A Windsor city councillor wants a quicker way for building permits for homes to be approved.
During Windsor's council meeting, ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino presented a council question asking administration to look into having pre-approved home drawings or designs readily available for those looking to build a home.
Having the building designs pre-approved would make it a faster process to approve a permit for new homes to be built.
Agostino says this would also help with lowering construction costs for residential and accessory dwelling units.
Each of the drawings or designs would be pre-approved and in compliance, and ready to go to be built.
Agostino says it's a great idea to getting homes built.
"Where you could walk into City Hall and you could buy a pre-approved plan, a building permit, with all the details all done, ready to go, something that's already been approved, something that's significantly cheaper and would save time and money. And I thought it was a great idea."
He says this could save a lot of money in the long-run.
"They did it in a city in British Columbia where not only did they do it, but they had a contest ahead of time for architects to draw up different plans, and then in the city the winners are now being sold to potential builders for $1,000 a piece, which is a huge amount of savings."
He says this would speed up the process to having homes built.
"So if you wanted to do, for an example, an ADU [Accessory Dwelling Unit] in your backyard, there'd be say six pre-approved plans already in place. And if you wanted to you could choose from one of them, and it would significantly speed up the process of getting your permits, and getting started."
Agostino adds that areas in Los Angeles, Tennessee, South Bend in Indiana, and Kalamazoo in Michigan follow similar processes to make building homes quicker.
A report will be presented to council at a later date.
-with files from AM800's Rob Hindi