Construction activity looks to rebound this summer

Even a spec house is on the books…

The sound of pounding nails may once again resonate throughout the valley this summer as construction appears to be making a small uptick compared to last year. While building a new deck in Irwin might be enough to boost county construction numbers compared to a lean 2010, at least there is some activity on the horizon.

In Crested Butte, the Board of Zoning and Architectural Review (BOZAR) is busy. Last year at this time the BOZAR members were dealing with medical marijuana regulations; this year there are actual construction projects being reviewed. “The BOZAR schedule is really full compared to a year ago,” commented Crested Butte building inspector John Fitzgerald. “It is busier and the projects are more substantial this year. In fact, this month we had to push back a couple of projects for design review to next month because the agenda was full.”
Fitzgerald said the CS Irwin projects were the primary building focus last year. This year there are five single-family residences in line for building permits along with a couple of small structures that will probably be built this summer, to eventually be used as accessory dwellings.
“We even have a few spec houses that will be built this summer and that hasn’t happened in a while,” Fitzgerald said. “Last summer it seemed the projects were basically remodels but I bet we will have ten or so good building projects this summer. Last year I think there were about four single-family building permits issued. It feels like a stampede compared to a year ago so I expect to be really busy this summer—I’d like to hope, anyway.”
Up in Mt. Crested Butte, construction also appears to be taking a turn, and the building department isn’t just confined to town boundaries. “We are definitely above where we were last year,” said Mt. Crested Butte community development administrative assistant Theresa Henry. “We were hurting pretty bad a year ago. This year we’ve gotten started with the Marble School. Since they have a small little addition to the school and they needed a building inspector, we’re taking on that project.
We are anticipating projects in the Overlook and Prospect subdivisions. There seems to be more coming across my plate this year than last.
“People want to get their projects together for the summer,” continued Henry. “It’s not a long building season. So as far as smaller remodels we’re seeing a little more than the prior year. It’s not crazy busy, but it seems like things are a little better.”
Mt. Crested Butte community development coordinator Carlos Velado confirmed Henry’s assessment.
“It’s looking up but until we see the checks for the permits I consider it to be in a holding pattern,” Velado said. “With the snow still being pretty prevalent, we haven’t seen a lot of definitive activity. But as far as the new construction, we’re pretty confident that those are going to end up happening. Two are ready to go and the third is waiting. Typically they’ll come in when they are ready to start the work. There’s still quite a bit of snow and the weather hasn’t been cooperating.”
In the county, 26 building permits were issued by the end of April compared to 20 at the same time last year. While more single-family residence permits were issued by this time a year ago, according to the county’s building permit report, there is a huge jump in the number of storage shed requests in 2011. So there are more projects on the books for 2011 but they appear to be smaller.
Crested Butte South Property Association manager Chris Behan doesn’t expect a huge summer. “We’ll get some small projects but it is too early to tell what to expect this summer. Even when it was busy, people didn’t do much advance work. It’s no different now,” Behan said. “When we were running 25 houses a year through here, people didn’t come in a couple months early to get their permits. Having said that, I don’t anticipate anything big this year. Last year we had two projects, a duplex and one single-family start. I’ll be surprised if we see even that this year, but it could happen.”