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News
Home building pace picks up in Oswego : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisHome building pace picks up in Oswego
| Village issued 115 permits for new homes in '12; up 27 from '11
| by John Etheredge
| 1/17/2013
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The pace of new home construction in the Village of Oswego increased in 2012.
Patty Lariviere, manager of the village's building and zoning department, told the village board this past week her department issued building permits for 115 single family homes last year, 27 more than the 88 permits issued in 2010.
Lariviere said her department also issued an additional three permits for single family senior homes.
The majority of the permits were issued to the developers of the Churchill Club and Prescott Mills subdivisions located along the north side of Wolf's Crossing Road on the village's east side.
Lariviere said both subdivisions are nearly complete and their respective developers are anxious to complete them.
"Also, they wouldn't be building now if they didn't feel this is a good place to invest in," she said.
Lariviere noted homebuilders have down-sized their home plans since 2008 and the start of a nationwide recession that all but brought a halt to new home construction in most area of the country and left thousands of Fox Valley area homes in foreclosure.
"They are building more of the medium sized homes (now). We aren't seeing the 3,000 or 4,000 square foot homes we once did. They (the developers) are staying more towards the medium sized, 2,200 square foot homes," she said.
Looking ahead, Lariviere expects the upward trend in residential construction to continue this year.
In addition to homebuilding in Churchill Club, Prescott Mills and other subdivisions in the village, Lariviere said construction will resume in the Mill Street Station townhome development at the northeast corner of Orchard and Mill Roads. A developer has purchased the remaining lots in the project and will complete it as an apartment development.
Lariviere said her department has also noticed an increase in inquiries from developers concerning the village's building permit fees.
"We are getting a lot more of that kind of inquiry," she said. "That is encouraging to us because I think it's an indication that developers and investors are starting to come out of the doldrums of a couple of years ago and are willing to step out a bit and start some new developments."
Lariviere noted 2009 was the only year since the 2008 recession when new home permits declined on an annual basis from the prior year.
"We were up five percent from 2009 to 2010 and then up six percent from 2010 to 2011. We've only had one down year and since that time we've been coming back nicely," she said.
Lariviere, however, does not expect new home construction will one day equal the pace the village experienced beginning in the late 1990s through 2007 when it was annually issuing several hundred building permits for new homes.
"We are never going to be building 400 or 500 houses a year. Those days are gone in my opinion, but I do think at some point we'll be issuing about 100-plus houses a year," she said.
Lariviere described a 100-plus base of new home construction a "very manageable level" for the village, the Oswego School District, and the community at-large.
She added that she is pleased at how her own department has streamlined its permit process and adapted to the current rate of construction.
"As we've experienced the uptick in (permit) numbers, the inspectors, the plan review people and all the administrative people here have really been able to keep up with it nicely," Lariviere said, adding, "We really haven't had any delays, so I'm happy with that."
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