Building activity seems to be back on track, in Bradford West Gwillimbury, after a slowdown last year.
In the first two quarters of 2019 (Jan.-June), the town issued only 243 building permits, with a total construction value of $17.737 million, and collected only $607,500 in Development Charges.
In the first two quarters of 2020, not only was the number of building permits up by 46 percent – with 354 permits issued – the value of construction had rebounded to $53.85 million, and the town was able to collect $4.6 million in Development Charges.
The value of the permit fees and engineering fees also rose sharply. In the first two quarters of 2019, the town collected only $149,813 in building permit fees and $21,181 in engineering fees; this year, the numbers were $613,241 and $206,397.
The higher revenues reflect not only increasing complexity of the construction, but a change in the fee structure, which took effect late last year and brought Bradford West Gwillimbury’s fees in line with those in neighbouring municipalities.
The information was presented to BWG Council on Tuesday night, in a report from Chief Building Official Willy Wong that noted, “Under extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, Town of BWG’s construction activity has been strong and is predicted to be on target for this year.”
Of the 354 permits issued so far in 2020, a total of 192 have been for new homes, 86 for renovations (down 19 percent from the same period last year), and 76 for Non-Residential construction.
Non-residential permits are actually down 31 percent from 2019, when the town issued 110 such permits – but the fee revenues were up by 41 percent, reflecting the higher fees that came into effect this year.
“It was nice to see some of the numbers increase,” said Deputy Mayor James Leduc. “Obviously some of the changes made to the Building permit fee structure… are paying off.”
“It is a positive report,” said Rob Keffer, noting that the Non-Residential permits included “23 farm buildings. The number of farm buildings has increased substantially.”
Mayor Keffer said that he had asked the Chief Building Official if those agricultural permits were for cannabis operations; the answer was no: The building permits represent the expansion of farming operations.
