With 144,723 residents, Saguenay ranks 8th among the 23 Quebec markets tracked here and holds about 3% of the province's rostered population. Density policy in Saguenay scales with that number — the language of un règlement de zonage, the committees that review it, and the depth of the comparable set all shift as a market moves up or down the Quebec order.

Nationally Saguenay sits 37th of the 134 Canadian markets in this roster and is one of 40 tier-2 markets. Against Montréal, Saguenay runs at 0.08× the population, which is the honest discount to apply when someone hands a Saguenay file an absorption assumption borrowed from the provincial leader.

Saguenay sits between Lévis at 149,683 and Trois-Rivières at 139,163. Same province, same rules, different scale: the cleanest way to test whether a Saguenay density assumption is ambitious or ordinary.

The nearest national peers to Saguenay by size and tier are Kelowna, BC, Guelph, ON, Barrie, ON. Kelowna in particular, at 144,576, is close enough in scale that its approval timelines are a reasonable prior for Saguenay — a prior, not evidence.

Nothing in Saguenay has been promoted yet. Candidate extractions may sit in the staging table, but they never render on a Saguenay page, and this URL stays unindexed until a reviewer confirms a figure against an Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire source and dates it.

The Saguenay rule is identical in all 134 markets: a page is indexable only when the tier gate allows the pair and at least one promoted row backs it. Saguenay is tier 2, which admits tier-1 and tier-2 products only.

Corrections on Saguenay are welcome and fast. If a figure here is stale, send the Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire page and it gets re-read; the observation date on each Saguenay row states exactly how old the reading is, which is more than most zoning summaries will admit.

Coverage also has a ceiling in ambition, not just in law. There are more zone codes in Saguenay than any small team can verify at once, so review is prioritised by the codes most likely to carry a real Saguenay project — the mixed-use and multi-unit districts rather than the exhaustive tail.

The legal chain in Quebec runs la Loi sur l'aménagement et l'urbanisme → un plan d'urbanisme → un règlement de zonage, administered in Saguenay by Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire. Nothing can be permitted as of right in Saguenay that the plan does not already contemplate, which is why the fastest feasibility read is the Saguenay plan designation, not the zone code.

Two mechanisms cover a Saguenay shortfall — a dérogation mineure where the miss is marginal, a rezoning where it is structural — with the borough or municipal council, with registry and referendum steps for certain amendments as the forum for a contested outcome. Price the difference explicitly, because the same Saguenay envelope achieved by variance and by rezoning are not the same asset.

None of this is uniform inside Saguenay. Heritage designations, site-specific exceptions, holding provisions and area overlays sit on top of the base zone and routinely change the answer for one Saguenay parcel while leaving its neighbours untouched. Every figure published here is a base-zone figure unless the Saguenay source note says otherwise.

Provincial policy also moves under Saguenay's feet. Quebec has been an active legislator on housing supply, and amendments to la Loi sur l'aménagement et l'urbanisme reach Saguenay whether or not Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire has updated its own text yet — so a bylaw figure and the current law can diverge for months at a time.

Two ceilings compete on every Saguenay parcel: lot area × FSR, and footprint × storeys after setbacks and coverage. The calculator resolves both from your inputs and reports the binding one, because relief only helps a Saguenay applicant if it lifts the constraint that is actually binding.

Take a 23,000 sf Saguenay lot and apply 3 FSR purely as an illustration: 69,000 sf of GFA, about 73 units once 15% goes to circulation and services. That number is arithmetic, not entitlement — the Saguenay height limit and setback set decide whether the plate exists to hold it.

Knowing what binds tells a Saguenay team what to ask for: storeys and floor-to-floor where height governs, density where FSR governs. In Saguenay, where approvals run through Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire and contested outcomes reach the borough or municipal council, with registry and referendum steps for certain amendments, a misaimed request costs a cycle.

The ratio is the third lever on a Saguenay site. Entered here it becomes a visible Saguenay stall count rather than a buried cost line. Many Quebec bylaws still carry ratios written for a different era of car ownership, which makes the reduction request one of the highest-return conversations a Saguenay applicant can have.

Terminology trips up out-of-province teams working in Saguenay. FSR, FAR and density index are interchangeable descriptions of the same Saguenay ratio, and what Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire calls it matters less than how it measures the floor area it applies to.

Height is equally slippery in Saguenay. A limit expressed in metres, in storeys, or as a geometric envelope produces different buildings on the same Saguenay lot, and the calculator here converts between them using the floor-to-floor figure you supply rather than assuming one.

On small Saguenay parcels the setback set usually governs the footprint outright, and the coverage percentage in un règlement de zonage becomes decorative. The calculator shows both so a Saguenay user can see which is doing the work.

Set the Saguenay average unit size to the product you actually intend to build. Everything downstream — Saguenay unit count, stalls, excavation volume — is derived from it, and the default is a placeholder rather than a market figure.

Zoning sets the ceiling in Saguenay; absorption decides whether reaching it is wise. A Saguenay envelope that pencils at full permitted density still has to sell or lease into a market of 144,723, and that constraint is not written in any bylaw Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire publishes.

Because Saguenay sits 8th of 23 in Quebec, delivery risk deserves as much attention as entitlement risk. Phasing, pre-leasing and conservative unit mixes are the standard Saguenay responses.

Peers listed for Saguenay are chosen by tier and population, not proximity. They are the fastest available check on whether a Saguenay density assumption is ordinary or ambitious.

The most common way a Saguenay feasibility goes wrong is not arithmetic, it is staleness. un règlement de zonage is amended on Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire's schedule, not yours, so a Saguenay figure carried from a file six months old may already be void. The printed summary from this page carries its own date for exactly that reason.

A Saguenay error is harder to unwind than a Montréal error. At 144,723 people and 0.08× the provincial leader, the Saguenay buyer pool for a compromised entitlement is small enough that pricing is set by whoever shows up.

Treat Saguenay output here as a screening tool. Verification with Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire — and, where the file warrants it, a Quebec planning professional — remains the step that carries legal weight.

Everything shown for Saguenay is either roster data, Quebec statute, or a dated reading of an Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire document. Modelled outputs are labelled as modelled, which is why the Saguenay calculator results never masquerade as published figures.

The Saguenay gate is binary and unsentimental: reviewed and dated, or absent. There is no partially trusted middle state, which is why a Saguenay figure you see here can be traced to a document in one click.

Every Saguenay figure is tagged observed or modelled. The distinction is not cosmetic: an observed Saguenay value can be checked against Ville de Saguenay — Aménagement du territoire, while a modelled one is only as good as the inputs behind it.