A House Built on the Moraine, to the Moraine's Rules
King City sits on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and the Township of King has its own climate data for it. We build custom homes in insulated concrete, and we start with both.
Here is a fact that surprises most people talking to custom home builders King City has around it. Ontario's Building Code sets design temperatures, snow loads and heating degree days in a supplementary table called SB-1, town by town. The Township of King is not in it. The Township says so on its own Climatic Data page, and explains that the values for a project in King depend on location, known weather patterns and local experience.
So King publishes its own. For a property in the village of King City, the Township points to a King City climate design package, prepared from Environment and Climate Change Canada data. Schomberg and Nobleton have their own packages, and the area labelled Bradford uses the SB-1 values. Where design software does not offer King City as a location, the Township allows an adjacent municipality to be selected, but only where its design values are equal to or more demanding than King City's.
For a custom home, that is the first design input settled. The wall, the heating system and the roof structure are all sized against these numbers, and in King City they come from the Township rather than a provincial row.
We are DMT Building Group. We are based in Barrie, Ontario, and we build within about two hours of Barrie, south into the Greater Toronto Area. King City is not on the list of towns we publish, so we will be plain about it: we are a Barrie builder who travels for the right house, not a local office. We build custom homes in insulated concrete form (ICF), from the footings to the roofline.
The King City package, dated January 2017, lists a January design temperature of −22 °C at 2.5% and −24 °C at 1%, a July design temperature of 30 °C dry bulb, 4,240 heating degree days, annual precipitation of 730 mm, a moisture index of 0.82, and a 50-year ground snow load of 1.8 kPa snow plus 0.4 kPa rain. The design point sits at 295 metres above sea level.
Two of those numbers do most of the work on a house. Heating degree days drive the heat loss calculation and the energy design. The design temperatures size the furnace or heat pump. Both land on the Energy Efficiency Design Summary that goes in with a King building permit application, and King's version of that form has its own tick boxes for an ICF basement and ICF above grade. A wall that is foam on both faces of a concrete core, at an effective R-22 to R-26, is what your designer enters there.
The snow load goes to whoever designs the roof and the walls that carry it. On an ICF house those walls are reinforced concrete, built exactly to the engineer's stamp. For the reasoning behind the R-value, see ICF vs conventional R-value.
The Township's own description is direct: 66% of King Township lies on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and King City is located on it and designated a rural settlement. Schomberg is just north of the moraine and Nobleton just south. A third of the township is in the Greenbelt. Intensification is permitted only within village boundaries, and every property on the moraine is governed by the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001. The Township puts it simply: you can build on the moraine, but within the guidelines the Act sets.
The province describes the moraine as an environmentally sensitive landform stretching 160 kilometres from the Trent River to the Niagara Escarpment, and its Conservation Plan sorts the land into Natural Core, Natural Linkage, Countryside and Settlement Areas. Which of those your lot falls in is the first planning question for any of the King City new home builders you speak to.
The moraine also divides the township's water. The Township explains that, because the moraine runs through King, some of its lakes, rivers and streams are in the Lake Ontario watershed and some in the Lake Simcoe watershed. That is why parts of King are regulated by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and others by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. Which one has a say over your King City lot depends on which way its water runs.
The Township's Applicable Law page sets the rule that shapes the schedule: a building permit application is not deemed complete, and the statutory time frames do not start, until all applicable laws have been satisfied. In practice, several approvals sit in front of the permit for a new house in King City.
The moraine review has teeth. King's conformity form says a Natural Heritage Evaluation may be required where development is within 120 metres of a key natural heritage feature or hydrological feature, with its extent set by planning staff at pre-consultation. The Township also offers an Ask Planning inquiry and a Collaborative Application Preparation pre-consultation for exactly this kind of question. Use them before the house is drawn, not after.
On the moraine, servicing is part of the planning conversation. King's conformity form asks whether the existing and proposed water supply is municipal or an individual well, and whether sewage goes to a municipal system or an individual septic system. Its Applicable Law page lists York Region's Risk Management Office for wellhead protection area permitting and source water protection.
Where a King City house is on a private system, the Township's application guide asks for an evaluation of it, and notes that added fixtures, bathrooms or bedrooms may mean an upgrade or replacement. The septic design shows the tank, leaching bed and well against property lines, structures and any creeks or ponds. In the Lake Simcoe watershed, King also runs a mandatory inspection program for septic systems within 100 metres of rivers, streams, lakes or ponds that flow to the lake, with an inspection every five years. A new house with a new system on a lot like that should be designed knowing it.
Three items on the Township's own pages are worth putting in the budget early, before you compare quotes from new home builders in King City or anywhere nearby.
King collects development charges for itself, for York Region and for the school boards. They are calculated at the first building permit, unless frozen earlier by a site plan or rezoning application, and indexed most January and July.
All new dwellings fall in King's major construction category, with a $5,000 municipal security deposit. The permit is not issued until it is paid.
To get the deposit back, every permit on the property must be closed, then Development Engineering inspects. Those inspections are typically not done from December through April.
The Township says charges such as cash in lieu or lot securities fluctuate, and it cannot confirm the balance until the permit is ready to issue.
King City home builders range from firms that design and build the whole house to framers and trades who take one piece of it. We are the structure: a custom home builder King City owners can bring their architect's drawings to, for footings, foundation, ICF walls and waterproofing done by our own crews and coordinated with the trades who finish the house. Most plans convert to ICF cleanly, and we tell you where an engineer needs to look.
You deal with the owner, Jerry Townsend, who has more than 20 years in ICF, from the site walk to the last pour. We work through winter, which matters on a schedule that may wait months for the moraine and conservation reviews and then needs to move.
If the first question is cost, read what ICF actually costs. If it is comfort, are ICF homes more energy efficient walks through it.
Yes, within the rules. The Township of King says property owners can build on the moraine, but must do so within the guidelines of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001. King's Planning Division reviews conformity before the building permit.
King is not in the Building Code's SB-1 tables, so the Township publishes a King City climate design package based on Environment and Climate Change Canada data, including −22 °C and −24 °C January design temperatures and 4,240 heating degree days.
It depends on the watershed. The Township explains that parts of King drain to Lake Ontario and are under the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, while others drain to Lake Simcoe and are under the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.
King states that an application is not complete, and statutory time frames do not begin, until all applicable laws are satisfied, including the Zoning Certificate and Development Engineering approval.
New dwellings are in the Township's major construction category, with a $5,000 municipal security deposit, released after all permits close and Development Engineering inspects.
No. We are based in Barrie and build across the Greater Toronto Area, within about two hours of our office.
Send us the lot and whatever drawings you have. We will walk it with you, put the moraine, conservation and servicing questions on the table, and come back with an itemized quote.
Prefer to talk? 705-333-3329 · info@dmtbuilding.ca
One short form — the property, what you're planning, and any drawings or site photos you have. We'll come back with straight answers.
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