A North Shore contractor is urging West Vancouver council to reduce the time it takes to get a permit for renovations in the district.
Erik Jensen of Spruce Hill Contracting said it could take up to three months to get a permit to do renovations in the district. “I am not sure why there is such a long turnaround time for permits in this depressed real estate market. This turnaround time is going to drive many home owners to choose to not pull permits,” he said.
Jensen said he would like West Vancouver to create a “triage process” that would prioritise small to medium sized renovations, followed by large scale renovations and then new builds in the community.
“Making getting permits easy for small to medium sized projects will go a long way to ensuring your constituents go ahead and apply for them when they should,” he said.
Jensen said it would also encourage those contractors who were keen to avoid permits to apply for these permits, a benefit to the district and the community. He said waiting for six to ten weeks for a small renovation was excessive and onerous.
“I would suggest that four weeks should be the absolute maximum turnaround time for issuing permits,” he said
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