Building permits steady

PNT Senior Writer

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The City of Portales is on track to issue the same number of building permits this fiscal year as last year, according to the planning director.

The city compiles building permits for fiscal years, which run July through June.

Although the numbers for the first half of this fiscal year, July through December 2010, and last fiscal year, July through December 2009, show small differences, Planning Director Sammy Standefer said he didn’t believe the variations were significant.

“In my opinion, we still seem to be right on track with what we did last year,” he said.

Also, Standefer said he has about a dozen permit applications on his desk waiting for approval now.

He expects to issue 50-60 single-family building permits by the end of the fiscal year.

The annual number of single-family dwelling permits used to run between 20 and 30, although it climbed to the mid-30s in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, Standefer said. However, last fiscal year saw a jump to 57 total permits.

City officials have attributed much of the jump in new housing permits to expansion at Cannon Air Force Base.

According to records, the city issued permits for 20 single-family dwelling projects, with a total value of almost $3.1 million, for this fiscal year so far. Also, while the city has issued no permits for new manufactured homes this year, 13 replacements of manufactured homes, with a total value of $65,000, were permitted.

Last fiscal year, when the city had issued 27 single-family home permits, with projects worth almost $4 million. This included replacement manufactured homes, Standefer said.

So, the number of permits for new single-family homes was up six from this time last year.

The city permitted one multi-family dwelling with a value of $200,000 so far this fiscal year, numbers lower than last year’s two new multi-family dwellings, valued at $413,000, according to records.

On the commercial side, two new commercial buildings worth a total of $1.35 million have received permits so far this fiscal year, according to city records. For the first half of the previous fiscal year, the city permitted three commercial buildings valued at a total of $295,000.

Standefer said permit numbers fluctuate depending on weather and timing, and winter is often slow.