The design is the part homeowners look forward to. Building permits and approvals are the part they dread — usually because the process gets described in fragments, with terms like minor variance and committee of adjustment dropped in without explanation. It's more orderly than it looks. Here's the residential approvals process in Ontario, in the order it actually happens, and roughly how long each stage takes.
The order of operations
For most home projects in Ontario, approvals run in a set sequence:
- Zoning check — confirm the project complies with the local zoning by-law.
- Minor variance — only if it doesn't; apply to the Committee of Adjustment for relief from a specific rule.
- Building permit — submit the drawings and documentation for review against the Ontario Building Code.
- Inspections — booked at set stages as the work goes up.
- Occupancy — granted once the final inspection passes.
Most projects touch stages 1, 3, 4, and 5. Stage 2 only comes in when the design doesn't fit the zoning rules as written — which, for additions especially, is common.
In York Region, each municipality — Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham, King — runs its own building department and Committee of Adjustment, so the forms, fees, and timelines vary depending on where your project sits.
Does your project fit the zoning by-law?
Before the building permit, the project has to satisfy the municipality's zoning by-law — the rules governing what you can build on your lot. The usual pressure points are setbacks (how close to the property line you can build), height, lot coverage (how much of the lot the building occupies), and floor-space limits.
If the design stays inside those limits, zoning is a straightforward check and you move on to the permit. If it steps outside even one of them — an addition a little closer to the side lot line than the by-law allows, say — you'll need a minor variance first.
Minor variances and the Committee of Adjustment
A minor variance is a request for permission to depart slightly from the zoning by-law. It's decided by the Committee of Adjustment, a municipal body that hears these applications in public.
The Committee weighs the request against four tests set out in the Planning Act: whether it's genuinely minor, whether it suits the intended use of the property, and whether it keeps to the general intent of both the zoning by-law and the municipality's Official Plan. Neighbours are notified and can speak for or against.
Practically, this stage adds time. Between preparing the application, the required notice period, and waiting for a hearing date, a minor variance often adds a couple of months before you can move on to the permit. It's rarely the drama people fear — most straightforward residential variances pass — but it's a stage to plan around rather than discover late.
The building permit
The building permit is the municipality's confirmation that your project meets the Ontario Building Code. A complete application is mostly drawings and documentation: a dimensioned drawing set, a site plan, structural information, and confirmation that the design complies with zoning.
This is the part an architectural technologist prepares — the drawings and the code compliance the permit is granted against. A clean, complete submission is the single biggest thing within your control, because of how the review clock works.
How long does it take?
Once an application is judged complete, the Building Code sets a review window — around ten business days for a house, and longer for larger or more complex buildings. The municipality then has to issue or refuse it, with written reasons, inside that window.
The catch is in the word complete. That clock doesn't start until the municipality accepts the application as complete — and most first submissions come back with a deficiency notice asking for something missing. An incomplete file simply waits. It's why the same permit can take ten days for one person and two months for another: the difference is submission quality, not luck.
Counting the design, the zoning check, any variance, and the review itself, a simple project usually runs four to eight weeks end to end. A new home takes considerably longer.
Where the costs come from
Permit fees are set by each municipality, usually as a formula based on construction value or floor area, and they're adjusted annually. They tend to be smaller than people expect — the fee covers plan review and inspections. The costs worth budgeting around the permit are the ones attached to a variance, if you need one: the application fee, and often an up-to-date survey of the property.
The fastest approval is a boring one: complete drawings, zoning confirmed, nothing left for the reviewer to chase.
Additions and renovations usually add a step
New builds are designed to fit their lot from the start. Additions and renovations work within what's already there — an existing footprint, existing setbacks — which is why they're the projects most likely to need a minor variance. If you're planning a renovation or addition, it's worth checking the zoning early, so the possibility of a variance is built into the timeline rather than sprung on it.
In short: Ontario's residential approvals run in order — confirm zoning, apply for a minor variance only if the design needs one, then submit a complete building permit application. The permit clock, around ten business days for a house, starts only once the application is complete, so the quality of the drawings largely sets the timeline.
Joshua Design Co. handles the drawings and the approvals side of residential projects across York Region and the wider GTA — from confirming zoning at the start to the complete permit application at the end. Our architectural design service covers how a build is taken from first sketch to a permit-ready set, or book an on-site consultation to talk through what your project will need.
