Building Boom Continues - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Building Boom Continues

The city of Minot has issued just over 119 million dollars worth of building permits through the first five months of 2012...an astonishing number that shows incredible growth from previous years.

Here are the numbers in comparison with 2010 and 2011.
In 2010, the first five months of the year saw 19-point-two-five million in building permits issued...
Last year -- obviously affected by the rough winter and flood fight in the spring that number dipped to 16-point-six-eight million.
But look at this year -- a whooping 119-million and change.
In fact, if the year ended now...after only five months, 2012 would go down as the second highest total for building permits ever...trailing only last year when the building boom started after the flood pushing permits to more than 200 million.
David Waind says it is astonishing to see what has happened...

(David Waind - Minot City Manager) "I have been manager for 15 years.  The first six years that I was city manager we averaged every year about 30 million.  We have issued over 30 million and considerably over 30 million each of the last two months.  It is a significant difference from how things were some years back and how things have been the last few years."

Waind says the sudden growth has been across the board...residential, hotels, business...all are building within the city of Minot.
He says while it has happened at break-neck speed...he feels the positives outweigh the negatives that come with it...

(David Waind - Minot City Manager) "If we had control of it we would probably try and have it come at a little slower pace, but it is positive in that as we see the commercial development that is something that really helps pay for the cost of serving that additional property that comes into the city."

Of course building permits require building inspections...and Waind says the city is working to hire more inspectors right now to keep with the ever increasing demand.