Unprecedented growth and construction values close to $75 million helped Centre Wellington councillors decide to modestly bump up the size of its building department.
On July 25, councillors received a permit activity report from chief building official Randy Bossence that outlined building activity for the first six months of 2016.
Bossence said he was very pleased to present the report.
“We’ve had an exceptional year so far,” he said, noting this builds upon the success of the previous years.
“Construction is once again up and the numbers are quite staggering.”
He compared the numbers to the same period of 2015 – which was also a record year for the municipality.
In the first six months of this year, the building department issued a total of 441 building permits, with a total construction value of $74,797,135.
Bossence compared this to 401 building permits, with a total construction value of $52,391,125, for the first six months of 2015.
He said the Township of Centre Wellington continues to have construction activity occurring across all major sectors, with particularly strong activity in the agricultural, commercial, residential and residential miscellaneous building permits.
Bossence said examples include:
– construction of the Wellington County four storey 55-unit affordable housing apartment building in Fergus, with a construction value of $12 million;
– construction of a four storey 30-unit apartment building located on Stumpf Street in Elora, with a construction value of $8 million;
– renovations to the Round House commercial building on Orangeville Road in Fergus with a construction value of $1.2 million; and
– construction of a new storage building at Jefferson Elora Corporation with a construction value of $800,000.
“It is nice to see Jefferson Elora is continuing to invest in the community,” said Bossence, who also noted new residential building activity is a big story in the municipality.
The first six months of 2016 saw residential construction values of $58,525,110 compared to $28,460,580 last year.
Bossence pointed out that with every building permit there can be up to 12 building inspections for a house – with many more inspections for commercial/industrial properties.
“It goes without saying that issuing more permits means doing a lot more inspections,” he told council.
Mayor Kelly Linton said it was good to see the year-by-year comparisons, which provide “some really good context.”
Bossence noted next year’s numbers could be even higher if the Groves hospital construction begins.
“That could represent a huge institutional portion of our figures next year,” he said.
He added the township has not yet seen the building permit applications from Pearle Developments, “but assuming we get them in the next few months, this report will look much different by the end of the year.”
“Pearle represents a huge commercial investment in Elora,” he noted.
While Bossence did not see any specific trends, he suggested with the amount of residential development proposed for the township, it is going to be a very strong sector the next few years.
Councillor Fred Morris asked if there was any means to verify the township is meeting both its population and employment growth targets.
Managing director of planning and development Brett Salmon pointed out it is Wellington County’s role to monitor the targets “so we would have to work with the county to look at the employment growth which would result.”
Councillor Steven VanLeeuwen commented that with this growth, Centre Wellington will have a workforce that will need to be promoted to the broader community.
He said one of the things businesses are looking for is a skilled workforce.
Council’s acceptance of Bossence’s report launched the second portion of his presentation – a request for an additional full-time building official for his department.
Bossence explained that over the past few years, the department was successful in using contract positions to deal with the additional workload.
Last September, the township was successful in recruiting a building official … with her six-month contract extended to the end of 2016 – “However she ended up being hired full-time by another municipality.”
The move happened relatively recently “and it has left us in a bit of a lurch.”
In terms of hiring another contract position, Bossence stated there are a number of full-time positions available across the province.
“Unfortunately there are not a lot of qualified building officials out there, so municipalities are all fishing from the same pond,” he said.
Based on the building report numbers over the past few years, Bossence suggested “the prudent thing at this point would be to fill the vacancy as a full-time position.”
He stated permit fees and charges continues to be strong and there are some very large projects coming on board in the near future – and an associated increase in workload.
Bossence asked that council allow him to begin the recruitment process immediately.
The 2016 salary range for a level one building official is $62,907 to $74,065 plus benefits.
“We are extremely busy and there are no signs of things slowing down,” Bossence said.
Council agreed to hire an additional building official.
