A building permit was issued by the City of Richmond, construction was completed and then a final inspection was done by three city inspectors – including the “Gingerbread House Senior Specialist for the City of Richmond.”
Finally, the Grade 1/2 students at Manoah Steves elementary were given official permission to eat the 21 gingerbread houses in their gingerbread city.
This final inspection by the City of Richmond was done in Cara Rogers’ Division 10 class on Dec. 14 for their 21 single-detached gingerbread houses. While a couple houses were higher than officially permitted, they did eventually all pass the final inspection.
But this was not before the class had to navigate a labyrinthine permitting process.
The students submitted their building permit application to the City of Richmond’s Building Department on Dec. 2.
Then the arduous process of getting approvals from seven city departments began – these were the city’s planning department, environment department, engineering department, tree department, plumbing department, building department and fire department.
The fire department needed to make sure there was “enough milk or water near the houses, in the event you are using candles.”
The application, submitted by the students, was to build houses that were 12 centimetres high, 10 centimetres across and constructed on one round plate.
“We will use in total 7 graham crackers for the foundation, walls, and roof. We will use a paper plate for the foundation, candies and chocolate to decorate, icing for nails,” reads the application.
The application, however, noted the students would not need to purchase any land for construction, nor would they cut down any trees or build near water.
“We will not cause any harm to nearby animals’ homes.”
Thankfully, no one in the surrounding neighbourhood – that is, in the adjacent classrooms – had any NIMBY inclinations and no one objected to the construction of the gingerbread city. Whether a public hearing on the gingerbread city development application was held was not made clear to the Richmond News.
The building permit had four rules the students had to follow before construction could begin: “1. No construction is to begin until the Building Permit is posted on site in the classroom. 2. Hands must be washed before and after construction activities. 3. Please provide 48 hrs notice to our office for final inspection. 4. Houses cannot be eaten until approved.”
While some houses were found to be a couple centimetres too high on the day of the final inspection, city inspectors handed out the final permits after students ensured them the houses wouldn’t “fall apart.”
To ensure the structural integrity of the homes, students had Grade 4 and 5 big buddies help them build their houses.
Students learn about building a community
Cara Rogers, teacher for the Grade 1 / 2 class at Manoah Steves, said the project started when her class talked about what made up a community.
“The kids would say we see these big mansions and monster homes and then we went on to talk about the environment,” said Rogers.
“From there, we thought, well, if we’re building our own homes, we should ask the city if they would be willing to come and do a quick, short little inspection and permits.”
What was thought to be a “little inspection” for permits became a full-scale back-and-forth email for the permits.
Between applying to the city and receiving the construction permit, the students learned about infrastructure and how landforms affect the community, explained Rogers.
The student-built gingerbread city expanded from the tables they were being built on to include their blue classroom rug, which represented a body of water, and a makeshift dyke to separate the river from their city.
“The entire process - they enjoyed it while learning about our city protocols,” said Rogers.
Fred Tewfik, manager of inspections, planning and development with the City of Richmond, said his visit was one of “just enjoyment.”
“It is certainly one of appreciation for Ms. Rogers, thinking about how to introduce this to the kids at such a young age,” said Tewfik.
“We run into things every day where people just don’t really know what they need to do when it comes to city permits. If you start at a young age, you start putting things together and figure things out earlier.”
What was most shocking to Tewfik and city staff weren’t the questions the students asked regarding the core parts of construction, rather their desire to preserve trees.
“That’s really important for us in the community. We want to preserve what we have, but we do recognize that you need wood to build a house,” he explained.
“We just appreciate the students for thinking about things like this and teachers building community construction into their curriculum.”
