New Custom Homes in Hamilton

A building permit with architectural, structural, mechanical and energy-compliance drawings and a grading and servicing plan, plus any minor variance or conservation permit the lot triggers. The City of Hamilton Building Division issues the building permit and, at the end, the occupancy permit, and inspects the build in between. Hamilton’s Site Alteration By-law 19-286 applies to all land in the city, including residential lots, with written exemptions for minor landscaping and for work under an issued building permit. The earthworks shown on the house permit fall under that exemption. Any regrading beyond them is what we check against the by-law.

If the lot is inside the regulated area of the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA), yes. East Stoney Creek and Glanbrook are under the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and parts of Flamborough under the Grand River Conservation Authority. We check which authority maps the lot before anything else. Under Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Act, building a house or grading a site in hazardous lands, wetlands, river or stream valleys or shorelines at risk of flooding or erosion needs the authority’s permit, because O. Reg. 41/24 counts both as development. You can ask the authority for a pre-submission consultation, and on a lot near a watercourse we do, before the footprint is fixed. Whichever authority’s permit the lot needs comes first, then the Hamilton building permit.

It depends on the district. The first check is whether your lot is inside one. Hamilton has eight Heritage Conservation Districts designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act: Cross-Melville, Durand-Markland, Hamilton Beach, MacNab-Charles, Melville-Park West, Mill Street, St. Clair Avenue and St. Clair Boulevard. For a lot inside a district, we confirm with the City of Hamilton Building Division what it asks of a new house before the massing is drawn.

Yes. We take on new custom homes across Hamilton, including Ancaster and Dundas, within an hour of our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: lot address and a survey, if you have one; your sketch, brief or a plan from another designer; and whether the lot is serviced or needs a well and septic. Send those and we tell you what the City of Hamilton Building Division will ask for before we quote.

First by finding which zoning by-law governs it: Zoning By-law No. 05-200 for most of the city, or the by-law of the former community for a property that has not moved over. We plot that by-law’s setbacks, height limit and lot coverage on the survey, and the space left is what the house is designed to fill. If you want more than that allows, a minor variance goes to the Committee of Adjustment before the City of Hamilton Building Division can issue the permit.

Yes. Demolition, a new basement and the service trenches can all damage roots, and Hamilton protects private trees under the by-law of the former municipality, while a tree on the City’s road allowance, where many front-lawn trees stand, is covered by By-law No. 15-125. We plot both kinds from the survey, including the neighbours’ trees near the lot lines, before the footprint and driveway are placed, and line up any tree approval with the set for the City of Hamilton Building Division.

Online, through the City’s Customer Portal, which you reach by signing in at my.hamilton.ca. The architectural, structural, mechanical and energy sheets go in together with the grading plan, and if comments land on several sheets at once, we revise them together and upload one coordinated resubmission. The City of Hamilton Building Division issues the permit from there, and the same portal is where each inspection is booked as the house goes up.

We do, at the same time as the new house. Under the Building Code Act, taking a building down needs a permit just as putting one up does, so we file the demolition application through the Customer Portal with the new-house set, and the City of Hamilton Building Division has both on file. Demolition waits for that permit.

Yes. Robert Grin, our director, is broker of record at Fine Homes Real Estate, our sister company, so he can set a new house against what has sold nearby. Hamilton’s housing varies widely in age from ward to ward, which makes that comparison a street-by-street one, and what the street supports can matter to the final size as much as Zoning By-law No. 05-200 does.

Yes, while the purchase is still conditional. We find the zoning by-law that governs the lot, check which of the three conservation authorities covering parts of Hamilton, if any, regulates part of it, and look for protected trees and the services at the street. That tells you the envelope the house would have to fit and any approval it needs beyond the building permit, while you can still walk away.