Getting building permits approved for simple projects like decks and sheds is getting easier, with city staff pledging to take various steps to speed up the process even further.
They’re also working to expedite all manner of permit applications, but so-called “weekend warrior” projects were afforded a special focus during Wednesday’s Future-Ready Development Services Ad-Hoc Committee meeting of city council.
The meeting served to “establish a baseline” for where the city is currently at in meeting the 54 calls for action the committee approved in May, Mayor Paul Lefebvre told Sudbury.com following Wednesday’s meeting.
The cumulative intended impact of these calls to action is to spur economic growth.
“There’s been a lot of action on them, and I think we’re seeing a lot of progress,” Lefebvre said.
“Hopefully by the end of 2025, we will have put a lot of pieces in place to get to a much shorter timeframe to do these smaller projects,” he said, adding that although getting building permits has become easier, more can be done to speed things up.
City chief building official Guido Mazza told Sudbury.com that building permits for smaller projects are typically approved by city staff within seven to 10 days of being received.
However, that’s only when everything has been filed properly.
Homeowners doing “weekend warrior” projects don’t necessarily follow all the steps properly, Mazza said.
Although filing building permit applications has become easier thanks to the online Pronto filing system, which he said is “still in its early days,” applications via Pronto only work when everything has been filed properly. Otherwise, a few days might pass before staff see an application, determine something is missing, and punt it back to the applicant.
This is where artificial intelligence might come into play, Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier suggested.
In September, Cormier joined Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh in tabling a successful motion for city staff to look into artificial intelligence for such things as enhancing public services.
During both the September meeting and Wednesday’s, Cormier flagged a system in Kelowna, B.C., where artificial intelligence is being used to speed up building permit applications through automation.
An automated system using artificial intelligence could alert applicants to gaps in their applications from the very start, which Mazza said could help people file complete applications from the start and bypass the need for potentially lengthy backs-and-forths with city staff.
Mazza said his department is currently in conversations with City of Burlington staff, where a similar artificial intelligence system has also been adopted.
City staff are also looking at hosting a “Permit-Palooza” event in the spring design to take care of as many weekend warrior-type applications as possible to free up staff to tackle more-complex permits thereafter, streamlining the website and updating building permit templates and maps to make the process more easy to navigate, Mazza said.
The city is also in the lengthy process of digitizing its files, a process they’re accelerating in part due to municipal operations’ impending relocation to the tower at 199 Larch St. as part of the Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square project.
Staff can’t bring all the city’s hard copies of documents to the new location, Mazza said, and will investigate storing them off-site. Hard copies are still needed for certain legal actions.
With Tuesday’s meeting establishing a baseline for the 54 calls for action, twice-annual meetings will continue to update city council members on where staff is at in following through.
During future meetings, Lefebvre said that people involved in economic development efforts will be invited to speak in order to share their insights.
The 54 calls for action stemmed from prior meetings, at which members of the public were invited to share their insights.
The next meeting will take place by the end of June 2025 and will include an update on where the city’s at in adopting an artificial intelligence program to help speed up permit applications.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
