At Last, Some Progress...

City of Toronto Eco-Roof 

Incentive Program Application : Part 2

Today we received a delightful letter from the manager of  City's Eco-Roof Incentive Program.

Our application for a grant has been approved (YIPPEE!) and subject to some fine print like - 

• get it done before mid-January, 2015,
•  substantially in conformance...,
•  signed off by the designer / installer, 
• have it measured, inspected and verified by the City, 

.....  and then they will send us a cheque for a gazillion dollars, but smaller than my (City) annual tax bill.

Good stuff!

Now we will turn our attention back to the Building Department where our application for a building permit is languishing in a slow queue needing  yet more calculations, verification and further "stamping".

I understand that there is a condominium (green roof) application ahead of me in the queue, that people are scurrying to get it approved and "permitted" before the fee goes up at the end of the month.

It also transpires that our Building Engineer at City Hall has never done a residential scale green roof application before.  Suffice to say, through gritted teeth, that he is being very cautious.

Ever onward, ever upward!!

City of Toronto Eco-Roof Incentive Program Application

City of Toronto Eco-Roof
Incentive Program Application

Another milestone completed today - I have completed the application form for the City's Eco-Roof Incentive Program.  

Click on the link (above) to start (dreaming about) your green roof.  Lots of good greening  information plus the on-line application form.

They provide a grant to residential home owners, as well as commercial and industrial property owners, to build green roofs.  It gets a bit complicated for new industrial and commercial roofs because I think they have to put on green roofs anyway, just to comply with the City's "encouraging" By-Laws.

The City would like to pay me $75 per sq m2 to put a green roof on my home, subject to some fine print like "The proposed green roof will satisfy the requirements of Toronto’s Green Roof Construction Standard. Note: Applicants are required to obtain a permit from the Chief Building Official prior to construction. A copy of this permit is required upon verification of the Eco-Roof." That is,  A Building Permit!

The documentary requirements for the Eco-Roof Incentive Program are similar to, but not as extensive as, the Building Permit Application. I just provided the same documents and drawings  as the BP application.  

You will need to provide a set of "pre-installation" photographs of your roof.  Here are a couple of ours.

You will need to provide a Maintenance Plan that will look after the installation through the first 5 years of stewardship. However, there are several templates or suggestions / guidelines floating around the WWW for you to consider.  The City does reserve the right to come and inspect it within 5 years of installation to ensure on-going performance and compliance.

Other than that the application  seems pretty straight forward.  I'm sure I can expect a CQ in the mail any day now ......

 If you have any questions about the program or related City "Green" initiatives,  I suggest you call Ann -Marie Baynton at 416-392-1848.

Sedum Mat - Close up!

Anne-Marie Baynton
Eco-Roof Coordinator
Environment and Energy Office
Phone: 416-392-1848
Fax: 416-338-0808
Email: abaynton@toronto.ca

Mailing address:
City Hall, 21st Floor, East Tower
100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M5H 2N2

No News is Good News

No News is Good News ???

or

Wheels of Industry Turning Slowly

It has been three weeks since the City accepted my BP application.  

At the time of submission staff indicated that it might take 6-8 weeks to receive my Permit.  Evidently my application does not qualify for the Residential FASTRACK  process - at least the computerised screening process did not drop me into that queue.

I have been assigned a Zoning Examiner and a Building Engineer.  We have traded "Hi, how're getting on" emails within which they indicated that my application might get looked at last week (three) or this one (four).

The on-line Building Department Application Status system shows that the Zoning Review is Closed but the Code Review is "Not Started".

I wait with bated breath. Impatient, but bated.  Maybe the phone will ring this week .....

Update : 14 July 2014

The Zoning Review is completed and successful. 

I would have been more than a little surprise if this had failed as the home was designed for green roof and solar panels right from the get-go.  "All that" was part of the discussions and negotiations that went into the site-specific By-law that was promulgated for this particular development.

Ever Onward, Ever Upward!