Residential Building & Renovation
Tents
Contact Us
Building Division
City Hall, 3rd Floor
71 Main Street West, Hamilton
Call 905-546-2720 or
Email [email protected]
Tent
Do I Need a Building Permit?
A Building Permit is required for installing a tent on your property when the:
- area of the structure exceeds 60 square metres
- area of two or more tents exceeds 60 square metres
Tents require a Building Permit when the area of the structure exceeds 60 square metres or when the area of two or more tents exceeds 60 square metres. Two or more tents are considered a group of tents if the tents are not more than 3.0 metres apart.
A tent or group of tents may not require a permit if they are:
- Not more than 60 square metres in total (aggregate) ground area;
- Not attached to a building; and
- Constructed more than 3.0 metres from all other structures
Note: Although a Building Permit may not be required, you must still comply with the requirements of the applicable Zoning By-law.
Permit Requirements for Your Project
You will need to submit:
- A Site Plan drawing identifying:
- Title, scale, north arrow, and property dimensions
- Street name and municipal address number
- Where the tent(s) will be located with dimensions to property lines
- Information on all fences and other structures that may be present on the site and dimensions to proposed tent(s).
- Available parking spaces
- Location of any easements
- Manufacturer’s drawings which should be readily available to you in the package containing the tent.
- Any tent 225 square metres or larger must be designed by a professional engineer licensed in Ontario, and as such the drawings should bear the engineer’s stamp and signature.
- Manufacturer’s specifications including all fabric materials used for the tent must bear a label or other written proof must be submitted to prove the material is certified to CAN/ULC S-109 or NFPA 701.
- Building Permit Fees
- Commitment to General Review form
- For tents required to be designed by a professional engineer
Apply Online for a Building Permit
Applications can now be submitted online by property owner, or agent acting on behalf of the owner through the City of Hamilton’s Customer Portal.
New and returning applicants can submit applications, track progress, and manage information securely online.
If this is your first time applying online with the City of Hamilton, you’ll need to complete two simple steps.
Step 1: Create a City of Hamilton Account (my.hamilton.ca)
You will need to create an account at my.hamilton.ca/
- This is the City’s centralized access point that allows you to easily view, access, and submit a wide range of City services using one account.
- Once your City account is created, you can sign in anytime to manage your services online.
Step 2: Access the Customer Portal
- After signing into my.hamilton.ca/, select the Building Permits category to create your Customer Portal account.
- Once you are setup on the Customer Portal, navigate to Getting Started and select Permitting & Inspections to apply for a Building Permit and follow the steps.
Need Help?
- For assistance with my.hamilton.ca and login troubleshooting visit My.hamilton Portal FAQs
- For assistance with applying, visit Planning, Permitting, Licensing & By-Law System
If you already have:
- a my.hamilton.ca account, and
- a Customer Portal account,
Visit my.hamilton.ca/ and select the Building Permits category. Navigate to Getting Started and select Permitting & Inspections. Select an action and follow the steps.
Need Help?
- For assistance with my.hamilton.ca and login troubleshooting visit My.hamilton Portal FAQs
- For assistance with applying, visit Planning, Permitting, Licensing & By-Law System
Submission Standards
To help us review your application as quickly as possible, please ensure your documents meet these requirements:
- Submit all documents in PDF format. Plans and drawings must be submitted as vector-based PDFs (not scanned copies).
- PDF files must not be password protected or secured.
- Complete and sign all required forms electronically. Fillable forms are available online.
- Combine related plans or drawings into a single PDF (for example, all architectural drawings in one file and all structural drawings in another).
- If your drawings contain multiple layers, flatten them into a single layer before submitting.
- All drawings must be drawn to scale.
- Remove all comments, markups, and annotations from your PDFs before submitting. Any text added as a PDF comment must be flattened into the document or removed.
- Submit drawings and specifications in black and white. Colour renderings or photographs may be included as supporting information but cannot replace the required plans.
- Convert electronic files (such as DWG or DOCX) directly to PDF. Please avoid printing documents and scanning them back into PDF format, as this can reduce quality.
- Name your PDF files clearly so they are easy to identify. Follow the “File Naming for Documents” guidelines below.
- Ensure all plans and drawings include the information required by the City of Hamilton Building By-law 15-058, as amended.
- If you are resubmitting documents in response to review comments, include a version number in the file name (for example, Site Plan v2 orFloor Plan v3).
File Naming for Documents
Please give each electronic document a clear file name that describes the form or its contents. This helps us identify your documents and review your application more efficiently.
- If you are applying for a Residential (one-2 dwelling units) or Other permit applications, you can combine all of your drawings into a single PDF for submission.
- For Multi-Residential (3+ units) and Non-Residential permit applications, group your drawings by discipline and submit each discipline as a separate PDF (for example, Architectural Drawings [A101, A102, etc.], Structure Drawings [S01, S02, etc.], Mechanical Drawings [M101, M102, etc.).
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