Legal Basements in Barrie

A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings. Barrie is a single-tier municipality, so there is no regional office in the process. Barrie also has a site alteration by-law, and we check it whenever the stairwell for a new entrance changes the grade beside the house. We prepare and file the set and deal with the examiner’s comments.

Only where the lot is inside Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the LSRCA permit may be needed before Barrie issues the building permit. The west of the city is under the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority. For a lot there, we read that authority’s mapping instead, before the entrance is drawn.

Barrie allows up to four residential units per lot in residential zones, so an owner can add up to three additional residential units to an existing home. These units can be inside the main house, attached to it, or detached from it, and accessory buildings such as coach houses or garages are eligible, provided the units meet the zoning standards for the property’s zone. That can leave room for more than one extra unit, so we plan the basement layout with any later unit in mind before anything is filed.

Yes. We take on legal basements across Barrie, including Allandale and Painswick, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: property address; basement ceiling height, measured floor to joist; and photos of the basement, the mechanical room and the outside wall where an entrance could go. Send those and we tell you what the City of Barrie Building Services will ask for before we quote.

Yes, and we have done it in Barrie: a review on our site is from an owner whose basement apartment we legalized through the City, preparing the drawings and dealing with its requirements. On site we look at the ceiling height, the bedroom windows, what separates the unit from the floor above and how it is heated, and the drawings then show each change the Building Code calls for. The application goes to the City of Barrie Building Services through APLI, and the unit becomes one of the three additional units the lot can hold.

Yes. Under O. Reg. 299/19 the person in an additional unit can be anyone, family or not, and Barrie permits up to three such units on a residential lot. The unit still needs its building permit from the City of Barrie Building Services, and we prepare that application and file it in APLI.

Usually one. O. Reg. 299/19 asks for a single space for whoever lives in the unit, and it can sit in tandem in the driveway, unless the zoning requires no space for the main home or rules out a space for the unit. Where it can go depends on the lot’s zone, under By-law 2009-141 for most of Barrie, so we fit it on the site plan before choosing the entrance, and the City of Barrie Building Services checks both.

Rarely. By-law 2014-115 is aimed at woodlots, so it reaches a tree only when the tree belongs to one of half an acre or more, and a typical tree beside a Barrie house is outside it unless the work is tied to a development application. The stairwell can still cut roots, so the trees near the house go on the site plan for the City of Barrie Building Services, and we put the entrance on the side that spares the ones you want to keep.

Through APLI, which shows the application’s status and emails you when it changes. The update to wait for is the permit closing after the final inspection: the unit is legal from then, not from the day the City of Barrie Building Services issues the permit. We book each inspection with the City as the work reaches it.

Usually. Under Ontario’s Planning Act a zoning by-law cannot rule out three units on a serviced urban lot with a detached, semi-detached or rowhouse on it, and Barrie allows more, up to three additional units in its residential zones, within each zone’s standards. In a semi or a townhouse the shared wall and the side yard, if there is one, decide where the entrance and the fire separation go, so we look at those first and then file with the City of Barrie Building Services.