Pre-Reviewed Building Plans and Designs

Funding provided by the Government of Canada through the Housing Accelerator Fund.

To accelerate housing delivery and reduce approval timelines, the City is partnering with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) as a Housing Design Catalogue Local Partner, and as a Housing Accelerator Fund recipient.

To support infill housing, development permit exemptions are now available for all Duplexes. This exemption is also available for two pre-reviewed fourplex designs from the Housing Design Catalogue.

In total, the City supports five designs from the Housing Design Catalogue, all of which are exempt from development permits and are pre-reviewed for fast-track permitting. 

The Housing Design Catalogue offers standardized housing designs to reduce design costs as plans do not need to be created from scratch. The plans are free to use; however, a qualified professional is still needed to adapt and finalize the plans for your property. 

1. Development Permit Exemptions

The City no longer requires a Form & Character Development Permit for the following:

• All duplexes (including duplexes with suites)
• Select fourplex designs from the CMHC Housing Design Catalogue:
• BC Fourplex 01

• BC Fourplex 02

2. Pre-Reviewed Building Plans

To further accelerate approvals the Building Department has pre-reviewed the following prototypical building plans from the Housing Design Catalogue for Code compliance:

• BC Accessory Dwelling Unit 01
• BC Accessory Dwelling Unit 02
• BC Duplex
• BC Fourplex 01
• BC Fourplex 02

Using a pre-reviewed building plan streamlines the permitting process and can significantly reduce review times.

Users of the Housing Design Catalogue must work with a qualified professional such as an architect, engineer, or licensed designer to produce site-specific drawings.

Designs can be adapted for: 

• Site-specific conditions (grading, drainage, orientation) 
• Zoning compliance (lot coverage, setbacks) 
• Parking, access, and site servicing requirements 
• Material and cladding selection
• Local code and by-law requirements
• Several design aspects can be modified and customized, including cladding, material selection, and site-specific adjustments  

3. Infill Housing & Site Standards Guidelines

To support applicants who are planning infill housing projects, such as multiplexes and carriage homes, the City has created a voluntary resource, the Infill Housing & Site Standards Guidelines, which provide suggested guidelines for:

• Site layout
• Servicing
• Landscaping
• Parking
• Built form standards

About the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF)

The City of West Kelowna was awarded up to $7.9 million from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to deliver initiatives that will increase housing supply and create more housing options in our community.

The City and CMHC have agreed to a Housing Supply Growth Target of 1,343 housing units by 2028, which includes 199 single-family units, 814 missing middle units, and 330 multi-unit homes. Additionally, 114 affordable housing units are targeted as a subset within the overall targets. Learn more on our Housing Accelerator Fund page.

The City of West Kelowna’s Action Plan commits to seven local initiatives including, but not limited to new incentives to increase priority housing, fast-tracking standardized housing designs, and zoning updates to encourage more rental, affordable, and missing middle housing. Opportunities to develop affordable housing will be further enabled through a Land Strategy, which will outline a framework for utilizing City land.

The Pre-Reviewed Building Plans and Designs Program will both help the City to achieve the Housing Supply Growth Target, as well as respond to key initiatives in the Action Plan.