JULIE BERTRAND/Independent reporter
Building permit applications seem to have slowed down in the first quarter of this year as compared to last, according to the figures discussed at Stettler town council’s regular meeting Tuesday, April 5.
While the total value of building permits issued reached $461,810 by the end of March last year, this year the figure for the same statistic stands at $379,148.
Institutional building permits in the first quarter of last year brought in $15,500. This year the permits increased by almost four-fold to $72,613. Industrial permits amounted to $12,000 in January-March 2010 where as they totaled $5,000 in the first three months of this year. As for commercial permits, they are down by almost 60 per cent to $53,000 as compared to $142,030 in the same period last year. Residential permits are also down, albeit less drastically, from last year’s $292,280, to this year’s $248,535.
“Building permit activity has been slow for the first couple of months. Normally it is. But we are working with lots of different developers,” said Rob Stoutenberg, town manager.
Water treatment plant
Gray Drachenberg from the firm Associated Engineering updated town council about the upgrades being made to the Stettler water treatment plant.
The project is close to completion, with June 9 having been chosen as the official opening date. The estimated project completion date is June 30, 2011.
The budget for the upgrades was $21 million and Associated Engineering believes that the project will be done $765,867.42 under budget.
However, Drachenberg added a list of items that should be included in the package for the upgrade to be a complete job. These include roof repairs at a cost of $75,000; improvement of lighting, costing $150,000; floor coating with epoxy for some $60,000. Other suggested additions refer to installing cooling and metering equipment with a total cost of some $325,000.
“If you’ve got money left over, now’s the time to look at what you can do to improve the system,” said Drachenberg.
Rezoning bylaw
Town council gave the first reading and the first nod to a rezoning request by a private company.
The land is situated at 4019 50 Street. The company wanted the parcel’s westerly 54 meters to be rezoned from highway commercial to direct control residential.
The property currently contains a single-family dwelling and an accessory building. The applicant’s intention is to subdivide this property in the future into three residential properties and one highway commercial property. The applicant has been made aware that any development beyond the main and accessory building on the parcel will require subdivision of the property and in conjunction with a subdivision, a development permit will be required.
The remainder of the lot will stay commercial for future connection from Highway 12.
Upon future subdivision the applicant will be required to enter into a development agreement to address servicing of the property, lot sizes/locations, development of a legal easement to access the remaining parcels of lot and future intersection improvements