Residential Permits in Kitchener

We make them, at no extra charge. Comments from the examiner at the City of Kitchener Building Division come to us, and we revise the sheets, reply to each point and resubmit until the permit is issued.

Any that build, add on or change the grade on a lot the GRCA regulates, such as an addition, a garden suite, a new house or a pool. Ontario Regulation 41/24 counts site grading and building or enlarging a structure as development activity, which needs the authority’s permit. Development within 30 metres of a wetland is prohibited unless the authority permits it. On a Kitchener lot we check the regulated-area maps against the survey before the site plan is drawn, then prepare the authority’s application from the same drawings as the permit set.

Yes. Residents can apply for a Kitchener building permit through the City’s online services portal, and after applying they can use the same portal to check permit status, view permit drawings and documents, and book inspections. The permit drawings stay on file there, and on jobs we also build, we book the inspections through the same portal.

Yes. We take on residential permits 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; what you want to do, in your own words; and a survey of the lot, if you have one. Send those and we tell you what the City of Kitchener Building Division will ask for before we quote.

Yes, because the site plan is drawn to whichever one zones the lot. The setbacks, height and lot coverage on our sheets all come from it, and the City of Kitchener Building Division will not issue a permit for a design that breaks it. About a fifth of the city is still under the older By-law 85-1, so we confirm the by-law for your address at the first visit, before any measurements become drawings.

Yes. Kitchener allows up to four units on a lot zoned for a detached, semi-detached or street townhouse dwelling, and a detached backyard home can hold one or two of them. We place the basement unit’s entrance, services and fire separation so the later building still fits, and each stage then goes to the City of Kitchener Building Division as its own application. If lot width or servicing would cap the lot at two units, you hear that from us before the first set is drawn.

Only on a lot over one acre. On those, Chapter 692 protects trees 10 cm or more in diameter and removing one may need a tree conservation permit, so an addition or a backyard home is placed around them before the set goes to the City of Kitchener Building Division. On a smaller lot the by-law does not apply, though we still plot nearby trees from the survey, since their roots affect where a footing or a trench can go.

Mostly the exterior sheets. In St. Mary’s, Upper Doon, Victoria Park or Civic Centre, a new porch, an addition or a changed front is weighed against the district as well as against By-law 2019-051 or 85-1, so we ask the City what the district allows before those elevations are drawn. The floor plans, sections and structural sheets are prepared the same way as for any other Kitchener house.

It can. A walkout or a lowered side entrance moves soil and changes the grade, and Kitchener regulates that under its site alteration by-law, apart from the permit the City of Kitchener Building Division issues. We check the dig against that by-law at the start and put the grading plan in the same package, with the new grades meeting the neighbours’ at the lot line.