In an exciting step forward, the City of Edmonton has announced the launch of an automated development application system that grants building permits with the click of a button.
The Auto Review for House Development Permits system, which launched on Monday, is the first of its kind in Canada, representing a promising look into the future of approvals processes across the country that would bring welcome relief to notoriously long (and costly) wait times.
"There's a national housing crisis, as we know, so we're looking at all the tools and levers we have to get projects out faster," Travis Pawlyk, Branch Manager of Development Services, tells STOREYS. "We can't really control those housing prices, per se, but we can look to impact the market through supply and demand of material cost by reducing the time that it takes to get through the permitting process itself."
Essentially, if someone wants to build a single-detached or semi-detached home in a greenfield area (a Small Scale Flex Residential zoned area), they can head to the Self Service website and fill out a development application. If the application meets requirements and isn’t selected for a random audit, the development permit is issued immediately, the City explained in a news release.
"A home builder can also apply for a partial building permit for footing and foundation – another automated process – and, upon same-day approval, begin construction," says the release.
Currently intended for those building a single-detached or semi-detached home in a pre-zoned area, the automated system won't be approving complex developments like high-, mid-, or even low-rise multi-unit housing, but it does condense the current approval process time from two weeks down to one day — an improvement projected to save "an estimated $5.3 million and 67,600 days annually," the City says.
In the future, however, more complex applications could be brought into the fold.
"The idea is to expand [the program] to bigger buildings," Pawlyk tells STOREYS. Eventually, the City hopes to use the system to grant permits for more complex projects, or to screen the applications so that builders can use the tool to input their development details and see whether they are meeting regulations and requirements, further speeding up the process, he explains.
"We chose our simplest building product to start out with, just to ensure that the system is up and running. We've been testing it for the last nine months with all of our builders," says Pawlyk. "Since January, there's been a human on the other side checking to ensure that everything's working, and we got it to a point where we were confident in the system."
During a year where Edmonton saw a 67% increase in housing applications, according to Pawlyk, the automated expediting process has presented an extremely effective tool, alongside other technological endeavours the City has taken to speed up housing, including using AI to perform building inspection services.
"[The automated system] is just another example of how Edmonton is leading the way in innovation in the planing and development realm," says Pawlyk. "Permit timelines hold up construction, but doing them faster and still within that regulatory framework is our goal."
