In an attempt to counter-act an ongoing trend of builders and developers challenging the city's permitting process and trying to skirt building safety code requirements, a new bylaw, called the Safety Codes Permit Bylaw, was unanimously approved by council on April 2 containing a range of new fines.
“Over the past several years, the City of St. Albert has been experiencing increasing numbers of challenges to building (safety) code requirements, and has also been experiencing greater attempts at non-compliance with respect to building permit applications and building (safety) code provisions,” the city's director of planning and development, Adryan Slaght, wrote in a recent report to council about the new bylaw.
“The purpose of the [new bylaw] is to clearly communicate expectations related to building permit application, issuance, revisions, refusal, validity, permit holder obligations, enforcement, and to establish fines and penalties for non-compliance.”
Slaght also wrote, and told council on April 2, that existing tools available to the city to ensure compliance with the building permit process “have been somewhat weak,” however, the main issue is the amount of resources required of administration to respond to these issues.
“Administration anticipates that this greater level of clarity and having more readily available mechanisms to assist in achieving compliance with application and code requirements will help to improve administrative efficiency in administering the Safety Codes Act,” Slaght wrote.
During the council meeting, multiple members of council, including Mayor Cathy Heron, questioned if the new fines were steep enough to even have an affect on the builders causing issues, who weren't named in the report or during the meeting.
“We've had some recent experiences with stop work orders being ignored, I don't think a $250 fine is going to really scare some of those people,” said Coun. Ken MacKay.
“These seem light,” added Heron.
Individuals or corporations who commit an offence under the bylaw can receive fines ranging from $125 to $3,000, depending on the offence. For example, failing to arrange a required building code inspection carries with it a $125 fine, whereas having a building be occupied by tenants prior to receiving a final inspection report can result in a $500 fine for buildings smaller than 600 square metres, or $3,000 for buildings larger than 600 square metres.
The fines are also on a per-occurrence basis, meaning that bylaw contraventions such as construction occurring without a valid permit ($500 fine) could rack up a hefty penalty for each additional day that construction occurs without a permit.
Even so, Coun. Sheena Hughes told administration she's “just not sure if it's even enough to be a deterrent” for the big companies with major multi-million dollar projects, who she posited could easily write off a few hundred dollars in fines if it means their projects are completed sooner than expected.
“I look at the fact that we have vacant lots for example. We increased the taxation on vacant lots, but it really hasn't made a difference in the number of lots that got developed, so I'm not sure if we do this and [the fines] aren't high enough that it's actually going to be a tool that we can use or if it's just a very small hammer on a very large building, in which case it just kind of dents it and annoys people,” Hughes said.
In response to council's concerns, Slaght said the new bylaw is a “first step.”
“There are other avenues available to us that are much more intensive time-wise, resource-wise, so this is kind of the second tool in the toolbox,” Slaght said, clarifying that the first tool, so to speak, is simply talking with the builder involved.
Vibratory sheet piling prohibited
The new bylaw also prohibits vibratory sheet piling in St. Albert.
Piles, which are generally made of concrete or steel, are long cylindrical pieces of material installed deep underground to support a structure. Sheet piling is the practice of installing interlocking sheets of metal, which then act as a retaining wall.
Vibratory sheet piling refers to the practice of vibrating the pile to drive it into the ground, rather than, say, hammering the pile into place.
In his report to council, Slaght wrote that administration choose to prohibit the vibratory sheet piling method out of concern that the vibrations could negatively impact the area surrounding a construction site.
“There are several methods of installing sheet piling. Vibratory sheet piling is one that has been identified as having potential to have property impacts beyond the property lines of the subject site,” Slaght told council. “With St. Albert's underlying soil conditions, it's theoretical you could cause damage with vibratory sheet piling where you wouldn't do it with just hammering or other things.”
“Relatively, [the other methods are more expensive], but they're also less impactful potentially to adjacent properties.”
The ban on vibratory sheet piling comes just a few months after a few business owners near the former Bling Pig Pub, which is being turned into an eight storey net-zero condo complex, spoke against the builder's use of vibratory sheet piling during a Subdivision Development Appeal Board (SDAB) hearing.
The January hearing was held to grant the builder, Niche Developments, a new development permit after its existing permit expired.
According to SDAB's written decision, the board considered the business owner's concerns about the vibratory piling “having an effect on the structural integrity of the adjacent buildings,” however, “none of the parties in opposition to the appeal provided any engineering reports to support their contentions,” and the board grant the development permit, although numerous conditions were imposed.
In an email, city spokesperson Pamela Osborne said the city has required Niche Developments to have insurance as a condition of its development permit, in the event that the piling work does cause damage to the surrounding properties.
“The developer has [also] been required to undertake geotechnical testing to verify that soil conditions do not exist that would contribute to damage to surrounding properties, and to inform their construction design and installation,” Osborne said.
Another condition of Niche Developments new development permit is that the company “must provide drawings and documents to the satisfaction of the [St. Albert's building inspections branch],” before getting back to work on piling.
Niche's president, John Clarke, confirmed in an email that the company has yet to resume construction.
