A change in scenery is much needed these days, but if you’re eyeing big renovations or home improvements, you’re not alone. And that’s a bit of a problem.
Bowen Island Municipality is warning of processing delays as development applications surge. While in the first half of the year, BIM would usually have an average of 60 applications for building permits, development permits and development variance permits, it’s received more than a hundred in the past six months.
BIM’s manager of planning and development, Daniel Martin, credits COVID-19 for the boom.
“Once COVID hit [March 2020], everything went dead quiet for about a month,” said Martin. “Then it suddenly picked up and went crazy and has been continuing going crazy.”
From new homes to renovations, there’s more of everything.
Then this spring, Martin speculates that they’re possibly seeing people who’d made the change to live on Bowen more full-time over the fall and winter and who spent the winter planning property changes for their permanent home. “In April and May, in particular of this year, we just had a huge surge in terms of building permit applications.”
The building inspector approves building permits, the chief administrative officer approves development permits and council approves development variance permits.
BIM has increased its staff hours to process the applications, said a press release, but more staff isn’t in the budget.
The municipality has applied for a $75,000 grant to update its permit processing software to allow entirely digital applications and processing.
The BIM website estimates a development permit to take three to four months, and while permits are taking longer, they’re also getting prioritized, said Martin.
If one is planning on applying for a permit, Martin stresses making sure the application is complete. When someone submits an application, they’re put into a queue and when it’s their turn to get reviewed, if there’s a component missing (for example, architectural plans), there’s a delay.
While BIM is warning of a four to six month timeline, the only permits that have actually taken six months are when there’s something missing that still needs submitting, said Martin.
“We’re always very aware that people are trying to plan their builds in advance,” said Martin. “That’s what stresses us out and keeps us up at night, is if our permits are taking too long to get issued.
“We’re always open for suggestions, if people have ideas on how we can improve or they have feedback on the permit application and want to let us know,” he added.
The BIM press release warns islanders that going ahead with development without permits can cause more delays, have financial impacts and can disrupt fragile ecosystems.
