New Custom Homes in Kitchener

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 Kitchener Building Division issues the building permit and, at the end, the occupancy permit, and inspects the build in between. Kitchener has its own site alteration by-law, and we ask the City of Kitchener Building Division early whether the earthworks around the new house need a permit under it.

If the lot is inside the regulated area of the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA), yes. 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. Development within 30 metres of a wetland is caught as well, which can push a house back from a low corner of the lot. The GRCA permit comes first, then the Kitchener building permit.

It depends on the district. The first check is whether your lot is inside one. Kitchener has four heritage conservation districts designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act: St. Mary’s, Upper Doon, Victoria Park and Civic Centre. For a lot inside a district, we confirm with the City of Kitchener Building Division what it asks of a new house before the massing is drawn.

Yes. We take on new custom homes across Kitchener, including Doon Pioneer Park and Stanley Park, within ninety minutes 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 Kitchener Building Division will ask for before we quote.

The zoning bylaw that covers it, and Kitchener has two: 2019-051 for most properties and 85-1 for about a fifth of them. We read that bylaw’s height, coverage and setbacks against your survey to get the envelope the house is designed inside. If the design needs a little more than the bylaw allows, a minor variance goes to the Committee of Adjustment before the City of Kitchener Building Division can issue the permit.

Through the City’s online services portal, which runs on AMANDA. The architectural, structural, mechanical and energy sheets go in with the grading and servicing plan, and when the City of Kitchener Building Division’s examiners comment on several sheets in one round, we revise every affected sheet together and resubmit once so the set stays consistent. After the permit is issued, the same portal holds the approved drawings and is where each inspection is booked through to occupancy.

It can. On a private lot larger than one acre, Kitchener’s private tree bylaw (Chapter 692, By-law 2010-042) protects trees with a diameter of 10 cm or more, and clearing one for the house, the driveway or a septic bed may need a tree conservation permit. We plot those trees from the survey before placing the footprint, and apply for any permit while the City of Kitchener Building Division reviews the house.

Yes, and the first set is the easiest place to do it. Kitchener allows additional units inside a house on a lot zoned for a detached, semi-detached or street townhouse dwelling, so the basement can be drawn with its own entrance, headroom and fire separation in the set for the City of Kitchener Building Division. We check the lot’s width and servicing first, since either can hold a Kitchener lot to one or two units.

We do, along with the new house. Ontario’s Building Code Act needs a permit to demolish a building just as it does to build one, so we file both applications with the City of Kitchener Building Division together. When the old house is one of the older homes near the core, standing close to its neighbours, the demolition plan also shows how the houses next door are protected. The old house comes down once its permit is issued.

We look at both before you decide. Our P.Eng checks the foundation and framing of the house you have, we read what a new house could be under zoning bylaw 2019-051 or 85-1, whichever covers the lot, and our director, the broker of record at our sister real estate company, weighs each route against nearby sales. Next to the older homes around the core and Victoria Park, that comparison can come out differently than among the newer houses of Doon and Huron.