City of Calgary- New Standing Posted Variance (SPV-006) – Alternative to Firewalls in Rowhouses with Secondary Suites

BILD Calgary Region Bulletin 2025 – 29

The City of Calgary has released Standing Posted Variance SPV-006 – Firewall in a Rowhouse with Secondary Suites (SPV-006), which provides an alternative to a non-combustible firewall required in rowhouses containing secondary suites.

About SPV-006

The National Building Code – Alberta Edition requires a firewall between adjacent dwelling units in rowhouses with secondary suites. These firewalls can increase the time needed to review building permit applications and may increase the time and cost of construction for the project.

SPV-006 introduces an alternative compliance path that allows builders to substitute traditional firewalls with equivalent passive fire protection measures through compartmentation, enhanced egress and optional sprinkler systems. This enables the construction of rowhouses with secondary suites without requiring a firewall.

This variance applies to both newly constructed and existing rowhouses, where a secondary suite is proposed. SPV-006 enables builders to maintain life safety and structural protection while facilitating design flexibility and reduced time and cost.

Importantly, this will enable more rowhouses with safe, registered secondary suites to be constructed, which in turn can significantly add to housing supply across the city.

The key benefits to home builders include:

• Simplifies design by removing the need for complex firewall designs
• Enables safe, registered secondary suites in existing rowhouses that were previously ineligible due to firewall limitations
• Reduces structural constraints and may speed up permit review times
• Supports The City’s goal to increase housing supply and flexibility

If you have a building permit under review or already issued and plan to amend a non-combustible firewall to comply with SPV-006, please submit a complete set of updated documents demonstrating compliance to your assigned file manager.  These updates will be reviewed using the standard timelines applied to an open permit.

How to Use SPV-006

SPV-006 came into effect on June 19. 2025 and is available for immediate use. You can access the variance in full on The City of Calgary’s Building Regulation Advisories page: calgary.ca/development/permits/building-regulation-advisories.

Builders can reference SPV-006 in their building permit applications and must ensure it is included in all supporting permit documentation and details when used in place of the prescriptive code.