City of Vancouver simplifies more permitting to reduce timelines and costs

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Another round of reforms to the City of Vancouver’s development permitting process will help make some meaningful impacts towards speeding up project timelines and cutting costs for builders and property owners.

According to a new memo from City staff to Vancouver City Council, four key changes were recently implemented, which align with City Council’s mandated 3-3-3-1 permitting strategy.

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This includes increasing the residential renovation cost value threshold that triggers homeowners to upgrade their sewer and water connections from $95,000 to $250,000. This particular change means 10% more home renovation permits are now eligible for processing within three days, reducing the cost for simple renovations on average by about $30,000. This direction was approved by City Council in December 2023.

As of February 2024, the municipal government no longer requires a traffic impact study as part of a development permit application. This cuts down processing time and saves proponents $10,000 in costs. It is estimated that this will benefit about 100 development permit applications annually.

For smaller home renovations worth less than $250,000, by the end of April 2024, there will no longer be the requirement to apply for a street use permit as part of the application, which was intended to account for the space needed for a temporary dumpster for construction garbage. Instead, a permit will only be required for applicants who need a temporary dumpster, and this will mean small home renovation permits will be eligible for processing within three days. Applicants will no longer need to buy insurance if they do not need to use a temporary dumpster on a public street.

There were recently also changes to the sprinkler permits, which now rely on industry professionals to design sprinkler systems. The City is now auto-issuing most sprinkler permits, which greatly deviates from the previous practice of having City staff review every sprinkler permit — a process that often resulted in significant design change requirements.

With the changes, qualifying sprinkler permits are now issued in 24 hours or less. Within the first nine weeks of the changes, about 250 sprinkler permits — or 93% of the total number of sprinkler permit applications — qualified for auto-issuance.

“3331 is the key strategic initiative council hopes to achieve in order to deliver more housing faster in Vancouver. Accelerating housing delivery is paramount to addressing our community’s pressing need for housing,” ABC city councillor Lenny Zhou told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“By streamlining permitting processes, removing unnecessary requirements, and implementing efficient practices, we can expedite the approval of new homes and renovations, ensuring that our residents have access to quality housing in a timely manner. It’s imperative that we prioritize these efforts to meet the increasing demand for housing and create thriving, inclusive communities for all.”

The 3-3-3-1 permitting strategy is based on reaching the permit approval timeline targets of three days to approve home renovation permits, three days to approve single-family house and townhouse permits, three months to approve permits for multi-family and mid-rise residential projects in allowable zoning, and one year to approve permits for a high-rise or large-scale project.

City staff will provide City Council with a more formal and thorough update on the latest permitting reforms early this summer.

According to a report earlier this year by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the Metro Vancouver region has some of the highest average construction times for all dwelling types among Canada’s six largest metropolitan regions. Within Metro Vancouver, the average construction times are 14.5 months for single-family detached houses, 13.6 months for semi-detached houses, 15.4 months for rowhouses, and 26.4 months for apartments.

Average construction time in months by dwelling type, inclusive of all housing tenures. (CMHC)

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