Eight months after plans submitted, homeowner still waiting on permit
JOHN MACKIE
The Vancouver Sun
Dean Murray is mired in reno hell. And he hasn’t even begun to do renovations.
Murray bought a century-old character home at 2726 West 6th Ave. in Kitsilano last year. The interior had been split up into suites and was in rough shape, so he hired an architect and drew up plans to take the interior of the house down to the studs and restore it to a single family home.
He submitted the plans to the city on Oct. 29, 2015. Eight months later, he still doesn’t have a permit to begin construction.
Murray’s problem is that his initial application was for a “field review,” rather than a full development permit. The city inspector showed up Jan. 29 to do the field review, but determined there was much more work involved than would be covered in a field review.
He told Murray he would have to submit a whole new application, even though Murray had waited three months to get an inspection done.
Murray submitted a new plan on April 9, but amended his original plans to include dormers. The city didn’t get back to him until June 21, and on June 23 told him the addition of dormers would mean he had to apply to the board of variance, which would take another couple of months.
On June 24 Murray emailed the city saying he was withdrawing the plans for the dormer. But he’s still waiting for the city to send an inspector out to look at his home and plans.
Murray is so frustrated he recently put a sign up on his lawn about his plight, illustrated with a photo of Murray, his wife and their two small children.
It reads “Waiting for over nine months for the City of Vancouver to process a permit so we can move into our family home, which we don’t want to tear down or abandon, simply renovate on the interior!”
Murray is a lawyer and says he did a similar reno project when he was living in Toronto a few years ago.
“We did a renovation in Toronto, with exactly the same square footage in the house, same amount of floors, and it took us three weeks and about $1,800 (to get permits),” he said.
“This will cost us about $100,000 in city costs and outside consultants that they require, and about 18 months to two years (to get through the process).”
Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie said there’s more to the story than just getting a permit. Murray’s contractor had done demo work inside the house in anticipation of doing the reno, without a permit.
The city said the initial plans submitted by his architect estimated the reno costs would be $85,000, but when the inspector showed up for the field review, that inspector estimated the renos would be in the $400,000 range, which required a different permit.
Louie said city staff advised Murray against amending the initial plans to include the dormer, but he submitted that plan anyway. Even though Murray eventually withdrew it, “every time you apply for something different the clock starts anew,” which led to a longer delay.
Murray is baffled by Vancouver’s way of doing things compared to Toronto’s.
“The city’s public position is to encourage local buyers and avoid tearing down heritage homes, but unfortunately the regulations, red-tape and inefficiency of the permitting office results in the opposite effect,” he wrote in an email to councillor George Affleck.
“A local buyer, non-developer, cannot afford the standard wait in excess of eight months (though we are predicted to be closer to 18 months based on the current schedule) due to the carrying costs of maintaining a separate residence and stress on the family living in temporary residence.”
Louie said the rules are there to “make sure life safety is taken care of (and) that the form of development is OK, that the construction methodology meets compliance with the B.C. and Vancouver building code.”
Murray said it would have been easier to just tear down the house and build new.
“My contractor bought a home six weeks after us that he tore down,” he said. “And his (new) house will be move-in ready in about a month.”
The former head of the city’s heritage department said getting a permit for an older home can indeed be an “onerous” process, and should be overhauled.
“It’s a hard time to go through the process because the rules are not written for existing buildings, the rules are written for new buildings,” said Robert Lemon, who was head of the heritage department from 1991 to 1996.
“The city says it’s concerned about the loss of character buildings and heritage value in neighbourhoods, but every time someone tries to save one they run up against zoning, and the zoning was put in place after these buildings were built.
“So you can’t expect the existing building to have a level playing field as far as renovations, additions and conservation, because it’s always deemed ‘non-conforming.’
“It conformed when it was built, and it’s nonconforming now because the powers that be in the past have zoned the area in a certain away.”
In a heritage “dream world” Lemon said “the city’s zoning would allow to grandfather existing buildings and not subject them to the same rules as new buildings are expected to be built to.”
He also thinks the timeline between renovation and building new could be flipped.
“If the city is sincere about wanting to save character houses, they should make the guy building a new house take eight months to get their permit, not the guy trying to renovate a nice old house,” he said.
© 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
