Home Additions in Hamilton

Hamilton is a single-tier city, so the City of Hamilton Building Division checks the zoning on the application, issues the permit and carries out the inspections. 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 digging for the addition is covered by its own building permit, so what we check is any regrading beyond it.

If the lot is inside the regulated area of the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA), yes, and the HCA permit comes before the Hamilton building permit. The authority must hold a pre-submission consultation if you ask for one, and on a lot near a creek we ask for it as soon as the survey is in. East Stoney Creek and Glanbrook are under the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and parts of Flamborough under the Grand River Conservation Authority. On those lots we make the same check with the authority that covers them.

Yes, if it fits the zoning, and that is the first thing we check. Hamilton’s Comprehensive Zoning By-law No. 05-200 applies to most properties in the city. Properties not yet brought into it still follow the zoning by-law of their former community: Ancaster 87-57, Dundas 3581-86, Flamborough 90-145-Z, Glanbrook 464, the former City of Hamilton 6593 and Stoney Creek 3692-92. We look up which by-law your lot is under and measure the addition against its setbacks, height and coverage. A shortfall goes to the Committee of Adjustment as a minor variance, and the permit follows its decision.

Each district sets its own requirements, so the first question is whether your house is in one of them. 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 house inside one, we ask Hamilton what that district requires of an addition and design to it.

Yes. We take on home additions 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: property address and a survey, if you have one; what you want to add and where; and photos of the side of the house and the yard where it would go. Send those and we tell you what the City of Hamilton Building Division will ask for before we quote.

They can, because digging the new foundation reaches the roots of any tree near the back of the house. The by-law that protects a private tree depends on the former municipality: Ancaster, Dundas and Stoney Creek each have their own, and the Urban Woodland By-law 14-212 is also on the City’s list. We mark the trees from the survey before the footprint is fixed, which leaves room to shift the addition or to seek the tree approval during the City of Hamilton Building Division’s review.

It depends on two things: whether the walls and footings below can carry another floor, and whether the zoning allows the added height. Hamilton houses differ in age and construction from ward to ward, so our P.Eng checks the structure on site instead of assuming it, and we measure the new height against Zoning By-law No. 05-200 or the former community by-law for your lot.

Yes, where the zoning allows it. Since May 2021 Hamilton has permitted additional dwelling units, and a unit added onto the main house is one of the forms the City lists, so an addition can be drawn as that unit from the start. We design the fire separation and the unit’s own exit into it, check how many units your zone allows, and file both together with the City of Hamilton Building Division.

It can be, if nothing on the lot has changed since it was drawn; otherwise an Ontario Land Surveyor prepares a new one. The setbacks and lot coverage under Zoning By-law No. 05-200, or the former community by-law for your lot, are measured from it. Everything on the site plan the City of Hamilton Building Division reviews is drawn from that survey.

Some can. A lot there that has not moved into Zoning By-law No. 05-200 is still read against Flamborough’s 90-145-Z or Glanbrook’s 464, and a private tree in the rural area comes under Regional By-law R00-054. We confirm both for the address before the addition is placed on the lot.