Vancouver City Council passed a motion Tuesday to review its building construction permit system to improve efficiency.
The motion, put forward by councillor Tony Tang, passed unanimously.
Tang said that in 2011, the city issued roughly 4,900 building permits worth $1.7 billion.
City hall will review the current process and determine what needs to be done to reduce the processing time to a turnaround benchmark of six weeks.
Tang said he understands construction because he worked as a builder for 20 years. In looking at the current permit process, he has spoken to many representatives from the construction industry to determine how long the permitting process takes.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of architects, homeowners and business owners,” he said. “(The process) was taking up to four to five months.”
Some more complicated building permit applications were taking as long as eight to nine months.
“Improved efficiency in city hall was actually a campaign promise of the mayor and the Vision Party,” Tang said.
Emma Crawford