If you’ve been hearing more digging and hammering over the past few weeks, it’s not your imagination.
The first three months of 2021 have seen a significant increase in building activity in Martensville, Warman and the RM of Corman Park compared to the same period last year.
The City of Martensville saw the biggest jump.
Between January 1 and March 31, 2021, Martensville issued a total of 69 development permits worth more than $5.7 million, according to a report tabled at the Martensville City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 20.
During the same period in 2020, there were 37 permits issued worth a combined total of $1.58 million.
The biggest difference is in the number of multi-family residential dwellings. This year the city is seeing construction underway on 14 multi-family units. Last year there were none.
The number of single-family residences (4 so far in 2021, 5 for the same period in 2020) is similar to last year. There is a slight increase in commercial-industrial starts (8 so far this year compared to 6 for the same period in 2020).
The RM of Corman Park, meanwhile, also recorded a sharp rise in both the number and value of building permits for the period January 1 to March 31, 2021 over the same period last year.
There were 62 permits worth a total value of $19.5 million issued for the first three months of 2021 in Corman Park, compared to 23 permits worth a combined total of $7.3 million for the first quarter of 2020.
That’s an increase of nearly 170 per cent in the number of permits and a rise of 168 per cent in total dollar value.
In a report to the Corman Park Council’s meeting on Monday, April 19, Corman Park Planning and Development Director Rebecca Row noted that the building activity so far this year is the second highest of the past five years. Only the first three months of 2019, when 52 permits worth $37.7 million were issued, was higher.
“It’s busy as far as construction goes right across the municipality,” said Row.
The City of Warman is experiencing an upswing on the building front as well.
A report to Warman City Council’s meeting on Monday, April 19 revealed that between January 1 and April 13, 2021, the city issued 85 building permits worth a combined value of $8.5 million. For the same period in 2020, there were 44 permits worth a total value of $2.4 million issued.
The number of single-family, multi-family and commercial units is up so far this year compared to 2020 in Warman.