In the Custom Home Building world, there are many tasks that can lead to exhausting frustration. Permit applications are a ton of work and require the utmost of patience and experience.

But what happens when there is an additional Authority between the Building Department and the Permit. Conservation Authorities are an absolutely necessary entity and perform a very important function in helping to protect certain environments. There process to approve applications can be long and intense, depending on the project and how it will affect the natural aspects of the property.

Among the many things that they have to take into consideration are…

• The impact on the native plants and trees
• Light pollution and how it may affect the existing wildlife
• Visual impact
• Using exterior cladding products that will help to soften the visual impact
• And on, and on, and on……

  Our application for a permit to demolish an existing house and replace it with a new home was made in February of 2015. This being our first experience with this particular conservation authority, we were ill prepared for the length of time and the amount of effort it would take to reach approval status.

  When I mentioned the application to industry partners, they laughed and said we were in for a long wait. This meant our clients would not be able to realize their dream of an escarpment home for at minimum one year. I found this unacceptable, especially because the documentation the authority provides clearly states that the process is 10 to 12 weeks long.

  I decided to try to speed things up by visiting the Authority office every 2 weeks. What I found was that the reason the process was as drawn out as it was is because they have many, many applications that they are trying to sift through, each one as important to someone as ours is to us and our clients.

  Almost 20 weeks from the date of our application, we were given an approval, which gave us the permission to apply for a building permit. (Another process that can be as challenging, and expensive if your not prepared).

  As it turns out, we learned valuable lessons about how to deal with the required Authorities and met some very influential people along the way. I’m not sure if there is a better way to speed up the process but at least next time we will be better prepared.