Sean C. Morgan
The City of Sweet Home has issued 25 building permits for new site-built homes so far this year.
The city is experiencing an increase in new development, said city Planning Services Manager Laura LaRoque. “It’s not a huge increase but definitely a step forward.”
On the planning front, she has heard a lot of talk about older subdivisions being re-activated. On the building front, the 37th Circle subdivision is nearly built out, with three or four completed already this year.
That development has had eight permits so far.
The Landing, the subdivision located on the old Langmack Airport, is getting active too, with three permits so far this year.
Four different building plans have come across LaRoque’s desk in the last few months, she said, and Canyon Creek, located at the south end of 10th Avenue, has new units too.
Sweet Home’s population remains relatively steady, at approximately 9,023 right now, LaRoque said, although one projection places the population at 9,060 in 2014 and 9,125 in 2015.
Portland State University will publish updated information, including a buildable-lands inventory, in 2016, LaRoque said.
“We still have a lot of available land to develop,” LaRoque said, pointing especially to the Santiam River Club properties east of Clark Mill along the north side of town and the former Willamette Industries-Weyerhaeuser Sweet Home mill property, west of Clark Mill north of Main Street.
Prices are generally trending upward, she said, and construction includes a lot of infill, with property owners building dwellings and accessory structures on divided properties.
Sweet Home does not have a wide variety of pricing or types of housing, LaRoque noted.
In addition to building permits, the city has issued six demolition permits and eight new manufactured home permits this year.