UPDATE: The City of West Kelowna is clarifying in an updated news release that the Development Services Department administered a record breaking number of single family home building permits in 2016.
West Kelowna saw a record-breaking year for the number of building permits issued in 2016.
The total construction value of 2016 permits issued was $116.3 million.
“We knew during the year that 2016 was going to far exceed any previous years by the number of applications and the quality of the projects we were seeing,” Nancy Henderson, general manager of Development Services said in a news release. “To say we were extremely busy in 2016 is putting it mildly, and so far in 2017, we are not seeing any signs of a slowdown. In fact, I would say we may be looking at another record-breaking year based on the interest we are seeing for larger scale multiple family projects – something we haven’t seen a lot of since 2008.”
Building permits in West Kelowna were up in all areas. In 2016, the city issued 649 building permits, compared to 507 the year before.
Single-family dwelling permits more than doubled, from 82 in 2015 to 174 in 2016.
Permits were also handed out for 17 multi-family dwellings and seven carriage homes.
To help deal with the demand, the city implemented an application system that will allow both applicants and the public to get information and check on the status of development applications online. It should be up and running in the next couple of months.
B.C. Population Statistics show that West Kelowna’s population is also growing, with a 2.7 per cent increase over 2015.
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