Commercial Permits · Richmond Hill, York Region
Commercial permits and change of use drawings for Richmond Hill units. We confirm what CZBL 93-25, or the by-law still in force where it is under appeal, allows in the space, then prepare the fit-out, fire and life-safety drawings and file them with the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
What’s included
Commercial work is judged on the code analysis before it is judged on the drawings. We classify the occupancy, confirm the zoning and work out the fire and exit requirements first, so the layout you commit to is one the city will approve. In Richmond Hill the package goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Fit-outs & new builds
Tenant fit-outs, alterations and new commercial construction, drawn to scale with the designer’s credentials and signature the Ontario Building Code requires on commercial plans.
New occupancy
Required whenever a building’s purpose changes, even with no construction: an office becoming a restaurant, a clinic becoming a supermarket, a residential unit becoming a shop.
Opening the doors
The approvals a new business needs beyond the building permit, worked out before the lease is signed so nothing surprises you at opening.
Occupant safety
Fire alarm, sprinkler, emergency lighting and exit-sign layouts, designed with the permit package so the fire department and the building department see one set.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
07 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, timed around your lease. We start with the code analysis so the layout you fall in love with is one the city will approve.
We measure the unit, confirm the zoning permits your use, and classify the occupancy under the Building Code. That tells us what the space needs before any layout is drawn.
Floor plan, exits, washrooms, kitchen and mechanical rooms are laid out together with your designer’s or franchisor’s standards, so the permit set and the fit-out drawings agree.
Architectural, structural, mechanical and fire-safety sheets come from one office, stamped by our P.Eng and BCIN designers.
We file the building permit and support the sign permit, fire inspection and licence applications that follow, answering city comments at no extra charge.
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
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Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
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A code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
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A two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
2 of 5
Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179The City of Richmond Hill Building Division reviews it as a building permit application, with or without construction. York Region is the upper tier and plays no part in the permit itself. Outside regrading can also fall under Richmond Hill’s site alteration by-law, whose terms are written around residential lots, so we ask the department how it treats a commercial one.
Only if the lot is regulated and the work goes outside. Richmond Hill is within Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) jurisdiction, and TRCA’s permit has to come before the building permit when a regulated property is filled, regraded or built on. A patio, an addition or new parking can need it; a change of use inside the walls usually does not. TRCA is set to amalgamate into the Central Lake Ontario Regional Conservation Authority on a transition date of February 1, 2027 or later, so we confirm the issuing body when we apply.
Yes. Richmond Hill has an online Richmond Hill Permit Portal. Applicants who log in can find the attachments linked to their application by clicking My Work and choosing My Permits/Plans/Licensing. We keep the application’s attachments current there as each round of comments is answered.
Yes. We take on commercial permits across Richmond Hill, including Oak Ridges and Mill Pond, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: unit address and the landlord’s base-building drawings, if any; what the space was used for before, and what you plan; and your lease start date and any landlord deadlines. Send those and we tell you what the City of Richmond Hill Building Division will ask for before we quote.
It does if the zone your unit sits in lists your use, and we read those use permissions for the address before you sign anything. If the use is not listed, a rezoning or a minor variance has to be approved before the City of Richmond Hill Building Division can issue the permit for the fit-out.
The building permit from the City of Richmond Hill Building Division covers the fit-out or the change of use, and the zoning under CZBL 93-25 has to allow a restaurant in that unit. Beyond those, a food business generally needs a health approval and a fire inspection, a sign has its own permit, and serving alcohol takes a liquor licence. We prepare the building and zoning side and tell you at the start which of the others your plan triggers.
It does. By-law 19-25 covers trees on private property, commercial lots included, and asks for a permit before a tree of 15 cm or more at 1.4 m is removed or injured. An outdoor seating area, a wider parking lot or a new walkway that cuts into roots can therefore need a tree permit alongside the building permit from the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.
Often the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority rather than the TRCA, because Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox drain north to Lake Simcoe. Its review only comes in when the lot is inside its regulated area and the work goes outside, such as an addition, a paved yard or a regraded parking area. We check the mapping for the address, and where it applies, its permit becomes part of the package we line up with the City of Richmond Hill Building Division application.
Two bodies. The City of Richmond Hill Building Division reviews the fire separations, exits and alarm design in the change of use drawings, which we file through the Richmond Hill Permit Portal. Once the business is running, the Ontario Fire Code puts compliance on the building owner and the municipal fire department enforces it, so we tell you and your landlord where the existing building falls short.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the commercial permits questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationOnly where the zoning allows the new use, or after a minor variance or a rezoning, because a building permit can only be issued for work that meets applicable law and zoning is part of it. The conversion is then a change of use permit, often with accessibility, exit and fire-separation upgrades. Fine Engineering checks the zoning before anything is drawn.
No. A building permit covers construction and changes of use under the Building Code Act. A business licence is a separate municipal approval to operate, and which businesses need one depends on the municipality and the type of business. A new restaurant or clinic can need both, applied for separately. Fine Engineering works out which ones apply to an address before the lease is signed.
The number of people a space is designed to hold under the Ontario Building Code, worked out from its use and floor area. It sets the number of exits, exit widths and washrooms and, for a bar or restaurant, the capacity on the liquor licence. Fine Engineering calculates occupant load in every commercial permit set.
It depends on the building’s size, height and occupancy, and on whether the base building is already sprinklered. A change to a higher-hazard use, such as a restaurant or an assembly space, can trigger sprinklers where none existed. Fine Engineering’s fire-safety design answers the question early, before the layout is fixed.
Yes. A restaurant is a different occupancy from an office, so the switch needs a change of use permit before any fit-out starts, and the kitchen exhaust, plumbing and fire separations go on the same application. Health approval and, where alcohol is served, an AGCO liquor licence follow separately. Fine Engineering draws the permit set and the licence plans together.
It is the building permit for work on a commercial building or unit: a tenant fit-out, an alteration, an addition or a new building. Ontario’s Building Code Act says no one may construct or demolish a building until the chief building official has issued a permit, and constructing includes materially altering an existing one. Fine Engineering prepares commercial permit sets across the GTA and Ontario.
Good to know
In Richmond Hill the reviewer is the City of Richmond Hill Building Division. Every Richmond Hill lot sets its own terms: the previous use of the unit, the base building’s fire separations and exits and the landlord’s own drawings decide how much the permit set has to cover.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the commercial permits package to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division’s own checklist.
Much of Richmond Hill is single-detached subdivisions from the 1980s to 2000s, with older village lots near Mill Pond seeing custom rebuilds. Where a shop, an office or a clinic moves into one of the older buildings, the walls, floors and exits are measured as built first, because the upgrades a new use needs depend on what is already there and what the original permit allowed.
Gormley’s village core is the Gormley Heritage Conservation District, the first district Richmond Hill designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. A business moving into a building there may want a new sign, new windows or an accessible entrance, and those exterior changes are the ones we raise with the City first, before the drawings are fixed.
The interior fit-out still goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division for its code review, so a Gormley project can run on two tracks: the heritage question for the outside and the Building Code for the inside.
The Ontario Land Tribunal approved CZBL 93-25 only in part, and specific areas of Richmond Hill are still under appeal. A unit in one of those areas is checked against the zoning by-law that already applied there, so the use permissions we read for you come from whichever text governs the address.
We also look at what the unit was last approved for, since the gap between that use and yours decides whether the City of Richmond Hill Building Division treats the job as a change of use.
Contact us
Tell us the address and the use, and we’ll tell you what the city will ask for, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179