Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission

Effective immediately, the province has mandated the use of the 2015 version of the National Building Code. As part of these changes, some homes in areas between St. Stephen and Saint Andrews (as well as Deer Island and elsewhere) will require more rigorous earthquake-resistant construction. A summary of the changes can be found here: http://snbsc-planning.com/nbc-2015-now-in-force/

Board Meeting January 28, 2021 at 6:00pm https://youtu.be/FhMEX1diPEA

We urge members of the public NOT to wait outside our office all night for a building permit form. Our website, snbsc-planning.com has building permit forms available for download. In fact, they can be filled out digitally and emailed back to us.

Moving to Red: Effective this evening, we are moving into a "red" status for Covid-19 activity, however this will not affect our day-to-day operations at either the Hemlock Knoll landfill, or at our Planning department. It should be noted that inspections of buildings will continue to take place, with the exception of the required (mandatory) final inspection of homes that are already occupied: those will be delayed until we return to a Yellow status.

Congratulations, it’s a . Garage! Our staff at the SNBSC are proud to announce the delivery of our first building permit of the year. Building Permit file BS-01-21 came into the world at 11:21 today, and weighed in at a respectable 131 grams. Due to privacy regulations, we can’t tell you who the proud new permit-possessor is, but we can say that the permit is for a garage in Eastern Charlotte. ... Close but not close enough to win the New Year’s Permit title was a permit for a garage in St. George that came into the world just 45 minutes later. Do note that a building permit or development permit is required by law inside a municipality or otherwise for new building/construction, including accessory buildings in rural areas. As always, there are exceptions, so call our staff to see if your project requires a permit.

NOTICE: Our planning office is CLOSED today, while we complete our move to our new location. Applications for permits, subdivisions and other services will resume Monday at our new location, 33 Wall Street, in St. Stephen.

One more week for residents of St. Stephen, Saint Andrews, St. George, Blacks Harbour, Grand Manan, Campobello, McAdam, and Harvey to take the housing survey: http://swnb-housing.ca/index.php/resident-survey/ Thanks so much to those of you who have filled it out already!

The Planning Office is moving and will be open on August 17th 2020 at 33 Wall Street in St. Stephen

A reminder about slabs In the last few weeks, several building permit applications have been delayed because the applicants weren’t aware of the rules and regulations regarding site-built slabs on grade. Although these are a common way of constructing small garages (especially in rural areas), building permit structures this includes a house/cottage or large garage cannot be built on a slab in the same way as a small accessory structure. The key is that all building code ...compliant construction requires a foundation. The foundation is what ultimately carries the load of the structure above and disperses it to the ground below. In general, foundations have to be four feet below grade to avoid the perils of frost heaves, which can cause considerable damage over time. (This includes decks attached to houses: our staff have seen decks on deck blocks rise and fall up to eight inches due to the power of frost heaves, and these forces can rapidly destroy a deck and anything the deck is attached to. It’s why we constantly rant about not using deck blocks for deck construction if the deck is attached to any building.) Otherwise, foundations require a frost wall with a minimum depth of 4’, sonotubes supported on either a Bigfoot style foundation or a site-built foundation capable of handing the loads of the building, or screw piles. In order to submit a plan relying on a slab-on-grade foundation, an applicant must usually have a plan approved by a professional engineer licenced to work in the province, although there are exceptions. One exception is for building-code garages of less than 55 m2 (592 square feet), the other is if the slab can be poured directly onto solid rock which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense. In some circumstances, a building inspector is allowed to waive the minimum foundation depths when the soils of the area are suitably course and well-draining. This is a case-by-case analysis, and requires a site visit prior to the permit being issued. In order to avoid delays, we urge clients to discuss this with a building inspector prior to applying for a permit.

Opportunity at SNBSC! Click below for more details.

Residents of Blacks Harbour, Campobello, Grand Manan, Harvey, McAdam, Saint Andrews, St. George, and St. Stephen - the Southwest New Brunswick Housing Working Group (made up of representatives of Horizon Health Community Development, and Vibrant Communities Charlotte County, with support from the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission) is conducting a study on housing needs in our region’s municipalities. Participation in the following survey is completely voluntary but participating will help us better understand the housing needs in our municipalities and analysis of responses will be shared with municipal decision makers, people who build housing, and granting agencies. http://swnb-housing.ca/index.php/resident-survey/

Attention Purple Wednesday Recyclers- Mannor Sutton residents only - Due to the Holiday, recycling will be picked up Thursday.

For some reason, we continue to run into situations where construction of all kinds begins without a required building or development permit. We cannot stress this enough: before you build, renovate, prepare a site, or locate a building, you should call us first, because you probably need a permit. We continue to hear stories from people who honestly thought:... Myth #1: Permits were only for folks in the villages and Towns. Reality: Permits have been required everywhere in rural New Brunswick - ie: Charlotte County and York County since 2002. That's 18 years ago - nothing new, nothing just brought into effect. Myth #2: Permits are only required if you're adding to the footprint, so I can rebuild my porch or deck without a permit. Reality: Any structural alteration requires a permit. Myth #3: I The builder wants to get going now. I can get a permit later and be OK. Reality: Starting without a permit can lead to a ton of problems, such as these (that have actually happened in the last year): a) construction went across a property line and had to be removed - at some expense b) buildings didn't meet Code and required extensive changes after the fact - something that would have been corrected at no cost whatsoever during the plans review required for a permit c) buildings placed too close to a property line that required an expensive after-the-fact variance - which could have been avoided had the client applied for the permit first.

June 25, 2020 Board Meeting @ 6:00pm: https://youtu.be/3s2lHQTuI6E

New email for permits Clients are advised that we've created a new email address - [email protected] - for submission of permit forms, plans, variance requests and the like. A reminder: a building or development permit is required for any new construction in unincorporated areas. In some cases, permits may not be required (such as repairs to deck boards, the doghouse for Fido, the garbage container at the end of the driveway, siding, roofing, etc.). However, we have had a large number of builds launch this year without required permits. Please, obtain a permit before beginning any construction: not only does it avoid future hassles, it's the law (and it's been that way since 2002.)

Board Meeting May 28, 6:00pm

Secondary suites and Code Secondary suites add a little extra complexity to a build, as there are some added layers of Building Code to navigate. The intent is to ensure that the occupant(s) of both the main dwelling and the secondary suite are protected from the potential impact of fire in the other portion of the dwelling, and isolated from noise as well. If this something you're thinking about, take a look at our latest post on our knowledge base:... http://snbsc-planning.com/cct/secondary-suites-and-code/ See more

A note about shipping containers.... We've seen a lot of interest regarding shipping containers as storage units. Do note that these are considered permanent structures, so if you're going to park one on your property, then a $50 development permit will be required to place the container. It may not be permitted in a municipality. Please call our office for more information. 466-7384