Site Engineering in Markham

It depends on the work. Markham’s Site Alteration By-law 2011-232 covers larger sites; detached infill and additions go through the city’s Residential Infill Grading and Servicing (RIGS) review instead. We read that by-law against your plans at the start and file the grading plan, with its erosion and sediment control, under whichever application Markham requires.

If the lot is in a TRCA Regulated Area, yes. TRCA’s rule is that filling, changing grade or building anything there needs its permit, and you must have it before Markham issues a building permit. We check the regulated-area mapping when the survey comes in, so the same elevations go to both reviewers.

Often, yes. Markham’s Tree Preservation By-law 2023-164 regulates the injury or destruction of private and City trees, and property owners must apply for a permit before injuring or destroying any private tree with a trunk diameter of 20 centimetres or more, measured 1.37 metres above ground level at the base of the tree, regardless of the tree’s health or risk level. The city trees it protects matter most when a driveway is widened toward the street. Since the by-law covers injuring a tree as well as removing it, we plot the protected trees from the survey before setting grades, and either keep cuts and fills clear of them or raise the permit with you early.

Yes. We take on site engineering across Markham, including Unionville and Thornhill, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: property address and a recent topographic survey, if you have one; what you are building, paving or regrading; and architectural or pool drawings, if another designer prepared them. Send those and we tell you what the City of Markham Building Standards Department will ask for before we quote.

When the house or addition you want breaks one of By-law 2024-19’s limits, a side yard or a height for example, and the shortfall is small enough to argue as minor. The Committee hears the minor variance, and until that approval is in hand the Building Standards Department cannot issue the permit. We prepare the drawings for the application and set the grading to the version the Committee approves.

It may. Markham protects four heritage conservation districts under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act: Thornhill, Markham Village, Buttonville and Unionville. Before we draw new paving, steps or walls in one, we ask the city whether the district’s requirements reach that work, and any permit that comes with it still goes to the Building Standards Department as usual.

Not on every lot. By-law 2024-19 allows a unit in an accessory building only where the lot holds a detached house, a semi-detached house or a townhouse, and none at all in a GWY1 zone or on TRCA hazard lands. We check the zone on the city’s map and the hazard limits on TRCA’s mapping before placing the unit on the grading plan.

Because both go through the city’s Residential Infill Grading and Servicing review, which looks at how the lot will drain and how the house will connect to the water and sewer services. The plan shows the existing and proposed elevations, the swales and downspout outlets that take runoff to the street or a storm connection, and the service lines. For an infill house in Thornhill or Unionville, we start from a topographic survey of the lot and the neighbours’ grades along each lot line.

On urban residential land outside the Greenbelt, Ontario now reads a zoning by-law’s minimum setback as 90 per cent of the stated distance. Where that applies to a Markham lot, the setbacks in By-law 2024-19 are measured that way, which can bring an addition within the rules without a minor variance. We confirm the lot qualifies before relying on it, since the Greenbelt and some prescribed areas are left out, and the Building Standards Department reviews the permit on the same basis.