At its regular meeting March 13, City Council passed first reading of a proposed new bylaw governing new building development in the city.
The rationale for the New Building Bylaw is “to ensure compliance with changes to the National Building Code and to provide a more predictable and fair fee schedule,” Michael Eger, director of planning, building and development, told Council.
Proposed changes include addition of and clarification of certain definitions such as “secondary suite,” which was not in the old bylaw and enhancement of the definition for “construction projects” so the public has a clearer understanding of when building or demolition permits are required.
Fees that are proposed to increase include the minimum permit fee from $50 to $75 and demolition permit fee from $50 to $75 for residential and $150 plus $8 per 100 square metres for multi-dwelling and commercial buildings.
The biggest change is to the method the city will potentially use to calculate new construction fees. Currently builders pay $5 per $1,000 cost of construction. The proposed calculation would be based on a cost per square foot. Those would be $0.90 for main floors and additions, $0.40 for additional levels, $0.25 for basements, $0.35 for secondary suites, and $0.35 for garages and accessory (non-occupied) buildings.
Eger predicts this will result in higher fees for small residential projects and decreased fees for larger scale development.
“The intent of this change is to equalize and standardize fees for the construction values provided, which are often misreported by applicants and grossly undervalued,” he wrote.
“The rates will also more accurately reflect a fee for service outlook. These rates will compensate for any lack of information which leads to extra review time, extra inspections, deficiencies (affecting approximately half of residential projects), and delays in completion, which require additional administrative time.”
Having passed first reading the city will now advertise the proposed bylaw for two weeks and seek public input.
