CONCLUSION

This project demonstrates that meaningful progress can be made toward automating elements of development application review through the structured use of BIM data and rule-based evaluation.

By translating a portion of regulatory requirements into measurable, machine-readable criteria, the team validated that automated compliance checking is feasible for a defined subset of planning and building rules.

The work highlights both the potential for efficiency gains in review timelines and the importance of consistency in how data is authored and managed within design models.

At the same time, the project surfaced key gaps that must be addressed for broader adoption.

These include:

  • The need for more standardized approaches to encoding municipal policies

  • Improved interoperability between authoring tools and checking platforms

  • The absence of a common data environment for regulatory information.

Addressing these challenges will be critical to scaling the approach across jurisdictions.

With continued refinement, the framework developed through this project provides a practical foundation for more transparent, consistent, and scalable digital permitting workflows that can support increased housing delivery across Canada.