Residential Permits in Oakville

We make them, at no extra charge. Comments from the examiner at the Town of Oakville Building Department 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 Conservation Halton 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. Beside a valley with stable slopes, the regulated area runs to the stable top of the bank plus 15 metres. On an Oakville 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. Oakville building permit applications are submitted through the Town’s Online Services. Applications that need drawings are reviewed in ePlan, powered by ProjectDox, where applicants sign in with their Town of Oakville account to see project tasks and status. A house permit set always has drawings, so ours goes through ePlan, and we follow its project tasks there until the permit is issued.

Yes. We take on residential permits across Oakville, including Old Oakville and Bronte, within an hour 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 Town of Oakville Building Department will ask for before we quote.

Whichever one covers your lot: By-law 2014-014 south of Dundas Street and north of Highway 407, or By-law 2009-189 in between. The setbacks, height, lot coverage and unit count on the site plan all come from it, and the Town of Oakville Building Department will not issue a permit for drawings that break it. We name the by-law at the start and check the design against it before the set is finished.

It can. Private Tree Protection By-law 2017-038 applies to private trees 15 centimetres or more across at breast height and counts injury to the roots the same as removal, so a footing or a walkout dug close to one can need a permit. Our site plan shows each of those trees from the survey, so a conflict comes up while the layout can still move, well before the ePlan upload.

Its elevations wait for the district. A new porch, an addition or a changed front in the Old Oakville, First and Second Street, Trafalgar Road or Downtown Oakville heritage conservation district is held to that district’s rules, so we find out what they allow before the exterior is drawn. Interior work, and any house outside the four districts, goes through the Building Department’s usual zoning and Building Code review.

It should. Section 4.1.2 of By-law 2014-014 allows a property two added units at most, both attached or one attached and one in an accessory building. We place the first unit’s entrance, exit and water service so they leave room for the second, and the later application to the Building Department then does not mean redrawing the first.

The other approvals in front of them, more than the drawings. A Conservation Halton permit comes first on a regulated lot, a design outside By-law 2014-014 or 2009-189 has to clear a minor variance, and exterior work in a heritage district goes through the district’s review. We find out at the first visit which of those your address brings, and file a complete set in ePlan so the Building Department’s review is not held up by missing sheets.

Mostly the size of the job. Drawing a basement unit into a 1980s Glen Abbey house means measuring what is there and showing the changes, while a new house on a lakefront lot is a full set from the foundation up. Extra applications add to it: Conservation Halton, a tree permit under By-law 2017-038, a heritage review. We quote after the free consultation, when the scope and the address are known.