It is not news to anyone who has been to the planning department at municipal hall in Squamish lately that the place is hopping.
But just how busy is it? Busier than they have ever been in the recent history of the District of Squamish, according to Jonas Velaniskis, director of development services at the district.
So far this year, the district has issued 40 per cent more building permits than in 2014 and 20 per cent more than in 2015, Velaniskis told The Squamish Chief.
In August, 44 building permits were issued – the most issued in any month since the district started keeping track.
Planning staff are currently working on 80 active development applications, “a considerable number of which are fairly complex developments,” Velaniskis said.
“With an increase in development applications also comes an increase in property and public inquiries, requests for information, and prospective developers who are in an early information gathering phase,’ Velaniskis said in an email to The Chief.
The sheer volume of work has impacted how long it takes to get a permit.
Processing of building permits is currently taking between 14 and 16 weeks, according to district staff.
Of course, Squamish is not the first or the only community to go through a growth spurt. Chilliwack was eighth of the top 20 municipalities for annual population growth from 2011 to 2015 – Squamish ranked 20th at that time, according to stats from the Business Council of B.C., but likely has moved up the list in the last year.
The planning department in the City of Chilliwack is currently really busy, according to a staff person at the city, which has a population of about 80,000.
The volume of single-family dwelling permits, in particular, has increased.
From April to August of this year, Chilliwack municipal hall fielded 249 single-family dwelling applications, up from 112 permits from April to August 2015. The turn around time for permits in Chilliwack is 10 weeks, staff said. Which is three times what it usually is, staff said. Three weeks is the usual time frame.
Up until recently, Chilliwack had a premium plan review, which meant people could expedite their application by paying more for staff overtime. Chilliwack employs two plan reviewers, one for complex building permits and one for the rest; and three building inspectors.
While Fort St. John has seen a slowdown in its growth of late, it went through a period of growth making it the tenth fastest growing community in B.C. between 2011-2015. Last year its council called for a review of its processes around building permit applications, according to Renee Jamurat, planning manager for the city.
Improving customer service was one of the goals, the staff member said, as well as improving application process communication, updating applications and creating a new guide for applicants.
“We found it was really important to focus on the communication,” said Jamurat. “So we do pre-development meetings before an application is submitted where we will go through an application with an applicant to explain the process and to explain any items that are involved.”
This process has been formally going on for a year and Jamurat said it seems to have helped speed things up quite a bit.
The City of Nelson is a growing community with about half the population of Squamish. It ranked 19th on the list of 20 growing municipalities.
Some days, particularly in the summer, Nelson’s planning department can see 15 building permit applications in a day, said Pam Mierau, manager of development services in the city.
A single-family home permit can take between four to eight weeks to be processed and if it is a complex building permit application it can take months, Mierau said. Nelson has three staff that handle building permit applications, according to Mierau.
In comparison, the District of Squamish’s planning and building departments currently employ a director, six planners, one subdivision and development coordinator, the new plan checker, two administrators, and three building inspectors. Of these, two of the planners are on contract and have been brought in to help deal with the current volume, according to Christina Moore, district communications manager.
The goal is to get back to a maximum eight-week turnaround time for building permits, said Velaniskis, adding a plan checker was recently hired to help reduce building permitting timelines in Squamish.
To deal with some of the larger developments, the district has hired Dave Morrow as the director of major projects.
“He has been hired to undertake the necessary and substantial engineering review for some of the major development projects that the district currently faces,” Moore said. Large developments include at Newport Beach, the Cheekye Fan, Waterfront Landing along the Mamquam Blind Channel and redevelopment of the former Garibaldi Springs Golf Course.
The time it takes to get a development permit has remained constant over the last few years, according to Velaniskis, with a development permit that has to go before council for a decision taking four to six months to process.
Planners in all communities The Squamish Chief contacted said application time lines vary depending on various factors, in particular how complete and accurate the original application is.
“When you get all of the relevant information that you need, that is when the clock should start,” said Nelson’s Mierau. “But if you are an applicant you are saying ‘Well, I submitted my application on this date,’ but they forget to mention it took them three or four weeks to submit all of the relevant information as required.”
