Building Permit Approved. Finally!!!

Just checked with city’s building permit status web site and I see the status has been updated again. Two status updates on the same day, this must been a record for our city.

It has been a very LONG process. The permit application was submitted on July 31, 2013 when we are still soaked under hot summer sun. We had to do a lot of miscellaneous revisions mostly just to clarify things. We had fun tearing down a tree house and building a tree protection barrier to satisfy the forestry department. We had to cut off 6″ from a shade that is treated as a roof. We had to dig up more documents on cladding and spray form even though they all have CCMC report. We had to repeatedly point out to the inspector that balcony on this house uses structural steel. And we had to fight with the city inspectors all the way to the upper management on how unprotected openings should be calculated. Finally, on October 21, 2013, with autumn’s chilly rain drizzling upon us, my building permit is finally approved. I can finally move forward with my dream house.

Finally some good news. Apparently the city inspectors still cannot agree on how to calculate the unprotected opening on my south wall. And so it was escalated to upper management. On Tuesday October 16th, 2013 decision came back from upper management review. And yes upper management agreed with us that our unprotected opening conforms to Ontario Building Code requirement. So now the final hurdle has cleared and my building code review has passed.

The bad news is that apparently we are still missing some paperwork on the zoning side. But the person handling the zoning review has gone on vacation. So now I have to wait until next Monday after she came back from her vacation to try to clear whatever that’s left with zoning to get the permit going. I am half guessing that the forestry department’s letter of clearance was not sent to the building review department. And that’s why the zoning still haven’t cleared us yet.

Apparently city inspection is still hung up on the unprotected opening calculation on my south wall. Apparently they think I have too much window on the south wall. And they don’t bother to let us know how they calculated that. After doing calculation over and over. We came to a conclusion that they have projected my 3rd floor to the south wall. Now my 3rd floor is more than 13′ or 4m away from the property line. And based on that, I can have 96% of unprotected opening. However, the rest of the building is only 5′ or 1.5m away from the property line and so I am only allowed 8% unprotected openings. However if you put them together, then yes I exceeded the 8% of the wall area. However does it even make any sense? If there is a fire, then flame coming out of the 3rd floor window will be more than 4m away from the property line and so it should be treated as such. The flame coming out of my lower levels should be treated as 1.5m away from the property line. Why should someone project a wall that’s really far away onto the wall that’s really close for a single calculation? Anyway I hope we can get this through properly. My the 3rd floor being filled with glasses is very deliberate and it is integral part of my design that goes together with my roof terrace and garden.