New Building Bylaw

Yorkton Council gave first reading to a new Building Bylaw at its regular meeting Monday.

Brant Hryhorczuk, with the City's Department of Planning & Engineering explain in September 2011, "Building Services began the process of drafting a new Building Bylaw" which "establishes regulations for the issuance of building permits and the provision of fees associated with those building permits."

Hryhorczuk explained the Bylaw once passed had to have provincial approval, so to speed the process in mid-December of 2011, a copy of the draft was sent to the department of Building Standards at the Ministry of Corrections, Public Safety and Policing.

The final draft was approved by the Planning and Infrastructure Commission at the February 29, 2012 meeting.

The City also moved to email a pdf to anyone that had an email and working in the building sector, and for those without email letters were sent out, said Hryhorczuk.

Building Services has not received any requests for admendments at the time this report was prepared.

In terms of changes, the biggest are in terms of fees, noted Hryhorczuk. Under the new bylaw a building permit will be $5 per $1,000 of construction value. Previously it had been set at $4 for value over $100,000.

Hryhorczuk explained the city contracts out Class III inspection, larger projects, and are being billed $4.50 per $1,000.

"We are actually losing money," he said. "This is more in line with what the cost of inspections are."