This was based on the report from the Department of Public Works’ Building Safety Code Division, indicating that the number of building permits has declined steadily each year since 2005.
Last year, 55 of the 120 building permits issued were for commercial buildings, 45 for residential buildings and 20 for government buildings.
A drastic drop in the number of building permits last year was also noticed during the last quarter, which reported only 19 building permits.
DPW issued 33 building permits for both the first and the third quarters of 2009, and 35 permits during the second quarter.
The building permits issued in 2009 had a total value of $16.23 million — a 43 percent drop compared to the $28.89 million total value in 2005.
In 2006, DPW issued a total of 292 building permits valued at $11.79 million — 125 of which were commercial and 167 residential. The figure dropped to 255 building permits issued in 2007, with a total value of $16.23 million, and 234 building permits issued in 2008 whose total value went up to $36.41 million.
For the five-year period, a total of 575 building permits were issued for commercial buildings with a value of $61.92 million, and 623 permits were issued for residential buildings with a total value of $30.72 million. Only 49 permits were issued for government buildings with a total value of $16.46 million from 2007 to 2009.
