A look from above at the city of Langford
LANGFORD – Building permits in two days? Development permits in two weeks?
Welcome to Langford, where the city’s building department has earned a reputation for being fair to deal with and fast to deliver permits necessary to allow projects to get started. It’s a standard they’ve maintained for over two decades now, even as stodgy and cumbersome wait times hinder building in many other municipalities.
Wayne Robinson
That doesn’t mean Langford is the “wild west” in terms of development. Far from it – the standard guidelines are still exacting and demand that developers and builders do their homework up front. Staff is ready and willing to accommodate changes and adjustments if necessary, but their commitment to timely responses and solutions means projects don’t end up in a quagmire of bureaucracy. That doesn’t exist in Langford. No wonder the city is growing so rapidly, now at over 45,000 citizens.
Director of Planning Matthew Baldwin has worked for Langford for 25 years, and explains that “almost all development in Langford is preceded by a zoning application. We inform council at the time of zoning of development permits that will be required and any issues that might come up, so they can take any additional steps at the time of zoning, if necessary.
“We like to have all of the concerns brought up and raised and able to be addressed by council for as a condition of rezoning,” he adds. “Once property is zoned, obtaining a development permit is simply a matter of following the City’s established guidelines.”
Baldwin adds “The advantage we might have over other places is that city council has established guidelines and has given authority to staff to get things done. Any municipality can do this, under powers granted in Provincial legislation but a lot don’t want to delegate that authority. Langford takes the position that the guidelines have already been approved through a public process, so the application for a Development Permit does not need to be reviewed by council if it is consistent with the guidelines they have established by bylaw.”
Wayne Robinson, Manager of Building Services, notes “We have a 48-hour turnaround for building permits once they are received by the building department, however a lot of responsibility lies with the builder or developer.
“We have a robust permit application process. We have a checklist detailing everything that’s required to be completed at time of application, including all relevant documents for a specific project to ensure the quickest possible turnaround. If something is needed outside of that or the submittal is not complete, then it moves to a longer process. That’s still only a couple of weeks turnaround, but that wait is typically the result of an incomplete submittal, not staff.”
Robinson points out that Langford’s Building, Planning, and Engineering Departments processes are worked on concurrently by staff.
“Working concurrently really helps our process. A lot of cities are silo-ed between departments, but we have very open communication between departments, and we keep the ball rolling.”
Baldwin says, “Our guidelines have been in place for 25 years, we add to them and tweak them as necessary. We hear constantly from developers that they appreciate the fact we work with them and come up with a solution that meets all the safety and government requirements.
“Our objective is win-win for the community and the developer. Some people complain, saying developments get rubber stamped by council. But we put a lot of time in before it gets to that stage, so that by the time it gets to council a lot of things have already been ironed out.”
