Norwich councillors approve dormant building permit policy

Luke Edwards, Post Correspondent

A new policy that establishes a framework for how staff deal with building permits that have remained open for several years is meant to reduce town liability in the case of future legal action.

Township staff said the issue is very common among municipalities, where open building permits remain on the books for several years, creating both operational and legal challenges as older paperwork may not be as complete as staff would nowadays prefer.

“These circumstances can make it increasingly difficult for a municipality to determine what work was completed, what was previously inspected and whether construction that cannot now be readily observed complied with the requirements in effect at the time,” the staff report said.

The new policy directs how staff address building permits depending on how long it has been since the last activity, such as an inspection, review of permit issuance. It describes “proactive permit management” for applications where last activity occurred within the past five years and reactive management for permits where last activity occurred between five and 15 years. After that the permit moves into a “historic dormant permits” phase.

“This is very much about mitigating our liability. The likelihood of this affecting somebody on a day-to-day basis in an over 15-years-old permit is fairly low,” said CAO Matt Smith. However, for the township, having a policy in place would help if there’s ever a court proceeding.