The land I purchased last year in Shaganappi on 32 St. has been subject to a fairly lengthy design process. Somehow the revisions of the design seemed to drag on and on and we continuously encountered tricky details to overcome. Now, basically my end of the design phase is finished. We get to submit it to City Hall and see what happens. This is what I'd classify as a big time discretionary process vs. a single detached or semi detached project.
We made the plans to the absolute best of our ability, and within many (or most) of the requirements, but we undoubtedly are going to get some lengthy feedback from the planning department. The first real feedback you get from the City is in the form of a 'detailed team review (DTR)'. It is hard to predict what will be contained in the DTR, but it will be guaranteed to be long.
The last DTR I received was for a threeplex, it was about 12 pages long, and highly intimidating to the applicant. It always seems like the worst report card you got in school. Anyway we distilled the DTR down, all 12 pages of it, into about 4 comments that needed addressing to allow us to proceed. This is part of what I call the 'madness' of City Hall. Based on the DTR you generally encounter some unexpected stuff to overcome, but the strange part is the presentation. You'd think the City doesn't want you to build based on the DTR. You'd assume that the City is not the biggest beneficiary of the DP process that leads to building (it is). Once built, the City will receive a massive tax windfall in perpetuity, all kinds of fees that ratchet up every year for no good reason, and meaningful work to keep the bureaucracy spinning along and all the staff gainfully employed.
One of these days I will post a DTR so the general public can see what it is like to try and get a project approved in Calgary. Until then, here is a screen shot of some of the work that has gone into my fourplex.
Far to much detail here to show in a blog post. We may need to make a website just for the construction and sale of the four townhouses.