The final building permit numbers are in for North Battleford and they are impressive ones.
For the year 2018, there were 131 permits for $26,891,100 issued, way up from the 117 permits for $17,570,310 of the previous year.
It had been known for months that North Battleford would finish 2018 ahead of the previous year’s pace. Nevertheless, the final totals still brought about an enthusiastic reaction from Mayor Ryan Bater.
“We had a 53 per cent increase in the value of permits from the year before, which was a massive increase,” said Bater at a meeting of city council Monday night.
Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink was asked what had driven the increase, and she pointed to the large commercial projects in the city: the two hotel projects, the four-screen movie theatre, and Giant Tiger.
Seven permits had been issued for $17,508,550 in the “new commercial” category in 2018. The permit value in that category alone is almost as much as the permit value for all categories in 2017.
Final numbers for December added to the glowing numbers for 2018; eight permits were issued for $1,589,000, including one permit for $1.26 million in the new commercial category.
