For the first six months of 2015, the Town of Stettler issued permits worth $6,132,085 in building permits, a 117 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Strong industrial building permit sales bolstered the lagging institutional building permits to help keep the first half of 2015 ahead of last year, with building permits in other categories remaining about the same comparatively.
There was $750,000 in industrial building permit issuance, with $250,000 of it in January and $500,000 in June.
Residential permits also managed to reach double the level the same period in 2014, with $2,075,775 in permits issued. Demolitions, basement renovations, sheds and garages bolstered this category of building permits. April was the busiest of months, with $747,075 worth of permits issued.
Commercial permits lagged behind as compared to last year, but not by much. The $3,130,400 in commercial permits came at only $116,711 less than the $3,300,111 figure of last year.
The biggest drop was in institutional building permits, which came in with $175,910 worth of building permits given out. Last year in the same period, $486,200 worth of permits were issued.
The dollar value is the estimated value of the work to be done through the permits, not the cost of the permission documents.
Residential construction permits were down the first six months from the same period last year, but on par with 2013.
There were permits issued for four single-family residents, one duplex and four mobile homes, for a total of 10 permits (the duplex being worth two).
During the same period of time last year, 14 new construction permits were issued, though none were duplexes and there were less mobile home permits. The average new building permits issues range usually between 10-50, with some years seeing higher numbers due to duplex building or large residences like Points West (which caused 2012 to have 111 building permits issued).
Dave Dittrick with ZAP Municipal Consulting, is filling in for Leann Graham, who is on maternity leave. He said the numbers look strong so far this year.
"We are up 17 per cent year-over-year respecting building permit values," he said. "We have issued permits for 10 residential dwelling units, and are projecting to exceed the 2014 residential dwelling unit totals in 2015."