Permit revenues down by half

At an Ocean Shores Planning Commission meeting last week, Alicia Bridges presented a spreadsheet on first quarter 2009 building permits.

It showed 19 building permits for single-family homes were issued in the first three months of 2009, down 37 percent from the 30 that were issued in the first quarter of 2008.

A total of 62 residential and commercial building permits were issued in this year’s first quarter, down 30 percent from the 89 issued in the same period of 2008.

Bridges, the city planner, said Ocean Shores took in $58,232 in permit fees in the first three months of 2009. This was half of the $106,761 that the city took in for 2008 first quarter permit fees.

Dori Lambert, one of the planning commissioners, works at Levee Lumber, and commented that business “has been skyrocketing” in the blueprint/pre-permit phase.

“I’ve had builders saying the phone didn’t ring for months, now they have more work than they can handle,” Lambert said.

Bridges also said that the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which owns land near the airport, is investigating reports of home owners cutting down trees to improve views of the bay.

“The DFW has sent a letter that the City has forwarded to the residents concerning what appears to be violations,”  Mayor Dean Bunkers later said.

He met with residents of that area last week.