Changes, including a pre-application process introduced this year for development files, spiked the related paperwork and money coming into the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to their highest levels in four years.
In the 2023 quarter three (Q3) planning and development department report contained on the Nov. 9 committee of the whole agenda, this year’s revenue related to those files was cited at $166,565. With three months of annual activity pending, that amount was more than twice the 2022, 2020 and 2019 totals, which ranged between $58,000 and $67,000. It was just under double 2021’s full-year tally of $89,642.
To the end of October, 196 applications were received this year. Over the past four years, annual totals ranged from a low of 77 in 2020 to 122 in 2021. In 2023 Q3, the new pre-application processes accounted for 54 of the 72 submissions that came in.
“The cost of providing rural planning development-related services has risen drastically in recent years. After more than a decade since the last fee update, in Q4 2022 SCRD Board adopted new fees and charged application types for development planning services," the report states. "With an aim of striving for cost recovery of development planning services, the Q3 2023 statistics are reflective of a continued trend of successfully moving towards a user-pay model for development related business decisions.”
The report also noted that additional updates to planning service fees and charges, to look at “next steps” in cost recovery efforts are planned in 2024, as part of its development approvals process review.
While applications increased, what the report detailed as “new” public inquiries received by the department trended down so far in 2023. To the end of September, the count was 1,412 compared to full-year inquiry totals of 2,029 to 3,246 in the past three years. There were 486 such inquiries in Q3 2023 compared to 652 in Q3 2022.
“Inquiries range from being quickly resolved with a quick answer to having many parts and remaining open for some time depending on the complexity,” the report stated. It noted that staff were currently managing 277 active inquiries.
2023 building permit numbers up but now slowing
Building permit revenues generated in Q3 of this year were “just shy of $270,000” according to the report. That represents a 12 per cent increase in comparison to the averages generated during the same period and year to date compared to the previous two years.
“The Building Division noticed a reduction in the number of new building permit applications received in Q3 in comparison to Q2 (2023). This reduction may have been as a result of the current cost of borrowing and ongoing economic uncertainty. It is difficult to predict whether this trend will continue,” the report states.
The regional district conducted 1,087 building inspections in its rural areas and the shíshálh Nation government district so far this year. Two hundred and twenty eight building permits have been issued in 2023, which, when completed, will add an estimated 75 dwelling units to the Coast’s housing supply.
Average SCRD processing time for building permits was just over five weeks at the start of 2023. It dropped to under three weeks by the end of September, according to the report.
