Patio Covers, Outdoor Heating & Roll Shutters in Whistler

The RMOW publishes: for all buildings at an elevation between 600 metres and 1000 metres (above mean sea level), Environment Canada has provided the RMOW with a calculation for Ground Snow Load (GSL) based on elevation, in meters. Ss (50-year, kPa) = 0.0143 * z. Sr (50-year, kPa) = 0.66 + 0.00033 * z. z = Mean Sea Level Elevation, in metres. The American spelling of meters in the first sentence is the RMOW's own. Our arithmetic on that formula, not a municipal statement: Ss runs 8.58 kPa at 600 metres, 11.44 kPa at 800 metres and 14.30 kPa at 1,000 metres.

The RMOW states: the high ground snow load in Whistler far exceeds the prescriptive requirements of Part 9 of the BC Building Code. Therefore, structural design of all Part 9 buildings and structures shall be designed to the loads outlined in Part 4 unless approved in writing by the Building Official. It also states: all Part 3 and 9 buildings in Whistler must be designed by a licensed Professional Engineer to Part 4 due to the high snow loads in Whistler; unless approved in writing by the Building Official. We found no RMOW document applying that sentence by name to a patio cover, pergola or awning, and the same sentence preserves the Building Official's written override, so confirm your own scope with the Building Department.

The same page states: please include site elevation, ground snow load values and specified snow load calculation on all Structural Drawings. The Part 4 specified snow load calculation the RMOW directs designers to is S = Is [Ss (CbCwCsCa) + Sr].

The published instruction is: for buildings above 1,000 metres elevation, please contact Environment Canada (416-739-4365 or ec.services.climatiques-climate.services.ec@canada.ca) for the appropriate ground snow load. There is no municipal default and no table to fall back on.

BC Building Code 2024, Division B, Appendix C, Table C-2 lists Whistler once, at 665 metres, with Ss 9.5 kPa and Sr 0.9 kPa. Our arithmetic, not a code statement: the RMOW's formula at z = 665 returns 9.51 and 0.88, which match the table entry to its own rounding. What we take from that is that the table entry describes one elevation, and the RMOW's instruction is to solve it again at yours.

Bylaw 2482 states that the bylaw does not apply to an accessory building with a floor area of less than 10m2 that does not contain electrical, fuel-burning or plumbing facilities. Read the condition at the end. A small cover with nothing in it may sit outside the bylaw, and the same cover with a motorized screen, an integrated light strip or a mounted radiant heater does not. Our view is that this is a genuine planning decision for anyone specifying an outdoor space here. Confirm your own scope with the Building Department before assuming either way.

The bylaw states that it does not apply to decks or patios which are less than 600mm from the ground or finished Grade, which are not attached to a Building and have no walls or roofs. Those three conditions are joined, not alternatives. Putting a roof over an existing low deck removes the third, and attaching that roof to the house removes the second. Because a cover is usually built over exactly this sort of deck, this is where a Whistler project most often crosses from outside the bylaw to inside it.

The same list states that the bylaw does not apply to a trellis or arbour, with no area limit and no conditions attached. We checked the bylaw's text: pergola, louver, louvre, patio cover, awning and canopy each appear zero times in it, while trellis and arbour appear once each. Our view, not the municipality's: an open slat structure that sheds water rather than carrying it looks closer to the excluded category than a solid or louvered roof does, and an adjustable louvered roof is a solid roof whenever it is closed. Which side of that clause a specific product lands on is a Building Official's call.

The municipality's residential permit page puts its small structure item under a heading reading Projects that may not require a permit, which is softer than the flat exemptions several Lower Mainland municipalities publish. The same page lists adding decks, balconies, or other structural elements under structural changes that do require a permit. Rather than reconcile those yourself, the RMOW states: if you are unsure if your project requires a building permit, email a detailed scope of work to building@whistler.ca, and a Building Official can help determine what permits may be required.

This is the most product specific line in the whole of Whistler's zoning. Part 2 defines: fence includes but is not limited to arbors, archways, boundary fences, gates, pergolas, screens, trellises or walls. Part 5 section 9 then caps fence height at 1.5 metres in a front setback area and 2 metres in all other setback areas on a parcel in Residential, Leisure, Tourist Accommodation, Tourist Pension and Tourist Bed and Breakfast zones, and at 2 metres in Commercial and Industrial zones. Two things to hold on to. The height limits are written as applying within setback areas, so whether they bite outside one is genuinely unclear from the text. And this is a zoning definition governing zoning questions, not automatically the building bylaw's own fence exemption, because Bylaw 2482 does not define fence. Put the application of it to your product to Planning.

Part 5 section 7 names unenclosed stairwells, balconies, porches, canopies and sunshades among the projections permitted in setback areas, provided such projections do not project more than 1.5 metres into required front and side setback areas and 2 metres into required rear parcel setback areas, provided the foundations or supports for such projections do not encroach into a required setback area. That final proviso decides the whole question for a covered structure. A cantilevered awning bolted to the wall can reach in. A post supported cover cannot use this allowance, because its supports would be standing in the setback the allowance is written about.

Part 5 section 3 sets a general maximum height of 5 metres for an auxiliary building and a general minimum siting of 3 metres from a side or rear parcel line, though individual zones set their own figures in some cases. For a worked comparison, in RS1 Single Family Residential One the house itself is allowed a building height of 7.6 metres, with a maximum site coverage of 35 percent, front and rear setbacks of 7.6 metres and a side setback of 3 metres or 6 metres depending on the dwelling's gross floor area. Confirm which figures govern your zone with Planning, and note that whether your structure is an auxiliary building at all is one of the open classification questions above.

Whistler's floodproofing rule is written as a list of named watercourses rather than as a generic riparian line. Part 5 section 4 states that no building or any part thereof shall be constructed, reconstructed, moved or extended nor shall any mobile home or unit, modular home or structure be located within 7.5 metres of the high water mark of a lake, swamp or pond; nor within 30 metres of the high water mark or Green River, Cheakamus River, Alta Creek (which is also known as the River of Golden Dreams), Whistler Creek, Sixteen Mile Creek, Nineteen Mile Creek, Twenty-one Mile Creek, and within 15 metres of the high water mark of any other nearby watercourse. The typo in the source is reproduced as published. The same section sets flood construction levels including elevation 640.5 metres Geodetic Survey of Canada datum adjacent to Alta Lake, though those elevation provisions are written about floor systems and slabs rather than open roofs.

The RMOW publishes a grid of its development permit areas against types of work. Under the column for construction of, addition to, or alteration of a building or structure, every one of the ten answers Yes, including Wildfire. The areas are Protection of Riparian Ecosystems, Protection of Sensitive Ecosystems, Aquifer Protection, Whistler Village, Whistler Creek, Commercial and Industrial, Multi-family Residential, Industrial, Intensive Residential and Wildfire. That is the trigger test, not the conclusion: the RMOW's own wording is that you need a development permit if your land is in a development permit area, there is not an exemption for your development, and you are planning that type of work. Several of these areas carry exemptions that catch this product, and they are set out below. The RMOW notes a property can sit in more than one area and tells you to check the Development Permit Areas layer on Whistler Map for your own address.

The RMOW's page says single family homes and duplexes are usually exempt other than in Riparian or Sensitive Ecosystem Protection areas. Part 5 section 28 of the zoning bylaw exempts detached dwellings, duplex dwellings and auxiliary buildings ancillary to them, then removes that exemption only where the parcel is in an environmental protection area and within 30 metres of the high water mark of a stream, or is in the RI1 Residential Infill One zone. Read exactly, the first of those is both conditions rather than either, so being inside an environmental area but well back from the stream is a different situation from being inside it and close to it. Confirm which applies to your parcel with Planning.

Whistler designates every parcel shown as High Risk, Moderate Risk or Wildland on Schedule S as a wildfire development permit area, and justifies it by noting the municipality is 24,375 hectares in size and more than 65 per cent of this area is forested. The exemption list then includes any development comprised entirely of non-flammable materials such as metal, stone or concrete, and separately auxiliary buildings except for detached auxiliary residential dwelling units. We are not claiming your project qualifies, because the RMOW applies that clause and we do not. We are saying material choice has a regulatory consequence here that it does not have elsewhere in the region, and it is worth raising with Planning before the design is fixed.

Where the wildfire guidelines do apply, the High Risk guidance states that exterior building surfaces, including deck surfacing, roofing and cladding, that is situated under, or within 6 metres of, coniferous vegetation should be non-flammable materials such as stone, metal, concrete, masonry or fiber-cement. Note that it uses a distance rather than a property line, so a structure built under mature trees is squarely inside the test. The Moderate Risk guidelines are gentler but still state that roof structures should be comprised of fire-resistant roofing and that metal, clay tile, asphalt shingle and similar roofing materials should be used wherever possible.

The riparian exemption for work on an existing structure is conditional, and the condition names projections. It covers renovation or repair of a permanent structure on its existing foundation, provided no further extension or encroachment into the Riparian Ecosystem Protection Area occurs, including cantilevered or projecting portions of the permanent structure, and provided that there is no clearing, grading or disturbance to soils, vegetation or trees within the Riparian Ecosystem Protection Area and no drainage alterations. An awning or a cantilevered canopy is precisely a projecting portion, so on a streamside property the live question is whether anything new reaches further toward the water than what is already there.

For multi-family property, which covers a large share of Whistler's housing, the Multi-Family Residential area exempts minor building additions or alterations under 10 square metres of floor area that are consistent with the architectural character, materials and colours of the existing building, and separately patio improvements and additions provided there is no removal of trees. Those are useful and they are narrow. Separately, the RMOW's residential building permit package lists a strata common property consent form. Our reading of that form, rather than a published rule: on a stratified property expect the strata's sign-off on common property to be part of the building permit paperwork.

Whistler publishes development permit fees of $1,000 for a staff delegated vegetation permit, $3,000 for a staff delegated permit, $10,000 where Council consideration is required and $15,000 where Council consideration involves multiple buildings, plus $35 for a land title search. It also publishes, and dates, how far behind the Planning Department currently is. Whatever the current figures say, the RMOW states that the Planning Department will confirm in writing if a development permit is required or not, and that you need that letter for the building permit application.

Official Community Plan Schedule T, the Whistler Village Design Guidelines, states: canvas or acrylic awnings in lieu of structural covered walkways are not acceptable; however, they may be used to add to visual interest, storefront identity and character. The same schedule states that covered walkways should have a 1.8 metre minimum clear width and 3 metre minimum clear height, and describes covered walkways on one or two sides of all commercial buildings as typically provided. For a shade supplier that is about as product specific as municipal guidance ever gets.

The Whistler Village development permit area exempts interior renovations except renovations that impede views into a store, routine property maintenance except that involving a change of building colour or building material, new doors and windows in existing or new locations consistent with the form and character of existing doors and windows on the building, and minor alterations to existing roads, paths, parking areas or driveways provided there is no removal of trees, along with wildfire vegetation management, permitted signs, emergency works and minor site clearing. It does not exempt minor additions or patio improvements, both of which the Multi-Family Residential area does exempt. The RMOW publishes no determination about a covered patio on a Village frontage, and only Planning can confirm one in writing.

The Village guidelines state that development, including construction and alterations that will inconvenience or jeopardize the use of public areas in Whistler Village by creating construction noise or the placement of construction materials or barriers in public areas, is not to be carried out between July 1 of any year and September 5 of the same year, except as may be specified in the development permit. That is a guideline within the development permit area and the clause itself allows a permit to specify otherwise.

Zoning and Parking Bylaw section 33 states that outdoor patios for food and beverage services are a permitted use on roads vested in the Municipality. Part 5 section 32 designates a temporary use permit area where outdoor patios for food and beverage services may be allowed, and its general conditions include that siting should minimize obstruction of pedestrian circulation and significant public and private view corridors, and ensure that accessibility corridors are maintained.

We are reporting this rather than interpreting it. In the consolidation the RMOW currently publishes, the outdoor patio temporary use permit section still lists among its conditions that the owner must comply with the Order of the Provincial Health Officer dated May 22, 2020, or any subsequent Order than contains occupancy restrictions and physical distancing requirements. The typo is in the source. We tested the RMOW's former temporary patio expansion page and its 2020 streamlined patio news release and both now resolve to page-not-found, so there is no current RMOW patio programme page to point you at. Ask the municipality what the live process is.