The SSMUH rules give you a ceiling based on two numbers. Whether you can reach that ceiling, and whether you should, comes down to a handful of physical realities. Here is how to read your own lot.
Start with the two numbers that set the ceiling
Lot size and transit distance decide your maximum. Under 280 m², the cap is three units. From 280 m² to 4,050 m², it is four. Within 400 m of frequent transit and over 280 m², it rises to six. You can find your lot's area on your property assessment or the City's zoning map, and measure transit distance to the nearest frequent bus stop.
Most Port Moody lots, roughly 3,709 of them, land in the four-unit band. Only 515 are close enough to frequent transit for six. If you are not near a frequent route, four is very likely your real ceiling.
Then subtract for reality
The ceiling is where the easy part ends. Four things pull the achievable number down:
- Slope. A steep lot costs more to build on and can lose usable area to grade and access. Seaview and the mountainside neighbourhoods feel this most.
- Trees. Retention requirements can reshape where buildings sit, especially on the wooded lots of Heritage Mountain and Heritage Woods.
- Servicing. Water, sewer, and utilities have to reach every new home. Older or constrained connections add cost and sometimes cap what is practical.
- Setbacks and coverage. The bylaw limits how much of the lot you can cover and how close to the edges you can build, which quietly sets the true envelope.
The flat-lot advantage
This is why the flat, regular grids of Glenayre and College Park come up so often. A level, rectangular lot wastes less area to grade and access, is cheaper to build on, and gets closer to its theoretical ceiling. The same 400 m² lot can support a very different project depending on whether it is flat or falls away toward a view.
Two identical lot sizes on two different streets are not the same opportunity. The map tells you the ceiling. The ground tells you the truth.
What a real read looks like
A proper feasibility read puts all of this together: the ceiling from the rules, minus the losses from slope, trees, servicing, and setbacks, against the rough cost and value of the likely forms. The output is not a fantasy maximum. It is the honest range of what your lot supports, and whether any of it pencils out.
You can do the first pass yourself with your lot size and a transit map. For the rest, a free feasibility study is the fastest way to a real answer, or read the full rules first.
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