The Town of Olds processed $53,726,040 worth of building permits in the first 11 months of 2012, up sharply from the $34.2 million processed for all of 2011 and the $28.3 million for 2010.
The total includes $9,985,000 worth of permits for commercial structures, including Mountain View Credit Union's new building on 65 Avenue, $2.4 million in industrial permits, $16 million in institutional permits and $10 million in residential permits, among others. More than 200 permits of all kinds were processed by the end of November.
Larry Wright, the town's director of operations, said it was a fairly active year for development in town.
"I think it bodes well for investment in Olds and people, I think, see Olds as a really solid, quality community that's very orientated towards new technology Ö the educational aspects of Olds College, the continuing good work of the Olds Ag. Society and when you look at the investment that the credit union put in the community, that's fantastic,î he said.
For every new $1 million worth of assessment that growth creates, a shade under $8,200 in residential taxes is created. The town would receive about $5,500 of that, with $2,600 going to the provincial government in education taxes and $75 going to seniors' housing.
For non-residential growth, $11,300 in taxes is generated on $1 million. The municipal portion of that is about $7,500 while the provincial government receives $3,700 for school taxes and $750 is allocated to seniors' housing.
Norm McInnis, the town's chief administrative officer, said that even though all of this year's growth isn't taxable ñ for various reasons ñ it still represents a significant amount of money for the town as new growth is added to the tax base.
"It's certainly significant. As we continue to grow we have additional resources to do our work,î he said.
The town netted a three per cent increase in tax revenues in 2012 over the previous year, with new assessment added to the tax roll rising 3.2 per cent over 2011 but assessment declining slightly by .2 per cent.
"It was about a quarter of a million dollars in new money that we had (over last year),î McInnis said.
