Home • Custom Home Builder in Richmond Hill
Custom Home Builder in Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill rewrote its zoning rules in 2025. Comprehensive Zoning By-law 93-25 replaced about forty older by-laws and folded more than a hundred residential zones into a handful of city-wide ones, and the Ontario Land Tribunal approved most of it on July 2, 2026. Any advice about building a house here that predates that change is out of date, including the numbers many owners still find online.
Select Design Build is a design-build custom home builder working across Richmond Hill, from Mill Pond and South Richvale to Bayview Hill, Oak Ridges and Jefferson. We confirm which rules govern the lot, take the file to the Committee of Adjustment when the design needs it, and stay on the site through construction.
Send the address. We check the zone, the overlays, the trees and the transition rules before anything is drawn.
Licensed to Build in Ontario
Replacing a Richmond Hill house with a new one makes you the owner of a new home under Ontario law, and only a builder licensed by the Home Construction Regulatory Authority can build it for you. The public Ontario Builder Directory lets you look up any builder’s licence and record in a couple of minutes.
Why Enrolment Matters
A licensed builder enrols the house with Tarion before construction starts. That brings a seven year warranty on construction defects, covering up to $400,000, and protection for your deposit if the contract falls apart before the house is finished.
When the Warranty Does Not Exist
An owner who builds on their own land and manages the work personally is an owner-builder and needs no licence, but the house is never enrolled with Tarion. If a builder proposes putting the permit in your name to save time, that is the question to ask about.
The Select Design Build has More Than 10 Years experience in Design & Build of luxury Custom houses.
As pioneers in designing and constructing advanced technology facilities, our architectural solutions stem from a collaborative process. This process empowers our multidisciplinary teams to share knowledge, embrace new technology, and craft innovative design solutions.
One By-law in Place of About Forty
Until 2025, a Richmond Hill lot could be governed by any one of roughly forty parent zoning by-laws, some dating back decades. Council passed Comprehensive Zoning By-law 93-25 on September 24, 2025, and it now sets the rules for most of the city. Three questions decide which rules apply to your lot.
- Is the lot still under appeal? The Tribunal's July 2, 2026 order approved the by-law in part. Lands tied to active appeals are shown on a separate City map, and on those lands the former by-law still applies until the appeal is resolved.
- Was a permit already in the works? A building permit application that was complete before September 24, 2025 can still proceed under the old rules if it complied with them, but only until the building permit is issued.
- Was a variance granted before? A minor variance approved between April 5, 2012 and the day before the new by-law passed is carried into By-law 93-25, to the extent needed to give it effect.
The City publishes an office consolidation of the by-law, current to August 31, 2026, along with an interactive mapping tool on its Zone Richmond Hill page. The map is for information only, so we confirm the zoning in writing before design starts.
September 24, 2028
The transition rules in Section 1.12 of By-law 93-25 stop having any effect three years after the by-law was passed. A project that relies on the old rules has to reach its building permit before then.
What the Neighbourhood Zones Allow
Most detached houses in Richmond Hill now sit in one of the Neighbourhood zones. The N zone keeps each lot’s existing frontage and area as its minimum, while N1 to N4 are numbered by lot size. Their standards for a detached house, from Table 5.2A of By-law 93-25:
Standard | N zone | N1 | N2 | N3 | N4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minimum lot frontage | As existing | 18 m | 15 m | 12 m | 9 m |
Minimum lot area | As existing | 540 m² | 450 m² | 300 m² | 270 m² |
Maximum lot coverage | 40% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 50% |
Minimum front yard | 3.5 m | 3.5 m | 3.5 m | 3.5 m | 3.5 m |
Minimum side yard | 1.2 m | 1.2 m | 1.2 m | 1.2 m | 1.2 m |
Minimum flankage yard | 2.4 m | 2.4 m | 2.4 m | 2.4 m | 2.4 m |
Minimum rear yard | 6 m | 6 m | 6 m | 6 m | 6 m |
Maximum height | 11 m | 11 m | 11 m | 11 m | 11 m |
Two rules sit on top of the table. Where a lot sits between two existing houses no more than 90 metres apart, the front yard is set by averaging their front walls, so 3.5 metres is often not the real number. And an attached garage has to be at least 5.7 metres from the front lot line. The height in each case follows the City’s height schedule, and density follows a separate schedule, so we pull both for the address.
How the 11 Metres Is Measured
Height is measured from established grade, which By-law 93-25 defines as the average finished grade along the front of the house. For a pitched roof it runs to the midpoint between the eaves and the ridge, not to the top. On a lot that falls away toward the back, the rear of the house can stand well above 11 metres, and a steeper roof lifts the ridge without using any of the limit. A flat roof, by contrast, is measured to its highest point.
What Lot Coverage Leaves Out
Porches, stairs with foundations and open covered entry elements are left out of lot coverage, and so is habitable floor space directly above an entry element or porch. In the Neighbourhood zones, the house and any detached accessory buildings are counted separately. A covered front porch with a room above it can add real floor area without touching the 40 or 50 percent.
The Moraine, the Valleys and the Overlays
North of the older town, Richmond Hill sits on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and By-law 93-25 maps it separately. Several layers can apply to one lot before the zone is even read.
Oak Ridges Moraine Zoning
Lands on the Moraine carry their own ORM zones on Schedule A1, implementing the provincial Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan. On those zones, a use that the by-law prohibits is only allowed if it was lawfully in place on November 15, 2001 and has continued since. Around Oak Ridges, Lake Wilcox and Jefferson, the Moraine map is the first one we check.
TRCA Regulated Areas
Overlay E maps the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority regulation area and hazardous lands. Where a lot touches a valley, a creek or a flood plain, a TRCA permit comes before the building permit, and the Committee of Adjustment charges an extra TRCA fee on variance files in regulated areas.
Natural Features and Groundwater
Overlay F shows natural features and their buffers, and Overlay G maps highly vulnerable aquifers and wellhead protection areas. Neither changes the zone, but both can limit where the house, the pool and the septic or fuel storage can go on a Moraine lot.
The Approval Path for a Richmond Hill Custom Home
A Richmond Hill rebuild runs through the City’s Building, Planning and Development Engineering staff, the Region of York and, on many lots, the TRCA. The order below keeps each step from being repeated.
Zoning confirmation: A written Request for Zoning By-law Information confirms whether By-law 93-25 or a former by-law governs the lot, and which zone and exceptions apply.
Heritage check: The City’s Heritage Register lists properties of interest as well as designated ones. A listed house needs 60 days’ written notice to the City before it can be demolished, and a designated one needs a heritage permit.
Tree permit: Any private tree 15 centimetres or more in diameter that will be removed or injured, including by work inside its protection zone.
TRCA permit, where the lot is regulated: Required before the building permit on lots inside Overlay E.
Committee of Adjustment, if the design needs a variance: Added before the building permit, with a 20 day appeal period after the decision.
Site alteration permit: Development Engineering requires a grading permit for infill houses and for additions over 400 square feet, and the approved grading plan becomes the site plan for the building permit.
Demolition permit: $546.14 as a flat fee for a house, and the start of the development charge credit window.
Building permit: $27.37 per square metre of floor area for a single detached house in 2026, with plumbing inspections included.
Inspections and occupancy: City and Regional development charges are paid before the first occupancy permit.
The site alteration permit is the step people outside Richmond Hill tend to miss. On an infill lot, grading and drainage are reviewed as their own file, and the building permit cannot move until that plan is approved.
What the City Charges for a Richmond Hill Custom Home
Building permit fees are set by By-law 19-24 and apply to applications from January 1, 2026. Unlike Toronto, the new house rate already includes plumbing inspection services.
Item | 2026 fee |
|---|---|
Single or semi-detached dwelling | $27.37 per m² |
Finishing a basement | $6.56 per m² |
Garage or detached structure up to 50 m² | $382.30 flat |
Garage or detached structure over 50 m² | $546.14 flat |
Unenclosed deck or porch | $218.46 flat |
Demolition of a house and its accessory structures | $546.14 flat |
Minor variance application | $4,826 |
Minor variance revision and recirculation | $2,415 |
When permit fees pass $20,000, the City lets you pay half at application and the rest at issuance.
What a Minor Variance Costs in Richmond Hill
A variance application in Richmond Hill costs $4,826 in 2026, whatever the size of the house, with $2,415 more if the plans change and the file has to be recirculated. That sits between Markham at $6,931 for a new house and Toronto at $5,011.08, and well above Mississauga at $1,361.
How the Committee Works
The Committee of Adjustment is five members appointed by Council, a Chair and four others, and it meets at City Hall at 225 East Beaver Creek Road. Hearings stream on the City’s YouTube channel, and since May 7, 2026 the notices, staff reports and drawings for each application are posted on the City’s Council Calendar. Appeals go to the Ontario Land Tribunal within 20 days of the decision.
The Four Tests
The Planning Act gives the Committee four questions, and every one has to be answered yes:
- The variance is minor.
- It is desirable for the appropriate development or use of the land.
- It maintains the general intent of the zoning by-law.
- It maintains the general intent of the Official Plan.
With a new by-law in force, some requests that were routine under the old rules are no longer needed at all, and some new ones appear. We test the design against By-law 93-25 before deciding whether a variance is worth the fee.
Development Charges on a New Richmond Hill Home
Development charges are the largest municipal cost on a new house. These are the rates for a single or semi-detached unit on the City’s current schedule, effective July 1, 2026 for the City and school boards and May 21, 2026 for the Region.
Charge | Per unit |
|---|---|
City of Richmond Hill | $50,776 |
York Region, hard services | $55,479 |
York Region, soft services | $29,239 |
York Region District School Board | $8,062 |
York Catholic District School Board | $872 |
Total | $144,428 |
Since November 3, 2025, the City and Regional charges on a new house are paid before the first occupancy permit rather than at the building permit. The school board charges are still paid before the first building permit. A few smaller charges are also collected at the permit stage, including $677 for a one inch water meter and $945 for boulevard tree planting.
The Demolition Credit Has a Clock
Replacing one house with one house usually earns a credit, but each authority sets its own window.
Authority | Credit rule |
|---|---|
City of Richmond Hill | No credit after four years from the issuance of the demolition permit |
York Region | Credit equals the charges applicable to the demolished dwelling |
Both school boards | Replacement on the same site is exempt only if the building permit is issued within 2 years of the demolition permit |
The school board window closes first. On a demolished lot, a slow design or a long variance process can cost money without changing the house, so we confirm each credit with the authority in writing before a budget is set.
Richmond Hill's Tree Rules Changed in 2025
Richmond Hill replaced its tree by-laws on April 23, 2025. The new Tree Preservation By-law 19-25 lowered the threshold for private trees from 20 centimetres to 15, measured 1.4 metres above the ground, which brings many more trees on a typical lot into the permit process.
Injury Counts, Not Just Removal
The permit is needed to injure a tree as well as to remove it. Taking more than 20 percent of a tree’s live tissue in a twelve month period counts as injury, and so does any encroachment into its Tree Protection Zone, a radius set by the trunk diameter. On a tight infill lot, a new foundation, a regraded side yard or a construction entrance can each cross that line.
What the Permit Requires
Replanting securities or cash in lieu have to be in place before a tree permit is issued, and replacement trees are protected in their own right once planted. That is why the tree plan belongs at the start of design, next to the survey, not after the drawings are finished. The City’s private tree page sets out the current process.
Building Across Richmond Hill's Neighbourhoods
The new by-law uses the same zones across the city, but the lots do not behave the same way. The pattern by area:
Village Core and Mill Pond
Older lots near the historic core. In the Village Core Community on Schedule A, a garage cannot project past the front wall of the house, and heritage register listings need checking.
South Richvale and Bayview Hill
Larger lots where mature trees, grading and the 15 centimetre tree threshold shape the site plan more than the setbacks do.
Oak Ridges, Lake Wilcox and Jefferson
Oak Ridges Moraine zoning, natural feature overlays and TRCA regulated areas, often on the same lot.
Crosby, Harding and North Richvale
Established streets where front yard averaging and lot coverage are the usual questions on a rebuild.
Rouge Woods, Westbrook and Oak Ridges subdivisions
Newer lots in the N1 to N4 zones, where frontage, garage setback and the 50 percent coverage set the envelope.
West Gormley
A community with its own rules, including a maximum lot area of 1 hectare and no townhouse forms.
We also build in Doncrest, Langstaff, Observatory, Devonsleigh and Elgin Mills.
Recent Custom Homes Across the GTA
Each project listed with the street it stands on.
Old Forest Hill Road, Toronto
7 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, 10,000 sq ft, 2022
Weybourne Crescent, Lawrence Park
7 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, 3,500 sq ft, 2025
Brookdale Avenue, North York
8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 6,094 sq ft
Which zoning by-law applies to my Richmond Hill property?
For most of the city, Comprehensive Zoning By-law 93-25, passed on September 24, 2025 and approved in part by the Ontario Land Tribunal on July 2, 2026. Lands still under appeal keep their former by-law until the appeal is resolved, and the City publishes a map of them. A written zoning information request confirms it for your lot.
How tall can a new house be in Richmond Hill?
In the Neighbourhood zones the limit is 11 metres, following the City’s height schedule. For a pitched roof it is measured from the average grade at the front of the house to the midpoint between the eaves and the ridge, so the ridge itself can sit higher.
What is the maximum lot coverage for a detached house?
40 percent in the N zone and 50 percent in the N1 to N4 zones. Porches, open covered entries and habitable space directly above them are not counted.
How much is a minor variance in Richmond Hill?
$4,826 in 2026, plus $2,415 if revised plans have to be recirculated. Files in a TRCA regulated area also carry a TRCA fee.
Do I need a permit to remove a tree on my property?
Yes, for any private tree 15 centimetres or more in diameter under Tree Preservation By-law 19-25, in effect since April 23, 2025. The permit also covers injury, including any encroachment into the tree’s protection zone during construction.
When are development charges paid on a new Richmond Hill house?
City and York Region charges are paid before the first occupancy permit, since November 3, 2025. School board charges are still paid before the first building permit. On a teardown, a credit usually applies, but the City’s ends four years after the demolition permit and the school board exemption after two.
My house is on the heritage register. Can I still demolish it?
If it is listed but not designated, the City needs 60 days’ written notice before demolition, which gives Council time to consider designation. If it is designated, demolition needs Council’s consent through a heritage permit. We check the register before any design work begins.
Send us the address. We confirm whether By-law 93-25 governs the lot, what the zone and overlays allow, which trees are protected, and whether the design needs the Committee of Adjustment, before anything is drawn.
