Residential Permits · Aurora, York Region
Permit drawings for Aurora houses: renovations, legal basements, additions, garden suites and rebuilds on the postwar streets west of Yonge. Our P.Eng and BCIN team in Richmond Hill draws each set to Zoning By-law 6000-17 and files it with the Town of Aurora Building Division through CityView.
What’s included
Four kinds of residential work come through our door most often. Each gets the same package: measured drawings, a zoning and code review, structural design where it is needed, and a submission we stand behind until the permit is issued. In Aurora the package goes to the Town of Aurora Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Interior & exterior
Opening up a floor plan, removing a load-bearing wall, adding a deck or porch, putting in a pool, or taking down a tree the by-law protects.
Rental income
A basement apartment the city will approve: ceiling height, fire separation, egress, a compliant separate entrance and HVAC designed for two units.
New floor area
Rear and side additions, second storeys, detached garden suites and full custom homes, with the zoning check done before the first line is drawn.
Stamped in-house
Beams, posts, footings and framing sized and stamped by our own P.Eng, so the structural sheet sits in the same package as the architectural one.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
07 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, one team. The engineer who measures the house is the one who signs the drawings.
We walk the house, measure what exists and talk through what you want. The first consultation is free, and we tell you then which permits apply.
Before drawing, we check the lot against the zoning by-law and the plan against the Ontario Building Code, so nothing goes to the city that will bounce back.
Architectural, structural and mechanical sheets are drawn in one office, cross-checked, and stamped by our P.Eng and BCIN designers.
We file the application, track it, and answer every examiner comment at no extra charge until the permit is in your hand. If you want us to build it, the same team carries on.
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
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Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
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A code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
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A two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
2 of 5
Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179We make them, at no extra charge. Comments from the examiner at the Town of Aurora Building Division come to us, and we revise the sheets, reply to each point and resubmit until the permit is issued.
Any that build, add on or change the grade on a lot the LSRCA regulates, such as an addition, a garden suite, a new house or a pool. Ontario Regulation 41/24 counts site grading and building or enlarging a structure as development activity, which needs the authority’s permit. Each authority has to publish maps of its regulated areas and review them at least once a year. On an Aurora lot we check the regulated-area maps against the survey before the site plan is drawn, then prepare the authority’s application from the same drawings as the permit set.
Yes. Aurora residents can apply for building permits online through the Town’s CityView Portal, and the same portal shows application status and handles inspection requests. We follow the application there until it is issued, and on jobs we also build, we book the inspections through the same system.
Yes. We take on residential permits across Aurora, including Aurora Heights and Regency Acres, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address; what you want to do, in your own words; and a survey of the lot, if you have one. Send those and we tell you what the Town of Aurora Building Division will ask for before we quote.
The size and placement of anything new. Zoning By-law 6000-17 sets the setbacks, the height limit and how much of the lot you can cover in your zone, and the Town of Aurora Building Division will not issue a permit for drawings that break them. If your design needs more than the zone allows, the Committee of Adjustment has to approve a minor variance first, so we settle that before the permit set is finished.
Ours do, for any tree near the work, because Aurora’s Private Tree Protection Bylaw 5850-16 decides whether it can come down or be dug around without a permit. A heritage tree, or any tree on a lot in the Northeast Old Aurora district, needs one before removal, so on those lots we fit the addition or the garden suite around the trees where the zoning leaves room.
It can be. Northeast Old Aurora is the one district the Town has designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, so we confirm with the Town what the designation asks of exterior changes before we draw them. The building permit itself still goes to the Town of Aurora Building Division through CityView, and we plan the heritage step ahead of it.
Yes. Registration By-law 6660-24 calls a unit inside or attached to the house an Integrated Unit and a detached one in the rear or interior side yard an Ancillary Unit, and a lot can have only one Ancillary Unit. We label each unit by type on the permit set for the Town of Aurora Building Division, because every unit also has to be registered with the Town.
Often, because both move soil. Aurora’s site alteration by-law covers digging, filling and regrading under its own approval, so we check the dig against it at the start and put the grading plan in the same package. On an infill rebuild west of Yonge we run the same check for the new basement excavation.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the residential permits questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationA permit to cut a new exterior door into a basement, usually with a stairwell dug beside the house. It covers the structural opening in the foundation wall, the guard and drainage for the stairwell, and the fire and egress rules for the unit it serves. Fine Engineering designs separate entrances as part of legal basement packages across the GTA.
Not always. Architectural drawings show a design. Permit drawings are the version an examiner can check against zoning and the Building Code, with dimensions, construction details and engineering where the work needs it. A concept plan is a useful start, and the code detail goes in before it is filed. Fine Engineering draws permit sets from its own site measurements.
Drawings of the house as it stands, the proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, and a site plan showing setbacks and lot coverage. Structural drawings come in where the work touches the structure, and HVAC, plumbing or electrical sheets where the scope needs them. Fine Engineering prepares the whole set with the completed application form and files both with the municipality.
Ontario qualifies designers in these Building Code categories: House; Small Buildings; Large Buildings; Complex Buildings; Building Structural; HVAC House; Plumbing House; Plumbing All Buildings; Building Services; Detection, Lighting and Power; Fire Protection; and Onsite Sewage Systems. The province’s QuARTS public registry lists each designer with their categories. Fine Engineering’s engineer holds BCIN qualifications in Small Buildings and in structural and HVAC design, alongside a P.Eng licence.
Often, yes. The opening needs a beam sized for the load above, posts under each end and a path that carries the load down to the foundation. The Building Code’s span tables cover some simple cases, but once the beam falls outside them, a licensed P.Eng has to design and stamp it. Fine Engineering prepares the engineering and the permit drawings together.
Not reliably by looking at it. A wall that runs across the floor joists, sits over a beam or another wall below, or stands near the middle of the house is more likely to carry load. Only the framing above and below confirms it, which is why Fine Engineering checks the structure on site before designing any removal.
Good to know
In Aurora the reviewer is the Town of Aurora Building Division. Every Aurora lot sets its own terms: its zoning and any demolition or grading approval the work needs decide which sheets go into the permit set.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the residential permits package to the Town of Aurora Building Division’s own checklist.
The housing in Aurora is established postwar neighbourhoods west of Yonge seeing infill rebuilds, with newer subdivisions in the Bayview secondary plan areas to the east. On a rebuild, taking the old house down needs a permit just as building the new one does, and we prepare the demolition application with the new-house set.
Under Registration By-law 6660-24, an Aurora lot with a detached house, a semi or a rowhouse can hold three units, the house included. If you want a basement unit now and a garden suite later, we draw the first so the second stays possible: the basement takes the lot’s one Integrated Unit in that mix, which leaves room for its single Ancillary Unit.
Council approved Comprehensive Zoning By-law 6000-17 in June 2017, replacing rules that had gone without a full review since 1979. The postwar houses west of Yonge went up long before it, so a rebuild is held to 6000-17 rather than to what the old house was allowed. We check the zone’s numbers against the survey first and set the new outline from them.
Contact us
Tell us what you’re planning at home and we’ll tell you which permits apply, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179