Construction already underway is exempt from new B.C. residential accessibility requirements

Condo projects currently in midstream will be exempt from the 2024 B.C. Building Code's adaptable-dwelling provisions

Published Sep 15, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Condo projects currently in mid-stream will be exempt from the 2024 B.C. Building Code's adaptable-dwelling and earthquake-design provisions. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10104870A

Residential projects currently underway will be exempt from new provincial building rules that require all units to be adaptable to meet the needs of people with disabilities, said the housing ministry.

Starting next March, all large new condominium and apartment buildings in B.C. have to be built to better accommodate someone with a disability.

After pushback from the industry, which cited potential construction delays and additional costs to projects already in the pipeline, the provincial government said projects in midstream will be exempt from the new provisions.

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“We heard from local governments, designers and homebuilders that for those projects already underway, it’s really challenging as they have to go back to the starting line, redesign everything and make it work,” said Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.

The exemption — which also applies to structural seismic requirements — means projects with a submitted a development permit, rezoning application, or have professional drawings prepared before March 8, can be built under the previous provincial building code.

The new code requires wider doors and hallways, bigger living spaces, switches at accessible heights, and stronger bathroom walls to support installation of grab bars to showers.

The requirements also apply to first-floor suites in smaller apartment buildings.

Exempted projects will have to submit their building permit application before March 8, 2027, said the ministry.

Vancouver architect Alan Boniface, of Boniface Oleksiuk Politano Architects, said the rollout of the changes has been ill-conceived. 

“We have been speeding up projects to try to get permits in before the current deadline,” he said, adding his firm has about half a dozen projects representing 1,500 to 2,000 units that were in the process of being redesigned to meet the new requirements but are now exempt because their rezoning or development applications have been submitted before March 8.

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The exemption is welcome, said Boniface, and an indication the government is listening. But he wishes they had listened to industry earlier instead of a “stop-and-start” rollout that’s led to uncertainty.

“The development industry needs certainty and (the exemption) helps projects that have been designed many months or years ago,” he said. “However, at the end of the day, the costs that are coming with this are still coming.”

He estimates the adapted-dwelling provisions would mean every rental and condo housing unit being built could cost an additional $25,000 to $60,000.

The government is conducting a study that will analyze space and cost impacts for buildings and develop guidelines to help the industry and local government adapt to the new rules.

Kahlon said the study will allow them “to get a better sense of what the costs are and what can be done in the design process to make sure the costs are mitigated.”

He acknowledged the accessibility requirements come with a price tag, but said B.C.’s aging population will mean an increasing need for accessibility features to allow people to age in place.

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