City officials reviewed a significant decline in commercial and residential building permits, noting that high construction costs and unfavorable market dynamics have severely stalled large multifamily developments and affordable housing projects. To stimulate housing production, the city is implementing regulatory interventions like a single-stairwell building code, reduced parking minimums, and comprehensive plan updates to open more areas for density. Council members emphasized the need to benchmark these local housing interventions against regional trends and urged rapid implementation of tools like pre-approved ADU plans to meet affordable housing goals.
Building_development
City Council Workshops · Apr 06, 2026 · 36:22–36:36 · Watch on CVTV ↗
Keywords: PUD UGA affordable housing comprehensive plan zoning building permits density infrastructure
What was said
35:20 construction activity and then some waterfront projects. So we had some spikes then. Most of those have wound down by now. New office construction has been fairly light as employers wrestle with the right balance between in-person work and allowing employees to work from home. The two spikes you see in industrial valuations were from large warehouse and distribution centers which have also now wound down as the regional market has absorbed new projects. While the number of new permits issued per year has been relatively constant for the past few years, there has been a gradual decrease in the total valuation of projects. This can be seen as an indicator that the size and complexity of projects is also decreasing. So we're seeing, the projects we're seeing generally tend to be smaller than we've seen in previous years.
36:22 This is a slide that shows the residential-issued building permits going back to 2019. Blue indicates the multi-family units and the orange represents the new single-family homes. The green line represents the production goal, it's about 2,500 units per year which includes the demand going forward to meet our population, expected population under the comp plan, as well as to make up for what we see as a current deficit in housing. The purple line shows the historic average number of units which is about 1,550 per year. From the peak in 2021, residential permit numbers have declined steadily to a new low last year. In fact, new units permitted in 2025 was 51% below the historic six-year average
37:20 which was predicted because the number of permits received in the previous year was also very low. 2024 was our low point with just about 214 units submitted for approval.
Evidence (1 match)
direct keyword 36:22–36:36 PUD, UGA, affordable housing, comprehensive plan, zoning, building permits, density, infrastructure
his can be seen as an indicator that the size and complexity of projects is also decreasing. So we're seeing, the projects we're seeing generally tend to be smaller than we've seen in previous years. This is a slide that shows the residential-issued building permits going back to 2019. Blue indicates the multi-family units and the orange represents the new single-family homes. The green line represents the production goal, it's about 2,500 units per year which includes the demand going forward t