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Home builders protest
WNW. Van District delays

A LOCAL home builder says he’s fed up with waiting over
a month at-a time to be issued building permits for new res-

-idential construction in the Distzict of North Vancouver...

Cahl Madden, president of Cahl
Madden Construction, says the
process has been taking more than

“seven weeks with the result being
that. builders are losing time and
money.

He says “he's personally Jost
$10,000 and as. a construction
manager for a large builder on the
North Shore he’s seen that. com-

{ pany lose. tens of thousands of
dollars in delays on approximately
75 homes over the last three years,

oo Madden’ says in the’ five years

he's been operating in North Van-

couver District, the time taken to
clear the building permit stage has
increased from a four-week period
to close to two months waiting
time.) Bae,

He said he recently waited 7%
_weeks.to receive two building per-
mits: for homes he’s building for
‘“Tri-Power in. the (new Berkley

: Estates subdivision.

Madden has collected'a petition.

-. Of 200 signatures from frustrated
‘builders. experiencing © similar
“delays. ‘One owner had‘ to wait
eight weeks for plan approval. and
got, caught ‘in’ spiralling interest
“rates. His rates were, jumping half
8 point.a week at the time and he
: lost a lot,” Madden said. .
Over the past two years Madden
said froma total 16 permits he’s
sought, one permit took 2%
weeks to issue, six took between
A four and 5% weeks, and nine took
Re 5 % 107% weeks to issue, :
“Seven. and a half weeks for a
= building permit is ridiculous. Why
can you’ walk ‘into . Coquitlam
““where:they have 10 times the vol-
“ume and. get a building permit in
“three days?’’ Madden asked. ©”
oo But. North . Vancouver District
‘chief building inspector

“volume. is at:the root of Madden’s
’ problem, + -. a
“Traditionally through the years
we've had crush periods but we try
‘to keep: it to a three-week max-
“imum period for permits. We've

‘had a heavy influx of permits over |

the, last’ couple. of months,’’ said

Carlson.

Einar.
Carlson says. record construction :

In 1987 the district saw its
heaviest construction year on re-
cord with total construction com-
ing in at $54,737,500.

So far this year is even busier.
To the end of February, the
building department issued 20 per
cent more building permits than

“Seven and a half weeks
for a building permit is
ridiculous. Why can you
walk into Coquitlam

“uwhere they have 10 times

the volume and get a
building permit in three
days?”” .
~—Home builder
Cah! Madden

AO RT Se
‘for the: same period in 1987, The
total: construction ‘value is up 25.
per cent for the same period over
. fast year, :

' “We can understand people get-
ting unhappy, but one. of our pro-
blems is we have staff geared for a
certain level of input and output,”’
Carlson said, Cartson said
backlogs in February meant per-
mits were taking four to five weeks
to process."‘We'’ve hired more staff
to deal with the extra load," he
said. 7 ,
But said Madden: ‘‘The entire
system is redundant.: More staff is
not the answer,'’. Madden said.

“.“The onus comes back to you as

_ the builder anyway.:. The entire,

“system is a total waste of. time,’*’he

said. 2): . .
*Madden said a systems in Surrey
allows instant building: permits.
“The, builder becomes: his own
plan checker’and pays for. an an-
nual. licence. fee after’ taking (a
‘course provided by the district.’’

-~he said,