Prospective homeowners in the North Okanagan now have a streamlined path toward building a new home thanks to a design competition held by the Regional District of North Okanagan.
Earlier this year, the regional district invited architects, building designers, students and others in the design industry to submit entries to the Secondary Dwelling contest for a chance to win cash prizes.
Contestants submitted ready-made home designs that were compliant with the BC Building Code.
After receiving 69 submissions, a panel of expert judges selected eight entries (four one-storey buildings and four two-storey buildings) as winners.
The regional district also held two weeks of public voting and selected two People’s Choice winners for each category. The one-storey winner was Familiar Faces and the two-storey winner was Karinya-2.
The eight designs selected by the expert panel —and seven others— are available for purchase from the district.
For $1,000, prospective home builders get one set of printed plans and a PDF of the plans. Additional printed plans are also available for $10 per page.
Although each design is fully compliant with the BC Building Code, prospective homebuilders should still verify that their plans are compliant with zoning and utility servicing requirements in their municipality.
The regional district hopes that the pre-approval of these plans as well as their relatively low cost will “make the building permit process faster, easier and more affordable” for prospective homeowners and will ease the ongoing housing crisis in the region.
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