As mentioned in previous updates, on July 28th Council gave final adoption to the proposed amendments to the City’s Building Bylaw in order establish transparent and consistent criteria for allowing the submission of an early building permit application prior to the issuance of a development permit for multiple residential, commercial, and industrial development that is subject to a Form and Character Development Permit. The proposed changes are intended to improve the overall applicant experience and reduce the application processing times.  

Additional information can be found in the  full report by City staff. 

July 21, 2025

As mentioned in previous updates, at their meeting on July 14th Council gave three readings to the proposed amendments to the City’s Building Bylaw in order to streamline the building permit review process, reducing wait times for applicants and helping the City achieve its goal of reducing the applicant experience timelines by 30%. 

Additional information can be found in the  full report by City staff. 

July 8, 2025

At their meeting on June 23rd, Council approved the proposed amendments to the City’s Building Bylaw and authorized the City Clerk to bring forward the necessary amendment bylaws for required readings in order to establish transparent and consistent criteria for allowing the submission of an early building permit application prior to the issuance of a development permit for multiple residential, commercial, and industrial development that is subject to a Form and Character Development Permit. 

Proposed Procedure  

To continue the City’s practice in allowing early building permit applications and to ensure criteria for allowing early building permit applications are being consistently applied by staff and made clearly available to applicants, it is recommended that transparent and consistent criteria for allowing early building permit applications be established in the Building Bylaw. It is proposed that the following requirements would need to be satisfied before a building permit application for multiple residential, commercial, and industrial development that is subject to a Form and Character Development Permit, is accepted by the City: 

1. Conditional Approval from Council;  
2. Payment by the owner of Engineering servicing agreement processing fee pursuant to Surrey Subdivision and Development By-law, 1986, No. 8830, as amended;  
3. City’s acceptance of finalized architectural drawings for the commercial, industrial, or multiple-residential development as required for the development permit; and  
4. City’s acceptance of finalized landscape drawings for the commercial, industrial, or multiple-residential development as required for the development permit.  

Once these conditions for a project are met, an applicant would be permitted to submit a building permit application. Introducing requirements that must be met to allow submission of an early building permit application will facilitate the completion of project design at an earlier stage, resulting in more accurate and complete building permit applications, alleviating the coordination and review times noted above. The proposed changes are intended to improve the overall applicant experience and reduce the application processing times. 

Additional information can be found in the  full report by City staff.