Building Permits on the Rise in Charlotte
by Edd Merritt,
June 16, 2011, page 18.....

The bulletin board behind Tom Mansfield’s desk in the Town Planning Office has been relatively free of building permits over the past few months. However, recently, it can be seen covered by many of these documents allowing the construction of new residences in town – 14 at latest count and the year is not half over. That is double what Charlotte has seen in each of the last several years. Mansfield, who is Charlotte’s zoning administrator, said that one had to go back to 2007 in order to find permits numbering in double digits, and there were only 12 that entire year. Both 2008 and 2009 saw seven houses approved for construction, and, although he did not have exact figures for 2010, Mansfield estimates that there were even less last year.
The new permits are for owner-occupied residences, not for houses being constructed for sale or speculation. Their costs lean toward the expensive end of the spectrum – a number of them over $1 million. They are fairly well distributed across the town. With the exception of a couple of lots in the East Village, the houses will stand outside either village district.
Mansfield feels the reason for the surge is due to several factors. Lower mortgage rates contribute significantly, he says, combined with people’s desire to build, something that they have been holding in check for several years, waiting out the country’s financial crisis. This desire, coupled at the construction end with contractors sensing opportunities to maintain their businesses’ viabilities, and the climate seem ripe to pour the foundations and raise the walls.
Charlotte has yet to be confronted with requests for numerous large-scale developments. While its land size is substantial in contrast to its relatively small population, much of the land contains natural resource factors that inhibit big concentrated housing tracts – perhaps the most crucial being lack of wide-spread septic capacity that is necessary to handle the pressures placed upon it by multiple dwellings. In addition, land is a relatively expensive commodity in Charlotte. For example, despite significant volunteer labor and corporate donations, Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity, in all likelihood, would not have been able to build its homes off Greenbush Road as affordably as it did had the town not been willing to donate the land.
Mansfield is uncertain as to whether this year’s resurgence is simply a blip on the housing screen or whether it portends future trends. “Time will tell,” he says. He, as do others, hopes it may be a frontal system for improving financial times.