Toronto is working with Canadian company Clariti to try to speed up its building permit approval process with AI.
The news: On Thursday, the City of Toronto launched a new building permit application pre-check service, which uses AI to help flag potential issues in a user’s application before it’s submitted. Vancouver-based startup Clariti is providing the software, called CivCheck, for the one-year pilot program.
From the source: The city says that it reviews more than 36,000 building permit applications every year, which evens out to more than 140 per working day. According to local company Konstruction Group Inc., it takes roughly 12 to 24 weeks to get a permit fully approved in Toronto.
“Incomplete applications are among the most common causes of delay, and every round of corrections adds weeks to projects,” Clariti CEO Cyrus Symoom wrote in an email to BetaKit.
The context: Like many other urban hubs in Canada, Toronto needs more housing units to meet demand. Developers have called for faster municipal approvals, arguing that waiting for months and sometimes years hikes development costs. Industry group Building Industry and Land Development Association calculated that each month of delay costs between $2,673 and $5,576 CAD for developers, depending on location and housing type.
Symoom claimed that in Honolulu, residential applications using CivCheck reached a decision 55 percent more quickly than those that didn’t. For now, CivCheck is available for permit applications for a narrow set of construction types, like residential buildings with two units or fewer.
Final thought: Toronto has been integrating AI tools into different city functions, from smart traffic signals to 911 call screening (powered by the recently exited startup Hyper), as well as the more controversial use of AI-powered surveillance cameras. In its release for CivCheck, the City of Toronto was clear that use of the tool is voluntary and doesn’t autonomously review permits or replace the work of its staff.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Akshay Chauhan.