In spite of a pandemic year, Northumberland County council heard at its March meeting that growth across the county continued at a healthy rate.
The information came to council through the Annual Development Activity Report highlighting residential and non-residential construction activity in each of the county’s seven member municipalities throughout 2020.
It's an annual exercise to help inform the Official Plan, County Land Use Planning and Inspections Services Manager Dwayne Campbell said in the press release.
“This data provides valuable insight into local development trends and provides a broader understanding of local housing and employment activity, levels of local investment and Northumberland’s economic performance,” Campbell continued
This year’s report indicates an increase of approximately $832,000 in local construction value over 2019, totaling $222.7 million in 2020. Northumberland municipalities saw more than 500 permits issued for residential units valuing $189.3 million, as well as 123 permits issued for non-residential units valuing $33.5 million across all sectors including agricultural, commercial, government, industrial and institutional.
Four municipalities in Northumberland saw an increase in residential permits from the previous year, including the Township of Alnwick-Haldimand - which issued more than twice the number of permits issued in 2019. The Municipality of Port hope saw in increase of 95%. Also enjoying an increase were the Town of Cobourg and the Township of Hamilton.
The highest value of non-residential 2020 construction was in the institutional development sector at 38%, followed closely by commercial development at 33%. These two sectors indicate a change in trends from the previous two years, in which the commercial sector contributed more towards Northumberland’s total non-residential construction value than the institutional sector.
Other non-residential sectors saw similar construction values as the previous two years, with the industrial sector contributing 20%, agriculture contributing 8% and government contributing 1% towards the overall construction value in Northumberland County.
Warden Bob Crate noted in the announcement that this information is consistent with what the province forecast for Northumberland.
“The steady increase in local development highlighted by this data points to the importance of our current Northumberland Next initiative to ensure a strong Official Plan, and policies are in place in order to guide growth and development in Northumberland over the next 30 years in a very intentional manner that supports a thriving Northumberland,” Crate stated.
View the full Annual Development Activity report, including a breakdown of statistics for each municipality, in the March 17 County Council Agenda, available at Northumberland.ca/Council.