PENHOLD – The town saw a drastic decrease in the total dollar value for building permits in 2019.
That amount last year was over $4 million, while building permit totals in 2018 for residential, commercial and industrial came in at $14.26 million. Building permit values for 2017 were $15.2 million.
However, the dramatic drop is nothing to be overly concerned about, maintained Mike Yargeau, the town's mayor.
“It’s mainly just larger projects….so we haven’t had large scale projects (in 2019 in Penhold),” said Yargeau.
“It was mainly residential projects (in 2019). There was nothing major.”
But he did point out one large project that did impact the overall 2019 dollar value amount.
“It’s Nutrien (Ag Solutions), the crop production services expansion that was a $7-million job. So that accounts for most of the discrepancy,” said Yargeau. “That permit was pulled in 2018, so those dollars were allocated in 2018 even though they’re currently doing the construction still in 2019-2020, but they started their process in 2018.”
Yargeau also noted the water reservoir, the Tim Hortons restaurant and Esso gas station were large projects completed in 2017.
“We’d love to see some more $10-million projects but we’ve got some work to do,” he said.
Penhold saw a total of 87 building permits in 2019, including 17 new units that were issued for residential and one new unit for an industrial development for a total of 18 new units created.
The remaining 69 units were issued for developments on existing units with such things as renovations, garages, and basement or deck developments for residential and commercial purposes.
“I would essentially say Penhold is holding steady,” said Yargeau.
“Obviously we’ve been higher in other years, but with how the Alberta economy is we’re still growing somewhat so we’re happy to see that,” he added. “It’s not bad news. I think it shows a good snapshot of what’s happening in Alberta.”
Yargeau noted steady commercial growth as well.
“We continue to grow slowly every year for our commercial development too,” he said.
He noted that within the next couple of years the situation may improve.
“We’ve got new commercial land available that we’ve got to do some work, on the administrative side before (moving forward),” explained Yargeau. “We’d like to see some development along there but were not at a phase where anything’s going to happen yet. There’s some work to be done still.
"In 2020 I think we’re going to still slowly grow. I don’t think you’re going to see anything too far off from what we’ve seen in the last two years,” he said. “I’d expect it to be right around the same ballpark for now, but I think we’re going to start growing more eventually, probably within the next two years,” Yargeau concluded.
