Last year was a strong year for growth in Centre Wellington, as evidenced by building permit activity.
Chief building official Randy Bossence said in 2015, the building department issued a total of 812 building permits, with a total construction value of $96,634,306.
He said this compares to 662 building permits, with a total construction value of $73,993,052, in 2014; and 663 and $74,374,025 respectively in 2013.
Bossence said Centre Wellington continues to have construction activity across all major sectors, with particularly strong activity in the commercial, industrial, agricultural and residential sectors. Building permits issued in 2015 included the following projects:
– industrial building addition to Nexans Canada Inc. ($7.5-million value);
– new 55 unit condominium apartment building in south end of Fergus ($7.5-million value);
– addition and renovation for private school on Tower Street South ($3.2-million value);
– RioCan building renovations at the former Target store ($1,338,000 value);
– building addition at Ontario Nutri Lab ($1.3-million value);
– sewage system for Ontario Nutri Lab ($1.2-million value);
– new Vandermarel Trucking building ($1.08-million value);
– building addition at Ontario Nutri Lab ($900,000 value);
– new dairy barn, Second Line, Nichol ($820,000 value);
– new dairy barn, Eighth Line, Pilkington ($800,000 value); and
– new tea house building, Metcalfe Street in Elora ($500,000 value).
Bossence added new residential building permit activity was equally strong in 2015, with 224 permits issued for projects with a construction value of $52,311,270.
This compares with 184 permits issued with a construction value of $43,395,868 in 2014; and 118 and $24,251,880 respectively in 2013.
He added commercial, institutional, industrial building permit activity was steady with 60 permits issued for a construction value of $20,983,533 in 2015 (in 2014 the totals were 66 and $15,178,150 respectively; and in 2013 they were 38 and $11,370,000).
Agricultural building permit activity remained steady with 41 permits issued with a construction value of $7,813,800 in 2015 (in 2014 the totals were 33 and $5,593,500 respectively; in 2013 they were 45 and $26,783,000 [including the $14.2-million University of Guelph Research Dairy Barn]).
“As you can see from the report, we’ve been a wee bit busy … in every category we benchmark,” Bossence said.
He added the jump from roughly 600 to 800 permits, “has a profound effect on the number of building inspections.” He said in 2011, the department undertook 2,285 inspections, compared to 3,798 in 2015. Bossence said “in 2015 we’ve pretty much hit new highs in the township across the board.”
Councillor Mary Lloyd asked, with the coming of the Pearle Hospitality project in Elora, “Do you anticipate the number of site inspections to increase substantially?”
Bossence said his role in the Pearle project has gone on for a number of months now. That has included numerous meetings with the proponents with preliminary plans and hammering out building code issues, Bossence said.
“With projects like this, when there is an old building being rejuvenated … you tend to do quite a few more inspections.” Aside from needing to see work as it proceeds “every time you open something up … or they discover something new … there is a call to the building department.
“I assume the mill development will consume a substantial amount of building department time.”
