Councillor notes flaws in Vernon’s new development permit process

Oct 14, 2022 | 6:30 AM

The City of Vernon will be going back to the drawing board to revise its new development permitting format.

At Tuesday’s regular meeting, Councillor Brian Quiring said the new process is good in its simplicity, inclusion of land use and schedule requirements, and ability to streamline the application process.

However, he did say the new format is not without flaws.

Under ‘Item I’ in the new policy, Quiring said there shouldn’t be a need to have a foreman character check as most people wouldn’t have hired one at this point.

He also stated certain requirements were unnecessary or excessive, such as providing exact floor plans that include exact window and sky light sizes, locations of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and details of all staircases, as there is no guarantee the plan would be approved at this stage and a full floor plan may not be drawn up yet.

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Under ‘Item K,’ Quiring said the cross-section requirement was too restrictive, and certain information requirements, such as for the number of risers or ceiling heights, are already included in building permits.

Quiring also noted a cross section of the site needs to be included in ‘Item K,’ adding this will help the variance permit process further down the line.

“It’s a good document, but it needs to be fixed,” Quiring remarked. “It’s got some fairly significant requirements that cannot be fulfilled at that point in the project.”

Quiring indicated he informed Director of Community Development, Kim Flick, of the proposed revisions.

“We are seeking feedback, and we’re going to amend the form to add that right to the top,“ Flick told council.

“We’re test driving this new approach. We welcome your feedback, good and bad, so that we can get it to a level where everybody’s happy with it and it makes the process as quick and as streamlined as possible,“ Flick added.

by Liam Verster

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