Finally! – After almost 8 months the City of North Vancouver has “officially” approved our plans. 

I just counted 279 emails with the City of North Vancouver regarding our project since we started, to describe the process as convoluted, inefficient and bureaucratic would be an understatement. But we are grateful for some exceptions and also especially grateful for the expertise of Naikoon in navigating the endless hoops.

Since we broke ground on May 17th, we have been operating under what is called a  “M.A.P.” (Managers Approval to Proceed) which is a provisional approval to commence site works and foundations. We were indeed nearing the end of that authority so an official building permit was becoming increasingly necessary. 

Over the last year there has been an influx of applications for building permits, and this combined with reduced staff and increased COVID protocols created a huge bottleneck. Shockingly we were told the last house with a coach house took 16 months to approve, so we are indeed blessed and favoured to have only waited this long. That being said, our coach house is still in the queue waiting approval, but all indications are that it will receive its own building permit in the next week or so.  It’s been approved July 9th!

The privilege to build a home does not come cheap as one would expect, costs from the City of North Vancouver have now exceeded $50,000 with more to come. 

I dropped by the site to hand Dan our site supervisor the official package, he was as suitably pleased as was I. 

Next up this week is the finishing of the form work for all the architectural concrete retaining walls, and the delivery and installation of the ICF (Integrated Concrete Forms) on Friday. Very soon Summerfell will be well out of the ground an on its way to lock up by the end of September. 

UPDATE JULY 9th

We have now received ALL OUR APPROVALS for both the House and Coach House! Kane and I walked up to City Hall today and chatted with the AMAZING Brittney who has been our Champion from the beginning.