject to Zoning Bylaw setbacks. A new roof structure over an open patio is not named on that list.

The City closes its exemption list with a note in its own words: work that does not require a permit "still needs to comply with the City's Bylaws and the BC Building Code." Falling under an exemption removes the permit step, not the setbacks, the height limits or the Code.

Section 514 of the Zoning Bylaw groups awnings, canopies, eaves and sunlight control projections together as siting exceptions. The setback to an interior lot line may be reduced by 0.6 metres from the approved or permitted setback. Setbacks to all other lot lines may be reduced by 1.5 metres, provided a minimum setback of 0.6 metres is maintained. Confirm the permitted setback for your own zone and lot line with the City.

In the legacy RS-1 zone the setback table splits on separation. A detached accessory structure sited 1.6 metres or more from a building for residential use takes 7.6 metres front, 1.2 metres rear and 1.2 metres interior side. Attached to the house, or sited closer than 1.6 metres, the companion row reads 7.6 front, 7.6 rear and 1.8 interior side. On a shallow rear yard that one decision is the whole project. Note this is a zoning consequence: the building permit FAQ does not draw the same attached versus detached distinction.

R-1 states that accessory buildings and structures must not exceed 3.7 metres measured from finished grade, or 4.6 metres with a roof pitch of 4 in 12 or greater over at least 80 percent of all roof surfaces. The legacy RS-1 zone carries the same two figures but writes the clause for detached buildings and structures for accessory residential or accessory off-street parking. Which zone and which clause apply to your property is a question for the City.

R-1 reads "All buildings and structures together must not exceed a lot coverage of 50%", and the legacy RS-1 zone sets the equivalent figure at 45 percent. A covered outdoor structure sits inside that calculation, which matters on a lot where the house is already near the limit.

R-1 states it plainly: "Detached accessory uses, buildings and structures must not be located in the front yard." A freestanding cover over a front courtyard or entry is not a starting point in that zone.

Section 519 bars a building or structure, or any part of either, from being constructed on a slope or adjacent to the crest or toe of a slope steeper than 18 degrees, which the bylaw states as 32 percent or 1.0 vertical to 3.0 horizontal, and within 3.0 metres of a side yard and 5.0 metres of a back or front yard measured horizontally from that crest or toe, without a completed Slope Hazard Assessment to the satisfaction of the City Building Official.

The City's own bulletin explaining the 2022 change puts it in one sentence: "There are no longer any exemptions for special building types, and the requirements also apply to stand-alone building permits." A patio cover applied for on its own, with no house permit attached, is not outside this.

The same bulletin records that "The maximum slope requiring review has been adjusted from 36% to 32%, and the assessment requirements are adjusted depending on the height of the slope and corresponding risk." Anyone working from older guidance is working from the wrong number. The bulletin refers to the Chief Building Official where section 519 says City Building Official; both are the City's own wording and we quote each as it reads.

The City's accessory detached buildings guide states a topographical survey "may be required for lots greater than 5% average slope", which is roughly six times lower than the figure that triggers a Slope Hazard Assessment, and describes a great many lots nobody would call steep.

The Official Community Plan contains four development permit areas and only one concerns slopes. Schedule A designates the Unstable Slopes Development Permit Area "for the purpose of protecting development from hazardous conditions due to unstable slopes resulting from the area's former use as a gravel pit", shown on Schedule G-3. Whether a given property falls inside it is a mapping question for the City. The general hillside control for a structure is not this area at all.

The adopted guidelines state that the Watercourse Protection Development Permit Area applies to all lands within 30 metres of the top of bank of a watercourse, and within 50 metres of the top of bank of watercourses to the east of the Coquitlam River, as shown on Schedule G-1. Because it is measured from top of bank it is a property specific question the City's mapping answers.

Of the five published exemptions, two could conceivably touch a shade project. One covers an existing building or structure renovated, altered or redeveloped within its existing footprint with no increase in impervious area, which a new roof over an open patio generally is not. The other is a determination by the General Manager Engineering and Public Works, on evaluation of the application, that the activity is minor in scope. That is discretionary and cannot be assumed in advance.

The Zoning Bylaw's riparian section carries a definition that applies, in its own words, in that section only: footprint "means the area covered by: (a) the structure; or (b) a projection from the structure, whether or not the projection is in contact with the ground." That belongs to the City's riparian assessment provisions and not to the development permit area distances above. Where a property is near either line, ask the City which of the two applies before the overhang depth is fixed.

The guidelines state that the Wildfire Hazard Development Permit Area applies to the Wildfire Interface Area as shown on Schedule G-2. Whether a property is inside it is a mapping question for the City, and being in the north of the city does not by itself answer it.

The wildfire exemption covers construction or siting of structures, accessory buildings or additions with less than 10 square metres of gross floor area, if the structure meets the wildfire mitigation construction requirements and is not planned as a dwelling unit. The unstable slopes exemption is written at less than 100 square feet of gross floor area, except if planned as a dwelling unit. Whether an open sided cover is counted as gross floor area at all is a question for the City, not an assumption to make.

The guide states that additions and detached accessory structures adding new roof surface area must have drainage systems designed to deliver the storm water to an approved municipal storm system, and that directing water to the surface directly or by using splashpads significantly contributes to flooding, soil erosion and water damage and is not acceptable.

The guide sets a rough age marker, generally where the home exceeds 20 years, and describes two remedies: bypass the principal dwelling and connect downstream by adding a privately owned sump on the private side of the property line, or, where a lane exists, apply to Engineering and Public Works to have a connection or inspection chamber installed. Either one is a cost and a timeline that belongs in the conversation early.

The guide states that a plumbing permit is required for all proposed storm drainage systems. That sits alongside the building permit for the structure rather than inside it. Confirm what your own property needs with the City.

The Zoning Bylaw lists accessory outdoor seating for patrons of a permitted restaurant, liquor primary establishment or liquor manufacturing use among the uses that need not be enclosed within a building, provided the seating does not encroach upon areas for parking, pedestrian circulation, loading or landscaping otherwise required under the bylaw.

The City names canopies, awnings and balconies explicitly among the things a property owner may apply to place on City owned or controlled land. It is an Engineering and Public Works application reviewed case by case, with proof of five million dollars third party liability insurance naming the City as additional insured, annual renewal of that proof, an annual permit fee, and a review that may take up to six weeks.

Two terms are worth reading before committing to a frontage design. The agreement runs with the property regardless of who owns it, and the City states it "reserves the right to direct the permanent encroachment be removed at any time on reasonable notice." That is an argument for a system that can be taken down and refitted rather than one built in place.

Section 529 requires an enclosed balcony to facilitate natural ventilation with at least 80 percent of the window area openable, not to enclose mechanical ventilation intakes and outlets within the space, to function as an unconditioned and unsealed space, to be constructed with an impervious floor system with adequate drainage, and not to function as a habitable room. Those last conditions effectively rule out treating an enclosed terrace as an extra room.

The same section requires the balcony, as part of a strata plan, to be located in an area designated as limited common property or common property. Where the terrace is not designated that way the zoning condition is not met, which is a question for the strata plan before it is a question for the product.

The City limits building permit applications to the owner or an authorized agent using its own form. On strata property the registered owner of the terrace area is frequently the strata corporation rather than the resident, so that authorization is sorted before an application exists. Where a change falls under a development permit amendment instead, the City asks for proof of strata council approval as part of the submission.