Troy

Building permits jump

By Terry Oparka
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Edward Osinski Work begins on the new Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites at 400 Stephenson. Photo by Edward Osinski Work begins on the new Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites at 400 Stephenson.

The Troy Building Department has been markedly busier in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2011.

Steve Burns, building official for SafeBuilt, said the Building Department has issued 100 permits or more each month of this year compared with last year. SafeBuilt has handled city inspections and issued building permits since the city outsourced those services to cut costs in July 2010.

For example, 521 permits were issued in January 2012 with a value estimated on the work of more than $7.1 million, compared with 400 permits issued in January 2011 that had a value of about $2.9 million.

Burns said while the mild winter earlier this year could have had an impact on numbers, the trend has continued through June. Only February of this year saw a dip — of 144 permits — when compared with the same month last year.

The city saw an increase of 162 permits from March 2011 to March 2012. There was a spike of 651 permits in April, an increase of 182 in May and 172 in June over the year before.

Based on the permits for new commercial building, the value of this year’s projects is $3.74 million for permits issued in April, May and June.

Work in the new residential category totals more than $11.6 million for the first six months of this year. More than 4,000 permits had been issued through the end of June, compared with 6,699 for all of 2011 and 3,316 for all of 2010.

“It’s very encouraging,” Burns said.

Troy City Assessor Nino Licari agreed, but noted that of the $11.6 million in estimated new residential homes, about $57,000 would be added to city coffers.

“It’s not a windfall for us,“ he said, adding that the city has lost about $1.7 billion in taxable values in the economic downturn.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Terry Oparka at toparka@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1054.