Your first backyard unit in Burlington needs no extra parking.

Parking: the number that changes the maths

Burlington's requirement is simple enough to state in one table, which is unusual and worth taking advantage of.

Practically: if your driveway already holds two cars, a single backyard suite does not force you to widen it, lose lawn to a pad, or fight over a boulevard curb cut. That removes both a design constraint and a line item. It is also the reason Burlington lots that "obviously won't work" often do.

"Garden suite" is not Burlington's word — and that matters

Burlington's official term is Additional Residential Unit (ARU), and the City's own examples are basement apartments, attached suites, permanent tiny homes and coach houses. "Garden suite" does not appear as the City's primary vocabulary.

So if you are searching for a garden suite in Burlington, what you are actually looking for is what the City calls a detached ARU or a coach house. That is not a technicality — using the City's word is how you find the right page, ask the right question at the counter, and stop getting answered about basement apartments.

Yes, it can be detached

A detached ARU is permitted. The City explicitly contemplates a unit in a separate accessory building — a detached garage being the example it reaches for. Burlington permits one, two or three ARUs on a property.

An existing detached garage is worth a hard look before you assume new construction. Whether it can carry a dwelling is a structural and code question, not a hopeful one, and it is part of what we assess on site.

The Pre-Building Approval step, and your timeline

Applications go through a Pre-Building Approval application before the building permit. This is the single most common Burlington surprise. Owners assume that filing means the permit is in motion; it does not. It means the step in front of the permit is in motion.

Two consequences worth planning around. Your schedule has a stage most people did not budget for. And comments raised at Pre-Building Approval are cheaper to resolve there than after a full permit set has been drawn — which is an argument for getting the lot facts right before the drawings, not after.

The City is also direct that not all properties qualify. We would rather find that out for you in week one than in month four.

What Burlington does not publish

Burlington does not publish setbacks, minimum lot size or frontage, maximum height, floor area, lot coverage, servicing requirements, fees, or any registration requirement on its ARU page. We are not going to fill those gaps with plausible-looking numbers.

They are all real constraints — they just get confirmed against your zone and your address during feasibility and Pre-Building Approval, rather than read off a web page.

How we build it

Modular crane-in — the slab and utilities go in on site while the unit is built on a factory floor. One crane day, less weather exposure. The pick has to physically work from the street or a neighbour's yard, and we confirm that before you commit to a module.

Full custom — foundation-up, better suited to irregular lots or to matching an existing house closely.

See how we draw: the plans we work from. Burlington does not run a pre-approved catalogue, so those are a starting point that gets adapted to your zone.

The Burlington sequence

1. Feasibility — zone, survey, trees, whether the property qualifies at all
2. Site assessment, including any existing accessory building and crane access
3. Plan adapted to your zone, with parking confirmed against the ARU count
4. Pre-Building Approval application
5. Building permit
6. Construction and inspections to occupancy

Nearby

Burlington and Oakville sit next door and get treated as one market, which is a mistake on paper — Oakville's detached additional unit rules differ on unit mix and on what the Town publishes. Further along the 401, Milton ties its unit ceiling to municipal servicing and requires registration. Also our services and modular vs site-built.

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