BOW VALLEY – The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t appear to have dramatically affected commercial and residential development in Banff and Canmore during Alberta’s peak of the virus over the past few months.
The Town of Canmore recently implemented new permitting software and getting comparative data at this time is difficult, but officials say there doesn’t appear to be a noticeable difference in commercial or residential permits.
“We did not experience a slow down due to COVID-19 between March-May, when it comes to residential development,” said Lauren Miller, the Town of Canmore’s manager of planning and development.
“We did not see a significant decrease in commercial permits, either.”
In March, there were eight residential permits issued in Canmore, seven of which were for home renovations such as decks and residential additions. There were 14 permits the following month, including six for renovation projects, and in May all but one of the residential permits were for renovations.
The 2020 year-to-date value based on 41 residential building permits is $10.1 million, whereas year-to-date for non-residential, which includes commercial and institutional projects, is $11.3 million based on 47 permits.
While commercial development may represent a higher proportion of the permit values in a given month, Miller said that doesn’t directly co-relate to an increase in permits.
“One commercial permit alone could be valued in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, while multiple smaller residential permits are necessary to equal a similar value,” she said.
“Commercial permits tend to be higher value, lower volume, whereas residential permits tend to be the opposite – lower value, higher volume.”
Miller said the department did, however, notice some lost momentum on commercial developments that were already in the process of being reviewed.
“Some of the required information that would normally be required for commercial development and obtained from other professional service providers – architects, surveyors, engineers, etcetera – was taking longer than normal, causing delays,” she said.
“In other cases, some developers were putting their commercial developments on hold to see how the COVID-19 situation played out before continuing with the process.”
Canmore did see an increase in Stamp of Compliance requests – which is a confirmation that the Real Property Report for a given property is compliant with the land use regulations of the applicable district and that all construction on site was completed under a valid permit.
“A Stamp of Compliance is frequently requested by lending institutions or purchasers prior to the transfer of property, so we suspect that there quite a few land transactions occurring during that time period,” said Miller.
In Banff, building and development are slightly lower than this time last year.
Town of Banff officials say it doesn’t look like there has been a noticeable increase in a specific type of permit, such as home renovation projects during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But we have seen some commercial developers expedite planned projects to make use of the shutdown and reduced visitor numbers,” said Dave Michaels, the Town of Banff’s manager of development services.
The number of development permits so far this year is down over 2019, with 30 applications compared to 47 for the same time last year, however Michaels said it’s roughly the same as in 2014 and 2015 at 29.
“Looking at the last 10 years, it’s on the lower side, but more permits than some other years,” he said.
In terms of building permits, Michaels said 2020 is looking strong overall.
While the planning and development department hasn’t received as many building permit applications so far this year compared to the same period for last year, he said it’s not far off with 34 compared to 36.
“In the last 10 years, there’s only been two years where we received more permits by this date and that was 2019 and 2016,” said Michaels.
The same holds true for the value of construction in the national park tourist town.
Michaels said currently construction value sits at approximately $16.1 million.
“That isn’t as high as 2019 at $33.8 million, and 2017 at $29.1 million, but higher than the other past 10 years,” he said.
“The value of construction so far this year, is already double the value of construction in 2018.”
