Legal Basements in Kitchener

A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings at Kitchener’s own building department rather than the Region of Waterloo. Kitchener 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 Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the GRCA permit may be needed before Kitchener issues the building permit. Kitchener also names natural hazards among the limits that can hold a lot to one or two units. So the GRCA mapping can decide how many units the lot takes, and we read it before planning the entrance.

Kitchener’s zoning bylaw permits up to four dwelling units on residential lots that allow a single detached, semi-detached or street townhouse dwelling, and an additional dwelling unit can be inside or added to the main building or in a detached backyard home of one or two units, though lot width, servicing or natural hazards may limit some lots to one or two units. How many of those a given lot can hold is settled lot by lot, so we check its width and servicing before a basement unit goes on paper.

Yes. We take on legal basements 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: 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 Kitchener Building Division will ask for before we quote.

One of two. Most Kitchener properties fall under the newer zoning bylaw 2019-051 and about one in five is still under zoning bylaw 85-1, so we confirm which covers your address before reading the unit and parking rules from it. The City of Kitchener Building Division then checks the basement unit against that same bylaw when it reviews the drawings.

It may. Ontario’s O. Reg. 299/19 asks for one space per additional unit, and a tandem space on the driveway is allowed, unless the zoning bylaw needs no parking for the main house or says the unit is to have none. Whether either exception applies depends on which Kitchener bylaw, 2019-051 or 85-1, covers the lot, so we read its parking section and show the space on the site plan for the City of Kitchener Building Division.

Possibly, and the entrance is where the district comes in. Victoria Park is one of Kitchener’s four heritage conservation districts, with St. Mary’s, Upper Doon and Civic Centre, and a new stairwell or door changes the outside of an older house, so we look at the side and rear before the front and ask the City what the district requires. Once the City has answered, we draw the unit and send the full set to the City of Kitchener Building Division.

We apply through the City’s online services portal, which runs on AMANDA, and the same portal then shows the permit’s status and the drawings and documents on file. Each inspection the unit needs, up to the final one, is booked there too, and we keep the file moving until the City of Kitchener Building Division closes the permit.

It can, because the Building Code’s renovation rules for a second unit only apply once a house has stood for five years. In a postwar house, or an older one near the core, those rules accept a 30-minute fire separation around the unit, or a 15-minute horizontal one where interconnected smoke alarms are in every unit and common area. A house in one of the newer Doon or Huron subdivisions that is under five years old follows the rules for new construction, so we confirm the year it was finished before drawing for the City of Kitchener Building Division.

Whether a unit is possible at all: which of zoning bylaws 2019-051 and 85-1 covers the lot, whether it is a lot Kitchener holds to fewer units, and whether Grand River Conservation Authority mapping reaches it. On the visit we measure the basement height and look for a side of the house where an entrance could go. Our director is the broker of record at our sister real estate company, so you also hear what a permitted unit could mean for the price.