Legal Basements in Richmond Hill

A building permit for the unit, applied for with drawings at Richmond Hill’s own building department rather than York Region. The stairwell for a new entrance changes the grade beside the house, and Richmond Hill’s site alteration by-law covers residential regrading, so where the dig reshapes the yard, a grading plan by an engineer or surveyor goes with it. We prepare and file the set and deal with the examiner’s comments.

Only where the lot is inside Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) regulation, near a watercourse, a valley or a floodplain. Digging a stairwell down to the basement changes the grade there, and the TRCA permit may be needed before Richmond Hill issues the building permit. Oak Ridges and Lake Wilcox in the north drain to Lake Simcoe and are under the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. For a lot there, we read that authority’s mapping instead, before the entrance is drawn.

Richmond Hill permits up to three additional residential units on a lot in addition to the primary dwelling, as long as the lot has no more than four dwelling units in total and no more than two of the additional units are in an accessory residential building, such as above a detached garage. ARUs are subject to zoning requirements and restrictions, including a building permit, and the lot must be separately serviced by municipal sewage works and drinking water. That can leave room for more than one extra unit, so we plan the basement layout with any later unit in mind before anything is filed.

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

It may. Ontario’s O. Reg. 299/19 calls for one space for each additional unit, and a tandem space behind yours counts, unless the zoning by-law requires no space for the house or none for the unit. We read the parking rules in whichever by-law governs your address, CZBL 93-25 or the earlier one, alongside By-law 143-24 before the driveway and the entrance are drawn.

Not under By-law 143-24, which allows additional units only on a lot served by municipal sewers and drinking water. We confirm how your lot is serviced at the first visit, before anything is drawn, and where it is on municipal services the unit goes to the City of Richmond Hill Building Division for its permit.

The unit itself follows By-law 143-24 and the building permit, as it would anywhere in Richmond Hill. The Gormley Heritage Conservation District is more likely to bear on the outside work. It covers Gormley’s village core under the Ontario Heritage Act, so a new side door, a stairwell or a bigger basement window on a house there is something we take to the City before the entrance is drawn.

We tell you when the City of Richmond Hill Building Division issues it, and you can check for yourself on the Richmond Hill Permit Portal: once you log in, the application’s drawings and attachments sit under My Work, then My Permits/Plans/Licensing. An issued permit does not make the unit legal yet. That comes when its inspections pass and the permit is closed, and we book each inspection as the work reaches it.

It could. A stairwell dug beside the house cuts roots, and Richmond Hill’s Tree Preservation By-law 19-25 needs a permit before a private tree 15 cm or more in diameter, measured 1.4 m up the trunk, is injured as well as removed. We mark those trees on the survey and put the entrance on a side clear of them, or get the tree permit before the drawings reach the City of Richmond Hill Building Division.