Fourth quarter wraps up slow building year

County building inspector Dan Gladwill presented 2016's fourth quarter building permit report to the county commissioners Monday and reported that building permit applications were down.

“We issued 38 building permits, have six pending and completed 73 inspections; 2016 was not a stellar year for building in Whitman County,” he said.

Gladwill cited a lack of large projects, such as the McGregor plant and Time Warner Cable building from previous years, as a contributing factor to the decline.

“There was not anything big and fluffy,” he said. “It's significantly down as opposed to the average we've been running over the last several years.”

Specific to the fourth quarter, building permits totaled $781,468 in valuation and generated $11,403 in fees. That compares to the same period in 2015 when valuations totaled $3,002,137 and fees totaled $34,515.

Public Works Director Mark Storey also compared the numbers to 2011, 2012 and 2014, when numbers were down but still above $1 million in valuations and higher than $15,000 in fees.

“It was a slow year in the county,” he said. “The building department is supported entirely by fees, and that concerns me.”

Storey said the numbers did not look good.

“It's about half of maybe the second worst year,” he said.

The next worst fourth quarter was in 2011. That period totaled $1,384,947 in valuations and generated $18,159 in fees.

Total 2016 valuations, with 169 permits issued and 11 permits pending, was $6,065,677. Fees generated were $72,316. The next worst year was 2011, when valuations with 180 permits and six pending was $6,074,568 and fees generated were $57,398.

Fees generated usually average around $150,000 per year.

“In 2011, we were still in the hangover from the 2008-2009 downfall,” said Storey.

Gladwill reported that the county averages about 250 permits per year.

“We're kind of at a lull in building here,” he said.

Gladwill also noted that in 2016, eight permits were issued for single family dwellings and two for manufactured homes. That compares to 17 single family dwellings and four manufactured homes in 2015.

Gladwill also noted most of the permits were issued for the Pullman area.

“More than two-thirds of it is in the Pullman area, and the other third is out in the rural area,” he said.

Gladwill warned that if the permit applications continue to decline, the building department may have to dip into reserves.

“The surplus fund is to support the building department in years that are lower,” he commented.