Permits for redoing your driveway: what Montreal, Laval and Terrebonne require

“Do I need a permit to redo my driveway?” The short answer: it depends on your city. Creating a driveway, widening it or touching the sidewalk often calls for an application, and many cities also require a permit or certificate to build or modify a parking area, sometimes even for a repair. The full answer depends on your municipality, and sometimes on your borough. Here is what we explain to our clients before every asphalt driveway paving project, and above all where to check to be sure.

An honest warning first: regulations change, and requirements vary from one city to the next and sometimes from one sector to another. We deliberately quote no bylaw numbers and no fees here. This article tells you what to check and where; the official answer belongs to your city.

When a permit is generally required

In most cities in the region, what triggers a permit or an authorization isn’t the paving itself: it’s changing the access between your property and the street, or the area taken up by parking. The situations that almost always call for an application:

• Creating a new driveway entrance: the curb cut or lowered sidewalk that connects your property to the street. That portion belongs to the City; it decides where, how and by whom it is modified.
• Widening an existing driveway beyond the width allowed in your zone, or adding a second driveway.
• Increasing the parking area, for example by paving part of the front or side yard. Several cities limit the percentage of the front yard that can be made impermeable and require green strips.
• Touching the sidewalk, the street curb or a municipal catch basin.
• Paving in a commercial or multi-unit zone, where parking areas, accessible spaces and drainage are often regulated.

In these cases, the application is made before the work, and the owner is responsible for it, even if the contractor can help you put the file together.

Redoing as is: not always permit-free, so check

If you replace your asphalt driveway with an asphalt driveway of the same dimensions, in the same place, without changing the access to the street, the answer varies from one city to the next. In Mirabel, the City writes that no permit is needed to build a residential parking area (cutting the curb does require one). In Lorraine, a certificate of authorization is mandatory before any landscaping work, and paving the driveway is among the work covered. In Longueuil, the permit portal says that repairing a structure without changing its dimensions or shape does not require one, with exceptions; in Montreal, the City states that a permit is needed to modify the surface of an existing parking space. Elsewhere, the official pages do not say whether simple repaving is covered: you have to ask.

Two important nuances:

1. “Identical” means identical. If the current driveway was widened without authorization by a previous owner, redoing it to the same dimensions doesn’t make it compliant. A quick check with your city saves you an unpleasant surprise at resale.
2. A change of material can count. Going from gravel to asphalt increases the impermeable surface; some cities treat that as a change rather than maintenance.

Our advice: a call or an email to your city’s urban planning department, with the address and the planned dimensions, settles the question in a few minutes. Keep the written answer.

Where to check, city by city

Every city page on our site includes a link to the municipality’s official website and a note about permits. Here are the entry points for the cities we serve.

The municipal pages below are in French; the search words at the end of this section will help you find your way.

Main cities

• Montreal: asphalt paving in Montreal · permit to build or modify a parking space (montreal.ca). Of note: rules vary by borough (permitted materials, surface area), and your trucks and bins parked on the street may require a temporary public domain occupancy permit. Connecting to the City sidewalk is always regulated.
• Laval: asphalt paving in Laval · driveway entrance permit (laval.ca). Of note: a permit is required to redevelop a parking area or for a repair that changes the type of surface (gravel to asphalt, for example), and widening or modifying a curb cut requires a certificate of authorization; only the City does the sidewalk or curb work.
• Terrebonne: asphalt paving in Terrebonne · curbs and sidewalks (terrebonne.ca). Of note: a permit is required to cut or rebuild a curb or sidewalk, and the maximum width of a driveway is regulated; check before widening or moving yours.

North Shore

• Mascouche: asphalt paving in Mascouche · bylaws and permits (mascouche.ca)
• Repentigny: asphalt paving in Repentigny · request a permit or declare work (repentigny.ca)
• Blainville: asphalt paving in Blainville · bylaws and permits (blainville.ca)
• Boisbriand: asphalt paving in Boisbriand · work declaration and certificate of authorization (ville.boisbriand.qc.ca)
• Sainte-Thérèse: asphalt paving in Sainte-Thérèse · permits, parking section (sainte-therese.ca)
• Rosemère: asphalt paving in Rosemère · permits and certificates (ville.rosemere.qc.ca)
• Lorraine: asphalt paving in Lorraine · landscaping, construction and renovation bylaws (lorraine.ca)
• Bois-des-Filion: asphalt paving in Bois-des-Filion · permits (villebdf.ca)
• Saint-Eustache: asphalt paving in Saint-Eustache · residential permits and certificates (saint-eustache.ca)
• Mirabel: asphalt paving in Mirabel · parking information sheet, PDF (mirabel.ca)
• L’Assomption: asphalt paving in L’Assomption · residential parking area sheet, PDF dated December 2021 (ville.lassomption.qc.ca)

South Shore

• Longueuil: asphalt paving in Longueuil · online permit portal (permisenligne.longueuil.quebec)
• Brossard: asphalt paving in Brossard · permit request to pave a parking area (brossard.ca)

On each municipal website, search for “permis” (permit), “entrée charretière” (driveway entrance), “stationnement” (parking) or “aménagement de terrain” (lot landscaping). If the page doesn’t clearly answer your case, the urban planning department or the permit counter is the right door.

Timelines and who handles it

How long a permit takes to issue varies from city to city and with the time of year: spring is busy everywhere. Start the process as soon as you begin requesting quotes, not the week of the work. A paving season is short; a pending permit can cost you your date.

Who applies? The owner, in the vast majority of cases. What we do on our side:

• tell you, right at the visit, whether your project touches the street access, the width or the surface area (in other words, whether there’s a permit question);
• provide the measured dimensions and a sketch if the city asks for them;
• for work that touches the sidewalk or the street curb, coordinate with the city’s requirements;
• talk about timing at the visit: if a permit is needed, we plan the paving date around it.

For a commercial or apartment building parking lot, the process is often more structured (site plan, accessible spaces, drainage); see our commercial paving page.

What happens without a permit

Paving without the required authorization, when one is required, exposes the owner (not the contractor) to several risks: a notice from the city, a fine, and in the case of an unauthorized driveway entrance, the obligation to restore the site at your expense. At resale, a non-compliant parking area can surface during the inspection or the certificate of location and complicate the transaction.

That’s why we prefer to ask you the question before we measure rather than discover it after we’ve paved. A contractor who tells you “nobody checks” is making you carry a risk that isn’t theirs; our guide How to choose a paving contractor lists it as one of the warning signs.

Planning a new driveway, a widening or a simple redo? Request a free visit: we measure, we tell you whether there’s a permit question, and you receive a written quote that accounts for everything, with no surprise on the day of the work.