Northwest Arkansas Counties Building Activity Grow

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials say building and inspection activity for 2014 reflects economic growth they saw last year.

"We've been very busy," John Sudduth, Benton County's general services administrator, said of the planning and building safety activity for 2014, compared to 2013.

At A Glance

Building Up

Benton County issued 713 building permits in 2014, up from 609 in 2013. Revenue from the permits issued increased from $169,765 in 2013 to $222,045 in 2014.

Permit Type•2013•2014

New Dwelling•149•310

Remodel•29•24

Addition•41•34

Pool•14•26

Mobile Home•56•58

Electric•121•110

Gas•6•31

Plumbing•20•18

HVAC•1•2

Home Relocation•1•0

Commercial•30•16

Other Permits•141•83

Source: Benton County Building Safety Division

Benton County reported growth in a number of areas in 2014 as new home permits increased from 149 in 2013 to 310 permits issued last year. Some areas were down as commercial permits dropped from 30 in 2013 to 16 in 2014, while others showed little change.

"New homes are definitely up," Sudduth said. "My building inspection staff has been very busy and new homes are a large part of that."

The decrease in commercial building permits isn't a cause for concern, Sudduth said. There is typically little commercial building activity in the unincorporated areas of the county, he said.

"Those numbers are going to be very small on the commercial side of things," Sudduth said. "The majority of what we do is residential. There's always some commercial, but not a lot."

The county's Development Review Committee also reflected the increase in building activity last year, Sudduth said. The committee brings together representatives from the state Health Department and county planning, building and road departments to meet with individuals or developers to discuss projects before they are approved by the planning staff or the Planning Board.

The county's data on building activity confirmed what he and others observed during the year, Sudduth said. In addition to the larger number of building permits, there also was an increase in the number of building inspections done from 2,748 in 2013 to 3,824 in 2014.

"I would say it substantiates the growth we've all suspected just by driving around," he said. "Everywhere you go there's new growth and the numbers support that."

Juliet Richey, planning director for Washington County, said her office is still working on its 2014 report. The indications are the county has seen growth in residential building as well, she said.

"We probably do more residential than anything else," she said. "In the last year we have seen some small businesses and some churches doing expansions."

The scale of residential construction in Washington County has rebounded after being slow for a number of years, Richey said.

"People are building," she said. "For a few years we didn't see hardly any subdivisions over 10 lots. Now we're seeing more of those."

Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, said Benton County's growth is also shown in sales tax receipts. The county's annual sales tax receipts for 2014 came in at $7,478,181, a 2.5 percent increase over 2013, according to Brenda Guenther, comptroller. The total exceeded the $7.3 million budgeted for the year by $178,181.

"It looks good, it looks promising," Jones said. "It's not a huge jump, but all the numbers say we're continuing to see growth. Housing and sales taxes are a big part of that."

NW News on 01/13/2015

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