City’s revised building bylaw to cover pools, tents

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Changes to Brandon’s bylaw governing buildings are being made to align with new regulations at the provincial and federal levels and will require the city to issue its own rules for items like residential pools and temporary structures like tents.

In an information session for residents hosted on Microsoft Teams on Thursday, city building safety manager Murray Fischer said many of the changes were motivated by changes to legislation at the provincial level that saw Manitoba adopt the 2020 national model codes for energy, plumbing and buildings effective Jan. 1.

For example, the new Manitoba building code removes pool regulations.

“This means that in order to regulate the location, installation and safety around residential pools, the city will be putting out a new regulation,” Fischer said, adding a public information session will be scheduled.

Fischer said the new regulations will provide guidance on where homeowners can place pools and cover some grey areas like where pools can be set up at trailer courts or other locations where there aren’t defined yards. Hot tubs will be included in the regulations.

A clause in the city’s current bylaws regulates vertical or horizontal additions to existing buildings. According to Fischer, the old provincial codes provided no exceptions or criteria for such additions and it was inconsistently applied by various municipalities across the province.

Now that the new Buildings Act states that construction standards can only be set by the province, Brandon is removing the clause altogether from its own legislation.

Historically, Fischer said, Brandon has not required residents to get permits for temporary structures like tents and covered patios. However, the buildings bylaws previously have not mentioned them at all.

“We do sometimes get complaints about people building structures like these on properties, but we do not regulate for the simple fact that the building code does not cover these types of structures,” Fischer said.

The proposed changes to the buildings bylaw will specifically exclude these temporary structures as long as they are 90 square metres or smaller.

“This means that those structures that are commonly purchased at a hardware store and assembled by following a set of instructions will not need a permit,” Fischer said.

“However, they are not exempt from the setbacks that are established by the zoning bylaw.”

For instance, Fischer said this would mean a resident could not set up a garage tent in their front yard.

That size limit was borrowed from a similar bylaw in Winnipeg, he said, with tents larger than that size typically associated with large gatherings like weddings. Weddings frequently have liquor licences from the city and so they are already being reviewed by city staff.

Last year’s changes to the vacant and derelict buildings bylaw established that property owners need to obtain a certificate of occupancy before they reoccupy a formerly boarded-up or vacant building.

Proposed changes to the buildings bylaw clarifies that for a property owner to get one of those certificates, they must comply with all conditions and deposits levied by the city.

When a property is having a building or structure on it demolished, removed or relocated, the new bylaw would require someone to “sign a hazardous material declaration with their contractor stating that they understand their obligation as it relates to the detection, removal, handling and disposal of hazardous and asbestos containing materials pursuant to provincial regulations.”

That would apply any time a demolition permit is applied for, Fischer said, even if it’s a city contractor or worker doing the work. Part of the reason for the change is so that people working with potentially hazardous material know their responsibilities and requirements.

A full list of changes, including minor housekeeping items, will be made available when the new bylaw is brought up for first reading at the March 4 Brandon City Council meeting.

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