MINTO – Building activity has remained consistently strong in Minto throughout 2019, reports the town’s chief building official (CBO).
“This would be the tenth report in a row I get to give you guys some good news,” CBO Terry Kuipes told Minto councillors on Nov. 19.
“The construction activity in October basically mirrored the same activity in Oct. 2018.”
In October, the town issued 17 building permits for construction worth approximately $3.6 million, compared to 19 permits for construction valued at $3.8 million in October of 2018.
Year to date the town has issued 188 building permits for construction valued at $33.8 million, while in 2018 193 permits for $32.1 million worth of building were issued by the end of October.
The town has issued permits for 52 new residential units in 2019, “which exceeds what the county’s growth forecast was for Minto and we’ve got a couple of months left,” Kuipers noted.
The CBO pointed out the town’s 10-year average for the value of local construction is about $19.5 million, “so we’re about $14.3 million over that.”
Among the highlights Kuipers pointed to was issuance of a permit for a single-family dwelling in Clifford, which marks the last of a group of town-owned lots sold for development on Ann Street.
“So we got 32 new houses there … because of decisions that council made,” said Kuipers.
Deputy mayor Dave Turton said, “Some of the decisions that the council made I can tell you that … our staff had a lot of input into that and it wasn’t just us, it was a partnership between the council and the town staff.”
In 2013, the town paid $440,000 to acquire a swath of former rail land stretching from Clifford to Greenbush as part of the settlement for a legal action launched against the town by a developer in 2008.
The property acquired in the transaction included all the former CN Rail lines within the village of Clifford, including 32 lots on Ann Street, the rail line north of Ann Street to West Heritage, and the line south of Clifford almost to Greenbush.
At the time, council agreed to keep enough land to develop a trail system and sell some lots over time to offset the land acquisition.
