Pine Creek architectural guidelines: house sizes, setbacks, garages

In Pine Creek, Anthem's design guidelines set a minimum of 1,250 sq ft for a bungalow and 1,500 sq ft for a two storey on an R-G lot with a front attached garage, and less on laned lots (Anthem, Pine Creek guidelines, April 2023, p. 15). The same booklet asks for a 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) rear setback to the foundation and a front attached garage at least 20 ft (6.1 m) wide. The cover is dated April 2023; the file on the community site is named November 2023 and was created that month.

How big does a house have to be in Pine Creek?

It depends on the lot type and where the garage sits. A front attached garage carries the highest minimums, because the garage takes up so much of the front of the house.

Pine Creek's minimum house sizes, as Anthem prints them:

Note: minimums from the April 2023 booklet, page 15, in square feet as printed; the metric figures are our conversions. They are not City of Calgary rules, and a later Pine Creek phase may carry different numbers.

The booklet doesn't say whether these areas include the basement or the garage. Ask the Architectural Manager how they measure it before you trim a plan to sit just over the line.

What setbacks do Pine Creek lots need?

The front and rear numbers are the ones that shape a plan. Anthem measures every setback from the foundation and leaves out stairs, cantilevers, landings and decks unless it says otherwise. These sit on top of the City's own Land Use Bylaw setbacks.

Pine Creek's setbacks from the April 2023 guidelines:

Note: guideline setbacks from page 15, not the City's bylaw minimums. Where the City asks for more, the City's number applies.

The 6.0 m deck line matters more than it looks. On a lot with a 7.5 m rear yard, it leaves 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) of deck past the back wall before the deck reaches its limit, unless the house sits further forward.

The side yard cap works the other way from most rules: it limits how much open space you leave. On an interior lot, the two side yards together can't add up to more than 4.0 m, so a narrow house on a wide lot has to grow sideways.

What do the Pine Creek garage rules mean for the front of the house?

They fix most of the street face before you draw a room. A front drive garage is at least 20 ft wide with a 16 ft door, and the entry beside it is at least 6 ft wide from the foundation to the garage wall (Anthem, April 2023, p. 16). That's 26 ft (7.9 m) of frontage before you add a window or a box-out.

The rest of the garage section, from pages 16 and 17:

• A narrower garage may be considered with a narrower door, but there must be at least 12 in (305 mm) from each side of the door to the edge of the foundation.
• Two single doors on a double garage need at least 18 in (457 mm) between them.
• On a triple garage, the single bay sits at least 2 ft (610 mm) back from the double portion.
• Doors are 7 ft or 8 ft high, with no more than 18 in from the top of the door to the soffit unless you add detailing.
• A garage side wall longer than 15 ft (4.6 m) from the garage front to the house or front deck needs a window, masonry or battens.
• R-2 homes with front garages need a 2 ft jog between the units.

Laned lots without a front garage need a gravel parking pad of at least 20 by 20 ft (6.1 by 6.1 m) at the rear, built at final grading (Anthem, April 2023, p. 17). If you're sizing the garage itself, our garage size guide has the City's stall minimums.

What else is specific to Pine Creek?

Three items here aren't standard Anthem boilerplate, and each one changes a drawing or a quote.

Rear detached garage homes. Every Pine Creek home with a rear detached garage needs dark premium siding plus one of two options: at least a three-quarter width front porch with detailing, or at least 50 sq ft (4.6 m²) of masonry on the front elevation (Anthem, April 2023, p. 20).

Garden Walk lots. Lots 1 to 4, Block 17, Phase 14 need full front porches, and the developer installs a 4 ft ornamental fence along the front and down the sides to the foundation (Anthem, April 2023, p. 11).

No metal roofing. The Modern Farmhouse style page lists standing seam metal as a feature, but the same page says Anthem "WILL NOT BE ALLOWING METAL ROOFING" (p. 10), and roofing is limited to asphalt shingles in dark greys, blacks and browns (p. 19).

The booklet also carries copied text from other Anthem communities: the fencing page tells you to check Town of Okotoks bylaws, and a rear elevation clause names the Sirocco golf course. If a clause seems not to fit Pine Creek, ask before you design around it.

Pine Creek's repetition rules are tight too. A similar elevation can't repeat until every fourth house on the same side, nor within three houses across the street, and no more than four homes in a row can share a style. Siding, stone, brick and trim colours can't repeat within three lots on the same side (Anthem, April 2023, p. 16).

How does Anthem approve a Pine Creek house?

Anthem reviews the house before the City does. The builder submits construction-ready plans and a metric plot plan through Anthem's Lot Sales System, and Anthem emails back the approval and the grade slip (Anthem, April 2023, p. 23). The City lists a grade slip among the documents for a new-house permit application and estimates about 21 days for that permit (The City of Calgary, new houses). Our Calgary permit times guide has what those permits actually took in 2026.

After approval, every change to the plans, colours or siting goes back to Anthem at $75 per change, and inspections past the second visit cost $150 each, taken from the deposit (Anthem, April 2023, p. 24). That's the cheapest moment to catch a problem: before the submission, not after.

Seeing a Pine Creek plan at full size

The numbers that bite in Pine Creek are frontage numbers: a 20 ft garage, a 6 ft entry and a second storey no more than 10 ft behind the garage face. At 1to1 Plans Calgary, your plan is lit at full size from inside a walkable LED floor, room by room with dimension lines, and the elevations go up on a wall-size screen behind it. You can stand in a 6 ft entry and decide whether it feels like a front door or a hallway.

Changes go up on the floor on the spot and every session is recorded. Builders can walk a model with a buyer before the Lot Sales System submission (for builders). Sessions are quoted for each plan by size and type, and the quote is free (pricing). Send a PDF or DWG at least three days ahead and book a session. If you're still budgeting, start with what a custom home costs in Calgary.