By: Ray Martin
City officials believe things are looking up after a tough first half for local construction statistics.
“It was pretty flat the first three months of the year, but things have slowly picked up and we’ve had a decent June,” said Hardy Bromberg, city director of building and enforcement services.
According to city stats, the number of new residential building permits issued this past June matches that month for 2012, at 22.
Though the construction values on the more recent permits topped $5 million, they valued more than $4.8 million last year.
The city has issued 645 permits overall this year, with a construction value totalling $61.2 million. In the first half of 2012, 826 permits had been issued totalling 89.8 million.
“I think at the end of the year we’ll be close to the seven-year average which is 1,455 (permits),” Bromberg said.
During the course of the last decade, Bromberg said new construction in Cambridge has evolved significantly.
“Construction of single-family homes has really declined over the last four years. We may see more built on Limerick Road, but that won’t be for a few years,” he said.
Meanwhile, other types of housing are taking over.
“We’re seeing more townhouses and apartment buildings being built.
There is a lot more intensification taking place. Developers are now working to use the existing infrastructure rather than build in new areas.”
City officials are also seeing a significant increase in all types of renovations.
“It used to be that 40 per cent of our business was in renovations, but that has now increased to 45 per cent. It’s taking a lot more resources to handle,” he said.
Bromberg explained that with new construction projects, fewer inspections may be required, while with a renovation his inspectors might have to go back to a site three or four times because of problems that have been discovered as the project proceeds.
Given the increasing workload, Bromberg said the city has hired a consultant to try an effort to streamline the approvals process and let people better track their approve application.
“We are putting the groundwork in place to go to M- government, where people can file their applications online and track its progress anywhere on their mobile devices,” Bromberg said. “If we get everything in place this year we hope to bring it online in the next couple of years if funding is available.”
With the new system, Bromberg said people will have to make fewer trips to city hall, can file changes and can monitor the progress of the application electronically.
Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph already have a system like this in place, but Bromberg said Cambridge’s would not likely have the same teething problems.
“We are watching them very closely to see what works best and incorporate them into our new system,” he said.
Posted July 25, 2013
http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story/3910640-slow-start-to-cambridge-building-permits-this-year/