Housing Renovation Centre (HRC)

One and Two Family Dwellings

For many homeowners, contemplating home renovations and additions, interpreting the regulations and stick handling the approval process at the city can be discouraging if not daunting. The Housing Renovation Centre (HRC) was established by City Council to assist the general public in their renovation or home addition endeavours by expediting home renovation projects that are mostly in compliance with the City’s Zoning and Building By-laws and applicable policies and guidelines, therefore, do not warrant a full-length application review process.

The HRC’s purpose is to encourage retention of existing housing stock and maintenance of established neighbourhood character by providing the most comprehensive advice and guidance possible, in advance of applying for a permit. Our staff is here to provide assistance to homeowners, design professionals and builders, and to help them understand the By-law and process complexities that may be encountered in obtaining permits and approvals.

Sounds like a plan

The beginning of your project begins with your creative ideas. Once you have formed some clear ideas, it will become necessary to test these ideas to see if the City is able to entertain and approve your ideas. As well, we will consider what possible impacts or concerns that affected neighbours might have. Homeowners are first encouraged to do their homework to find out specific zoning and building regulations that are relevant to their home renovation projects.

STEP 1: Get Van Map

A good place to begin is to download Van Map to see your how your house sits on your property and how it relates to its neighbours. Within Van Map, you can find out which Zoning District you are in as well as the width and depth of your property among many other bits of information pertaining to your property. If this is too complicated, give us a call, and we can provide you with this information over the phone.

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STEP 2: Get your district schedule

Once you find out which zoning district you are in, you can download the zoning district schedule for your area and spend some time equipping yourself with some basic knowledge about the Zoning and Development By-law(s) as well you can look up Design Guidelines. If you are in a guidelines neighbourhood, you may want to consider hiring a design professional to assist you with the project, given this added layer of project complexity. Alternatively, you come and visit the enquiry centre and we can set you up with this information.

STEP 3: Ask questions

At this point, you will likely need to ask questions. You may want to come in and see us at the Enquiry Centre, and talk with some of the Enquiry Centre Officers, ECO’s,  who are available each day to give on the spot feedback to your ideas. Alternatively, you can always call the Enquiry Centre phone line where staff are standing by to answer your questions.

STEP 4: Draw your scheme/assemble information

Do have a sense of your ideas on paper? Sketch up, as best you can, a rough idea of what you have in mind for the project.

Some of the basic following information will form a good basis for a pre-application meeting:

• Property Address
• Existing floor area
• Additional photos of the rear and sides of the house
• Preliminary sketches of your proposal
• Additional information:
  • Survey certificate (if you have one)
  • Photos of neighbouring houses each side
  • Real estate summary sheet (if you have this)
  • Any previous drawings or permits (if you have this)
  • Head height clearance in basement to underside of structure (joisting)

We encourage you to make use of the many resources that are available to give you more knowledge about the zoning and development process and how this process will play out for your project. You will have much better results at your pre-application meeting if you have taken some of these first steps. Simply put, having done your homework will put you ahead of the game and enable you to get the most out of your pre-application meeting. By the time you are ready to book a time for a pre-application appointment, you should have a fairly clear idea about what you intend to achieve with your project, and you will need to furnish some form of drawings that communicate the basic shape, size, and nature of your proposal.

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STEP 5: Book a Pre-application meeting

A pre-application meeting is meant to review your project in order to assess the feasibility of your project in light of relevant by-laws and regulations and possible impacts towards adjacent properties.  You will be meeting with the development planner to discuss and outline the specifics of your project. After your meeting you can expect to have learned or identified some of the following:

• The procedures required for applying for a Development or Building Permit.
• Specific information regarding the house and neighbouring houses that should be considered in developing the renovation plans.
• Additional information that might be required from the HRC and how to obtain this information.
• We will assist you in getting you in contact with other city departments when required to obtain addition information required for your project.

STEP 6: Finalize your design

You will be working to get the components in place for your application. This may entail any number of items such as, a land survey, structural drawings, architectural drawings, or other items specific to your project. On occasion, your initial ideas might have changed as the project evolves and develops during the design phase. If that is the case, it might be worth touching base with staff to ensure your project has not drifted in a direction that might warrant a second look by us to ensure that additional concerns have arisen since we first looked at the project.

STEP 7: Submit your plans

The City has many checklist outlining what you need to assemble in order to submit your application. If you have a design professional working for you, they generally, are well acquainted with our requirements for submission. For most projects nowadays, we do recommend that you consider getting some assistance from a professional. They will add value to your project by knowing how to work with the City as well as advocating your needs to the builder during the construction phase of the project.

STEP 8: Issuance of Permit

A happy day when this occurs. You or your design professional will be picking up permits, and perhaps paying fees to the HRC and possibly engineering services. You will be leaving with your permit set in hand referred to as your Job Site set, or Applicant Set of drawings. Please keep good care of these drawings, they are gold.

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STEP 9: Construction phase

At this time, your contactor will be taking the lead on the project. The City will be carrying out inspections along the way at various phases of completion. The DBIs will be attending your site to ensure that all elements of construction are being installed to comply with relevant codes. In this way, you are being protected by having the City verify and affirm the quality of work going on at your project. The Project Coordinator issuing the permit will give you a brief overview of how to book and coordinate inspections during construction.

STEP 10: Project completion

When you have received your final inspection, the permit is closed and you are complete. This is an especially happy time. You can now begin to enjoy your newly updated house and perhaps start thinking of your next project.

Where to find us:

Vancouver City Hall East Wing (next to City Hall main building)
2nd Floor Enquiry Centre
2675 Yukon Street
Enquiry centre phone line: 604.873.7613
Pre-application bookings by telephone: 604.873.7611

Parking is available at the base of the City Hall main building or below ground parking entered off Yukon Street just north of the Pavilion.

HRC disclaimer: While every effort is made to give accurate and complete advice during a pre- application meeting, advice cannot be guaranteed to be complete in the absence of a full and complete technical evaluation of the project that delineates quantitative compliance, or non-compliance with the zoning and development by-law and/or the Vancouver Building By-law. In this regard, pre-application advice can only be a speculative opinion of the probable outcome of the project. Additionally, a pre-application consultation with staff does not relieve the applicant or design professional from conducting his own research and efforts towards making an application complying with any and all applicable By-laws. This holds true even after the issuance of a permit, pursuant to the Zoning and Development By-law, Sec 4.3.5.

 

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