Numbers are down for the start of 2016 compared to last year when it comes to residential lot purchases in the Town of Okotoks.

Permit and Assessment Manager for the Town, Rob Mueller says they issued 47 permits at this time last year.

"We had 30 Residential R1 starts for the 1st quarter of 2016 which is down slightly from the years prior," he says. "We are seeing steady levels of about 10 permits per month being issued."

Mueller says newer developments took the bulk of the lots purchased in the first three months of the year.

"The most busy sub-division that we have seen this year is Drake Landing along with Mountainview. Drake Landing had 11 single detached starts and Mountainview had eight of 30 starts and the rest of the subdivisions were slightly lower as well."

Even with the drop of residential lot numbers the Town has seen an increase in other types of permit purchased on the business side of things.

"We're seeing a lot of non-residential construction starts coming. Non-residential consists of institutional which is schools, churches. Commercial which is a lot of medical offices, commercial 2-3 storey buildings over in the Southbank Business Park."

12 commercial and nine industrial permits were issued in the 1st quarter.

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