Vancouver developers could see rezoning and permitting fees rise in 2022, including a new $218-per-hour fee to handle expedited requests for property research letters and documents.

City council will vote on the increased fee structure Tuesday. If approved, the fee hike would apply to more than 70 different categories including building permits, rezoning applications and site inspections. The measure would result in a 5% increase totaling approximately $3 million to cover costs related to staff salary and benefits. It would also mark a 32% increase in fees during the last 5 years, after a 9% fee hike in 2017 and 12% boost in 2018 were followed by increases of 3% in both 2019 and 2020.

A staff report outlined the new fee structure, noting that “increased regulation and the resulting process and technology challenges” have combined with “COVID-related supply chain issues in the construction industry” to extend permit turnaround times during 2021.

While Vancouver city council has taken steps to reduce wait times — adding 75 additional staff members in 2017 and approving another 25 new positions in 2019 to handle the increased workload — the city continues to face a permit and building inspection backlog. According to the report, without increasing fees the building permitting program will not generate enough money to cover its costs.

“Cost and revenue neutrality for the permitting program is targeted at the program level,” the report states, “and is intended to recover both the direct and indirect costs associated with administering the program and its services.”

In addition to the fee hike, Vancouver city council is being asked to approve a new $218-per-hour fee for customers who want expedited copies of property research letters and documents.

According to the report, “customers sometimes require expedited service due to tight deadlines (e.g. closing a real estate deal) and will ask staff to complete their requests ahead of those already in our queue.”

Staff will only complete these requests outside of regular operating hours, the report states, so they will not have any impact on requests already in the queue.

“Thus, this new fee will provide customers an avenue to expedite time sensitive requests without unfairly delaying other requests in our queue. Further, as this fee will enable staff to complete some requests outside of our regular queue, we anticipate an overall improvement to our processing service level agreement.”

Along with rising fees, the number of Vancouver developments are expected to increase in 2022 as well. After experiencing a downturn in 2020, applications for permits and rezoning services have increased during 2021 and the number is expected to rise in 2022.

“Forecasts indicate 2022 building and development permit applications volumes will see a 53% increase on 2020 actuals and a 2% increase over 2021 year-end forecasts,” the report states. “A more modest increase of approximately 7% is expected for 2022 trade permits, compared with 2020 actuals and a four per cent increase on 2021 applications.

“In 2022, staff anticipate rezoning applications will be similar to 2020 levels with volume forecasts of 77 applications in 2021 compared to 77 applications in 2020. This reflects steady growth, but still not at pre-COVID levels.”

Vancouver Construction Industry Facing Increased Permit, Document Fees by Ryan Garner | Livabl