Surrey takes action to speed up development application timelines

Surrey, B.C. – During its Regular Council Meeting Monday, Surrey City Council approved changes that exempt apartment buildings up to six stories and commercial/office buildings up to three stories from requiring Advisory Design Panel (ADP) review, provided they are supported by staff. These changes, combined with an earlier exemption of townhouse and industrial projects from urban design review, are estimated to reduce the number of projects at the ADP by 60-70% and save several months on development application timelines.

Last night, Council also approved a motion from Councillor Pardeep Kooner directing staff to report back as to whether building permits for new homes could be submitted for review after the preliminary layout approval process and prior to final subdivision in order to reduce the time for building permit issuance.

“With the housing crisis in mind, this Council is taking steps to speed up our development application timelines,” said Mayor Brenda Locke. “I thank our dedicated staff for working quickly to find solutions that will help significantly reduce processing times, while not compromising urban design outcomes. These changes will result in homes being built faster, and in turn, better meet our growing community’s vital need for new housing.”

“With these changes, Council is making it faster and easier to go through the development process,” said Councillor Kooner, who introduced several motions related to the changes. “We recognize the challenges that long wait times and complicated application processes present which is why we will continue to look for new and innovative ways to find efficiencies and simplify the process.”

The approved changes will: 

• exempt low-rise (up to six storey) apartment buildings and low-rise (up to three storey) commercial retail and office buildings from ADP review, provided they are supported through urban design staff review;
• allow an option for high-rise (more than six storey) residential and mixed-use developments and larger (more than three storeys) commercial and select major projects to be scheduled for ADP review either prior to introduction to Council, or following third reading and/or Council’s “approval to draft” a Development Permit but before final approval at the applicant’s discretion, provided they are supported through urban design staff review; and
• refer projects to an ADP review prior to introduction to Council if the design is not supported through urban design staff review. In such cases, the ADP will function as a “second opinion” and will form part of staff’s recommendations to Council.

Staff will amend internal procedures and practices and will bring forward amendments to the Terms of Reference for the ADP for Council’s approval. Click here to read the full corporate report.

Previously, all high-rise and low-rise apartments and mixed-use development applications, commercial developments above a density of 0.5 FAR or 2,000 sq. m (20,000 sq. ft.) of floor space, major industrial developments, and select civic projects were referred to the ADP for comment prior to being introduced to Council.

The ADP is a volunteer body established by Surrey City Council with the primary mandate of providing third-party, expert, peer advice to Council on the design qualities of development applications that are subject to a Development Permit for form and character. 

During Monday night’s meeting, Council also approved improvements to Engineering development processes, including earlier involvement with Engineering staff to provide greater clarity on servicing requirements, accelerating review timelines, integrate the Erosion and Sediment Control processes, and expand the use of surety bonds as an alternate form of security for Servicing Agreements to reduce carrying costs to the developer. Click here to read more about the Engineering development changes. Click here to learn more about Erosion and Sediment Control amendments.