Wildfire Development Permit

We thought we’d be back to work on site by now. Unfortunately, the final go-ahead is still held up because we have been going through a Wildfire Development Permit Application (DPA).

Wildfire risk in BC is growing every year due to global warming, and climate resilience measures are a good thing. To mitigate risk, the District of North Van is focussed on fuel management, community education, landscaping best practices and building with non-combustible materials.

Located over 75m from the nearest forested corridor, our property does not fall into the Wildfire “Risk” area (yellow). We are the last house on our street in the Wildfire “Interface” area (orange).

Existing and renovated homes are exempt from Wildfire DPAs. Because our project is now classified as a new build, we are required to submit a Wildfire DPA with both Fire Hazard and Arboriculture Assessments.

A Fire Hazard assessment includes reviewing all the building envelope materials to ensure non-flammable materials are used. Combustible materials are not permitted - wood, aluminum and vinyl combined may not exceed 20% surface area of the building exterior. This includes windows, decks, roofing materials, soffits, exterior cladding, doors, chimneys etc.

We have had to make a few design adjustments accordingly and submit new drawings. (Fortunately, we were able to keep our triple-glazed vinyl windows as these have already been ordered, paid for and fabricated!)

The Arboriculture Assessment included pruning requirements, tree protection and removal of vegetation within 10m of our house as well as specification of fire-smart landscaping going forward.

With the measures taken, we were able to reduce our Firesmart assessment score from 60 (Extreme) to 37 (closer to High). In addition, our Wildfire Risk designation needs to be included on our Property Title so that any future development adheres to the same Firesmart requirements. While the process has definitely been informative and supports the District’s goals, it has been time consuming, costly, and frustrating to navigate at this late stage.

#netzerohome #permitting #wildfire #climateresilience