Site Plans
The City of Burlington requires a site plan approval for many types of development projects. The City’s Official Plan designates the entire city, with certain exceptions, as a Site Plan Control Area.
Site plan application follows a two-step process
1. Pre-consultation Application
2. Site Plan Application
The types of projects subject to site plan control are listed in the City of Burlington Site Plan Control By-law 17-2026. Exemptions include:
- A residential development of 10 units or less, located more than 300 metres away from a railway line, and more than 120 metres or more from a wetland, shoreline, inland lake, river or stream valley;
- a mixed-use building with 10 residential units or less that is located a minimum distance from railways, wetlands and water features described above and where the non-residential component occupies the ground floor only and comprises no more than 50% of the Gross Floor Area of the building;
- Electric vehicle charging stations;
- Outdoor patios on private property where no building permit is required;
- Projects that consist solely of the installation or upgrading of mechanical equipment such as emergency generators, HVAC systems and other mechanical equipment;
- Exterior building alterations with no increase in gross floor area;
For the full List of exemptions see Site Plan Control Bylaw 17-2026.
Site Plan Application process
All development applications follow this process unless they are exempt from Site Plan Control requirements. See our Site Plan Application Guidelines for more information.
Pre-consultation meeting
It is recommended to book a pre-consultation meeting with City staff and the required external agencies.
Complete our Online Pre-consultation Meeting Request Form and follow the instructions on the form to include all necessary information and fees to go along with your form. You must include, at minimum:
- Your completed form
- The details of your proposed development (as described in the form)
- A pre-consultation fee, which you can find in the development application fees.
Once we receive your submission, we will contact you directly with the date, time and location of your pre-consultation meeting with staff. It takes four to six weeks from the time we receive your submission until the meeting, as this allows staff to distribute the request to relevant departments and agencies for their input.
Preparing and submitting your application
Because Site Plan applications can be complex, we encourage you to consult with a professional planner or engineering consultant to help you coordinate your application documents. We also suggest that the consultants contact us to make sure that design criteria are met.
Please complete and submit a Site Plan Application. We will review it and deem it as either complete or incomplete. If your application is incomplete, we will place it on hold and send you a list of outstanding items. Site Plan Applications are not a formal public process so the processing is managed primarily at the staff level.
Review and circulation
Once complete, we will circulate your application to the necessary departments and agencies for review. They will provide feedback on your development proposal.
Revisions
If your application needs any changes, we will send them to you in a Summary of Comments. You will need to address all necessary comments before re-submitting your application documents. We will then review and circulate the revised documents. This process will continue until all authorities are satisfied with your application.
Conditional and Final Site Plan Approval
Council has delegated its approval authority to staff on Site Plan Approval. Once the reviews are complete, staff will issue a Conditional Approval which is an approval subject to conditions that must be met for Final Approval to be issued. Once Final Approval is issued, you can apply for a Building Permit Site Plan agreement.
As part of the Conditional Approval, you will enter into a Site Plan Control Agreement with the City. This agreement must be registered on title before Final Site Plan Approval is issued and your application for a building permit may be submitted.
Types of Site Plan Applications
There are three types of Site Plan applications in Burlington:
- Full Applications for major projects
- Minor Development Applications for minor or straightforward proposals with no previous approval of a site plan application on file
- Minor Modification Applications for minor or straightforward proposals to modify a previously approved site plan application