Permit review times at 6-8 weeks: City of Fernie

Building permit wait times for initial review are currently sitting around six to eight weeks according to the City of Fernie.

Incomplete applications continued to slow down the whole process, said Derek Cimolini, manager of planning for the City of Fernie, in a building officials report to the committee of the whole.

In October, eight different building permits for new dwellings were issued for a total of over $7.6 million in construction value. Cimolini estimated that issued permits for new dwelling units in Fernie sat at 82 for 2021 as of the end of October.

Of the permits included in the October report, initial times for staff to review applications ranged from six weeks to 12 weeks.

Times between applications being submitted to permits being issued ranged from 10 weeks to 27 weeks.

One application had an initial date of submission at the end of March, was re-assessed in May, September and early October before being approved with a permit issued on October 7.

Cimolini said that incomplete applications saw much back and forth between applicants and the planning department.

At the beginning of September, the city was awarded a grant for $171,875 to improve its development permit process which it noted was held back by old bylaws and lack of readily available information for applicants which jammed up the process.

READ MORE: Building permit wait times at eight weeks in Fernie