Burnaby's building permit reviews to be sped up by private sector staff

Construction progress on Gilmore Place next to SkyTrain Gilmore Station in Burnaby, as of December 4, 2022. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

In an effort to speed up the permitting process, builders and developers in Burnaby will soon be provided with an alternative option to have some steps of their building permits reviewed by a third party.

Burnaby City Council is expected to approve next week the introduction of a new Certified Professional Program for reviewing and processing building permits.

Supplementing the existing work and capacities of City staff, such a program taps into the private sector’s qualified certified labour to review certain aspects and types of applications on behalf of the municipal government.

You might also like:

While this is an innovation for the City of Burnaby, it does not reinvent the wheel, as the framework of the provincially-recognized program was initially created for the City of Vancouver in 1978. The program has also existed in Surrey for decades, and was most recently adopted by Abbotsford, Tsleil-Waututh Nation on the North Shore, West Vancouver, Squamish, and for the UBC endowment lands. Each local jurisdiction that uses the program establishes policies and procedures specific to their community.

When the program was first created for Vancouver, “it was recognized that in many instances designers were relying too heavily on plan reviewers and inspectors employed by the City for complete verification of project compliance with the BC Building Code,” according to a City of Burnaby staff report.

“The program was intended to give appropriate responsibility and authority for ensuring BC Building Code compliance, and the underlying responsibility for ensuring public health and safety in and around buildings, to registered Architects and Professional Engineers.”

But this program is not a mandatory approach. The program is described as a “voluntary alternative building permit process,” as applicants may continue to choose to submit applications to the municipal government for plan checking and inspections by City staff or retain a certified professional to use the new third party program approach.

It is noted that certified professionals in the new program will only review compliance of complex building types under Division A, Division B, Parts 1 and 3 and Division C of the Building Code. They will only perform the same tasks currently performed by the City’s plan checkers and building inspectors.

Under the program, they will act as the single point of contact between the City’s building officials and the applicant’s project design and construction team, which will help provide consistency and continuity throughout the approval process. This effectively provides “an alternative work flow that reduces the time a City building official needs for building permit application review.”

It should be noted that the private sector contractors will not be responsible for reviews conducted by other municipal departments, such as plumbing, electrical, planning, fire, and engineering.

The certified professionals are bound by the bylaws and code of ethics of their professional association, which requires them to protect the public as their primary objective.

Amendments to the Burnaby Building Bylaw will need to be made, and the changes will come into effect on September 1, 2023.

Burnaby City Council already previously approved the budget for three City staff positions to administer and support the program. No new types of fees will be created for applicants who decide to go through the alternative program.

You might also like: