The District of West Vancouver is one of the most carefully reviewed planning jurisdictions in British Columbia. That’s not a complaint, it’s what keeps the character of the place intact. But the consequence is that the permit process for a new custom home takes longer, asks more, and has more moving parts than most clients expect.
This is the path from a piece of land to a building permit, the way we walk it with clients and their architects. Numbers and timelines are 2026 current; the District updates its bylaws regularly, so always confirm specifics with the architect of record.
Typical timeline
8-16 wksfor complex applications
Pre-app meeting
Freeand recommended
Step Code
Step 3moving to Step 4
Development Permit vs. Building Permit
The first thing to know is that they’re two different things, and most West Van custom homes need both.
A Development Permit (DP) is the District’s review of how the building sits on the land, siting, massing, view impact, tree retention, environmental areas, neighbourhood character. It’s a planning approval, not a structural one. Many lots in West Vancouver are within Development Permit Areas (DPAs), particularly hillside lots, lots near streams or steep slopes, and lots in heritage-character neighbourhoods. The DP is reviewed by the planning department and, depending on scope, may go to Council or to the Design Review Committee.
A Building Permit (BP) is the technical review, structural, life-safety, energy code, plumbing, electrical. It’s reviewed by the building department and is the document that lets you put a shovel in the ground.
On a typical custom home in West Vancouver, the DP is applied for first (or concurrently with the BP), reviewed and approved, then the BP completes its review and is issued. Schematic and design development is roughly six months in front of the application; review is eight to sixteen weeks for complex projects once submitted; revisions and engineering responses can add another four to eight weeks.
FAR, the single most important number
FAR is Floor Area Ratio, the ratio of building floor area to lot area. It’s the District’s primary tool for controlling house size on a given lot.
The base FAR for single-family residential in most West Vancouver zones is 0.35, with adjustments for lot size (FAR steps down on larger lots) and additional allowances available for certain features, a fully below-grade basement, certain garage configurations, energy performance bonuses. So a 10,000 sq ft lot at base 0.35 FAR gives roughly 3,500 sq ft of countable floor area above grade.
The math gets specific quickly. What counts as “floor area” under the District’s zoning bylaw is not the same as gross construction area, there are exclusions for fully below-grade space, certain stair openings, and depending on configuration, parts of attics and garages. Our default is to have the architect run the FAR calculation early in schematic and confirm it with the District at the pre-application meeting. Getting it wrong at DD is expensive.
Getting the FAR math wrong at DD is expensive. Better to confirm with the District at the pre-application meeting, free, before the architect commits the design.
View bylaws and the angle of view
The most West Van of all the constraints. Many lots, particularly on hillside neighbourhoods like Altamont, Caulfeild, and the British Properties, are subject to view-protection bylaws that limit how much a new build can obstruct the sightline of the lot above.
The District measures this with an angle of view (AOV) calculation: from a reference point on the upper lot, a defined angle outward across a horizontal plane. The new build below cannot intrude into that angle. The numbers are specific to the lot and the bylaw, some lots have a registered covenant on title with explicit AOV requirements, others rely on the zoning bylaw’s general view-corridor provisions.
Practically this means: on a view-protected lot, your roof line, parapet, chimney, mechanical penthouse, and even some landscaping is reviewed against the AOV. We’ve had projects where the ridge had to come down 600mm at DD to clear the angle, and projects where what looked like a beautiful flat-roof gable had to be re-massed because the corner clipped the line. This is one of the conversations to have with the architect and the District before the schematic is locked.
Tree retention and heritage trees
West Vancouver has a tree-protection bylaw with teeth. Any tree above a defined diameter at breast height (DBH) requires a tree permit to remove, and certain species or specimens are designated heritage trees with additional protection.
Removal requires a permit, often with a replacement requirement, the District typically requires one or more trees planted for each one removed, with species and size specified. On lots with significant tree cover, this can drive design choices: where the house sits, how the driveway aligns, where the patio terraces step down. An arborist’s report is standard, identifying retained trees and the tree protection zones to be fenced during construction. Tree protection fencing is inspected; breach it and you’ll be back in front of the District.
Geotechnical and the slope trigger
For any lot with significant slope, and that’s most of West Vancouver above Marine Drive, a geotechnical report is required as part of the BP submission. The trigger is generally lots with grade exceeding 20%, lots with watercourse or stream proximity, lots with documented soils issues, or lots where the proposed foundation extends below the natural grade by more than a defined amount.
The geotech report addresses soil bearing capacity, slope stability, foundation recommendations (spread footings, deepened footings, helical piles, drilled piers), drainage strategy, and any environmental setbacks. On an Altamont or Caulfeild lot, the geotech almost always recommends some form of engineered foundation system. That’s a real construction cost and a real schedule item, specify it early.
BC Energy Step Code
West Vancouver currently enforces Step 3 of the BC Energy Step Code for new single-family construction, with the Province’s scheduled progression toward Step 5 by 2032. Most West Van projects starting in 2026 are designed and built to Step 3 minimum, some clients choose to build to Step 4 voluntarily, both for performance and to future-proof against the next code update.
What Step Code means practically: an energy advisor is engaged early in design, an energy model is built and submitted with the BP application, the design is reviewed against the airtightness and thermal-performance targets, a mid-construction blower-door test confirms airtightness, and a final test confirms the as-built performance meets the modelled targets. Failing the blower-door isn’t common, but when it happens it’s an expensive correction.
Seismic and structural
West Vancouver sits in a high-seismic-hazard area under the BC Building Code. All new construction is designed to current seismic provisions, and the BP submission includes a sealed structural drawing set from a registered structural engineer. For homes with unusual geometry, large cantilevers, significant openings, atria, basement-to-grade transitions on sloped lots, the structural review is non-trivial and the engineering coordination with the architect is one of the more time-consuming parts of CD.
Board of Variance and variances
When a project needs relief from a specific zoning provision, a slight setback variance, a minor FAR adjustment, a height variance, the application goes to the Board of Variance (BoV). The BoV reviews requests against the test of “undue hardship” and decides at a public hearing. The schedule adds typically eight to twelve weeks to the permit timeline. We avoid variances when we can, because they introduce uncertainty, but on tight lots they’re sometimes the right path.
The pre-application meeting (use it)
The District offers a free pre-application meeting with planning staff before a formal DP/BP submission. It’s the most useful hour you’ll spend on the permit process. Bring the architect, bring the schematic, bring the FAR calc, and bring a list of the things you want confirmed, view bylaw interpretation, tree-permit triggers, geotech expectations, anything that could change at review. The meeting is non-binding but it’s the District’s clearest view of what they’ll require. We recommend it on every project.
If you’re evaluating a lot in West Vancouver and want a realistic read on what the permit process will look like for what your architect is proposing, get in touch, we’re happy to walk through the bylaw constraints on the specific lot before you commit.
