Building up in Bayham
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At Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting, Bayham council members received a number of staff reports, including those pertaining to property, building and protective services.
During the fourth quarter of the year in 2012, between October 1 to December 31, 2012 there were 23 building permits issued, totaling close to $19,000 in building permit fees, with a construction value of approximately $1.5 million dollars for six houses and two farm buildings constructed. The remaining 15 permits were listed as ‘Other.’
The total number of permits issued for the entire year in 2012 was 121, up from 116 in 2011.
“This is a small community, we don’t get a lot of volume and most of our fees are generated from residential building permits,” said Bill Knifton, chief building official and drainage superintendent with the Municipality of Bayham. “Last year we had 23 new houses constructed (for all of 2012), the year before we had 13. Maybe that’s not a lot for a big place, but a little place like this with 7,000 people that’s a good number for us.”
When presenting his report to council Thursday evening, Knifton noted that building permits for houses increased significantly in 2012 and are an important source of revenue for the municipality. They increased from 13 in 2011 to 23 in 2012.
“It helps generate revenue for the municipality – they’re building new houses, that improves the assessment so our tax base will go up, once they get assessed,” he said. “So our property taxes will get spread amongst more houses.
“It’s good news – we got people coming to the area, a few more new families,” he added.
Knifton said the increase can be attributed to a number of reasons and factors.
“It’s available building lots and the cost of the building lots. Compared to other areas, we’re an affordable area. It’s significantly cheaper for a building lot here plus the building permit fees are cheaper,” said Knifton, noting the often slow rate of growth in small rural areas.
“I think some people like the rural setting. It’s very slow because we don’t have full services and we just have small lots in the villages. Four and five at a time being severed and as soon as they’re done, they are ready for construction, people are buying them and constructing on them.”
At Thursday’s council meeting, Knifton also noted that the new trucking terminal industrial building on Bayham Drive has been completed and is now occupied, and that Straffordville Public School is doing some upgrading and renovations to a few of their classrooms.