It's not unusual for homebuilders to complain about getting caught up in municipal building permit red tape.
But things have gotten out of hand in the City of Vancouver, several builders told Business in Vancouver, with waits for permits now stretching beyond the normal six-week to two-month processing period to four to eight months.
“It's becoming quite a problem for businesses like ours that need to have permits issued every month in order to stay viable,” said Bryn Davidson, co-owner of Lanefab Homes.
Davidson blames the slowdown on a new green building bylaw that was supposed to have taken effect in July. That bylaw, which would have required new buildings in Vancouver to adhere to more energy-efficient standards, has now been delayed until January.
While Davidson supports the bylaw – his company already builds to high green building standards – he thinks the city should have done a better job of anticipating the rush to get permits in before the new rules took effect.
“At the same time they were bringing in new policies around accessibility and tree retention and heritage, so we ended up with this sort of layering on of different programs,” Davidson said.
“It was all well-intentioned, but cumulatively it added up to this great wall of bureaucracy that slowed everything to a halt.”
Jeff Langford, owner of JDL Homes, has also seen building permits take much longer than usual.
“We've had $2 million worth of work pushed into the next fiscal year because of the city,” Langford said.
The city has now hired more staff to process building permits, said Tobin Postma, a communications staffer with the city, who added that part of the backlog was caused by a higher overall volume of building permits.
According to the city's year-to-date construction statistics for June, the value of building permits issued stood at $1.1 billion, the highest number since 2007 when $1.5 billion worth of permits were issued.
But that's cold comfort to Davidson and Langford, who have already delayed projects and laid off staff because of the delays.
“The city tells us their goal is to remove the backlog by mid-August,” Davidson said.
