Building permit values in Niverville last year were the highest they have been since 2014.

The total dollar value of all permits pulled in 2018 comes to $18.3M which is up from $17.8M in 2017 despite the permits for the new Niverville High School being issued in 2017.

Mayor Myron Dyck says there was a good mix of development in Niverville last year with a number of new businesses moving into the Niverville business park and on the west side of the community.

“We are seeing right now a fairly healthy blend of residential and commercial and inside the residential between the multi-family and between the single-family, there is demand for both, developers are seeing that and so they are able to provide both.”

Single-family development held steady in 2018 with 36 housing starts compared to the 38 single-family housing starts in 2017, however, there was a surge in multi-family development with 7 buildings built this past year for a total of 61 residential units which is up from the 11 buildings built in 2017 for a total of 47 residential units.

Dyck says over the last 10 years there has been some residential and commercial growth on the west side of Niverville and they expect that to gain momentum in the near future.

“With a lot of the core area of town and Fifth Avenue Estates now being sold, most of the development for Niverville will be on the west end of the community on both sides of the 311, in and around the high school north of the 311 and continued growth as well in the highlands.”

Dyck says with the new high school opening in 2019 and so much development on the west side of the community, council is looking to improve the rail crossing options.

“We have set some money aside in our budget for 2019 looking at pedestrian rail crossing. We have had a meeting with CP Rail, the Hanover School Division, and some members of Council already and so we have already started to see what we can do to enhance that.”

Dyck says looking forward to 2019, council is expecting a good year for both residential and commercial development.