New Custom Homes in Vaughan

A building permit with architectural, structural, mechanical and energy-compliance drawings and a grading and servicing plan, plus any minor variance or conservation permit the lot triggers. The City of Vaughan Building Standards Department issues the building permit and, at the end, the occupancy permit, and inspects the build in between. Vaughan’s Site Alteration By-law 031-2024 is aimed at larger sites; the city states it does not apply to individual residential properties, whose grading is reviewed with the building permit. So the grading plan goes in with the house drawings.

If the lot is in a TRCA Regulated Area, yes, and we check TRCA’s own mapping when the survey comes in. Building anything in a TRCA Regulated Area takes a TRCA permit, and Vaughan will not issue the building permit until it is in hand. TRCA asks for a pre-submission consultation, which we hold before the footprint is fixed. TRCA issues its permits in the owner’s name: the permit is yours, even though we prepare what it reviews. We confirm the issuing body when we apply, because TRCA is due to merge with the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority on February 1, 2027 or later.

It depends on the district. The first check is whether your lot is inside one. Vaughan has four Heritage Conservation Districts designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act: Kleinburg-Nashville, Maple, Thornhill and Woodbridge. For a lot inside a district, we confirm with the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department what it asks of a new house before the massing is drawn.

Yes. We take on new custom homes across Vaughan, including Woodbridge and Maple, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.

Three things to start: lot address and a survey, if you have one; your sketch, brief or a plan from another designer; and whether the lot is serviced or needs a well and septic. Send those and we tell you what the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department will ask for before we quote.

As big as the lot’s zoning standards allow: height, setbacks and lot coverage under Zoning By-law 001-2021, or under By-law 1-88 where part of the new by-law is still under appeal. On a rebuild in Woodbridge or Thornhill we work from the by-law rather than the size of the house being replaced, and we read it for your address before the design starts.

They can. Demolition, the new foundation and the service trenches all work near roots, and By-law 177-2025 needs a permit to injure or remove a tree 20 cm or more across, including one on a neighbour’s lot or on city land beside yours. We plot every tree that size on the survey at the start, because that permit comes from Parks and Forestry Operations and runs apart from the building permit the Building Standards Department issues for the house.

Yes. Ontario’s Building Code Act covers demolishing a building as well as constructing one, so the old house needs a permit from the City of Vaughan Building Standards Department before it comes down. On a rebuild in Woodbridge or Thornhill, we prepare that application with the new house drawings.

We open the application in Vaughan’s Online Permitting Portal and upload the full house set through the ePlans Portal linked to it. The portal’s My Permits / Services page then shows each stage of the Building Standards Department’s review, and we answer the examiner’s comments until the permit is issued.

Yes, if the lot has municipal water and sanitary service. Vaughan’s By-law 083-2025 lets a house hold up to two added units, and they are simpler to place in the first design than to fit in later, on the same permit set the Building Standards Department reviews for the house. On a lot with a well or septic system the house can still be built, but the by-law does not allow the added units.