2017 was definitely a slower construction year in the city of Lacombe.

Building permit numbers and values last year were down significantly from 2016.

City of Lacombe Planning and Development Manager Deb Bonnett says 2016 was an exceptional building year in Lacombe.

“We had a number of new buildings constructed downtown and then the arena, so that accounted for over 10 million in permit values, once those permits were done that dropped the permit values quite a bit for 2017”.

In total in 2017, 187 permits were issued worth about 19.5 million, which compares to 259 permits, worth over 64 million dollars in 2016.

One area where permits held pace last year according to Bonnett was in single family home construction.

“You know we have a lot of areas available to build right now, there is MacKenzie, Shepherd Heights, and Trinity Crossing, and there are still lots available in Elizabeth and then we’ve had the odd infill building”.

33 building permits were issued for single family home builds in 2017, worth over 8.3 million dollars, that compares to 32 permits in 2016, valued at just over 7.5 million.

In terms of larger projects on the books in 2017, the permit for the lift station for the new regional sewer line was valued at about 2 million dollars and the new St. Stephen's Catholic Church was completed last year, you’ll also notice construction on a large addition underway at L.A. Carpet and Tile.