Mushrooming local construction during pandemic delivers much revenue for Delaware County
MUNCIE, Ind. — Construction has flourished the past three years across Delaware County, delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars to county coffers, according to figures released by the Delaware-Muncie Metropolitan Plan Commission.
The number of construction permits exploded from 480 in 2019 to 858 in 2021. Combined with an increase in the registration of building contractors across the same period, county revenue by way of permits and fees jumped from $60,345 in 2019 to $342,082 last year.
Marta Moody, director of the commission, delivered the building permit report to Delaware County commissioners at their regular meeting Monday. She said large projects, like the ongoing construction for the 862,000-square-foot CANPACK beverage can factory at Fuson and Cowan roads, has helped boost the numbers.
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The size of a project matters, as fees increase with square footage and other other measurements, she said.
Tom Fouch, county building commissioner, told the Star Press that the new 139,800-square-foot INOX plant, nearing completion on Cowan Road, had also helped propel permit revenue. INOX is an Italian-based stainless steel forming and slitting company.
But Fouch said the increased activity was been across the board, including a lot of residential permits.
Fouch's bailiwick covers the unincorporated parts of the county and does not include towns such as Yorktown, an area seen as expanding. It also doesn't include construction in Muncie, where the Ball State University campus as well as downtown has seen recent construction projects.
"It's both commercial and residential," Fouch said, who added that the economy had been doing well from a construction standpoint.
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The county saw residential permits, including new single family dwellings, mobile and modular homes, home remodeling and new additions to homes jump in 2020. There were 59 such permits issued in 2019 and 82 in 2020. The numbers remained strong in 2021, with 89 permits issued last year.
"The new homes are spread out all over," Fouch said. His county office issues permits and handles building inspections for 350 square miles of unincorporated Delaware County.
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Fouch said when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, much of the economy shut down but construction remained essential and actually grew.
The growth was in spite of some shortages of available materials due to supply chain problems during the pandemic, he said.
Income from annual registering of construction contractors rose from $22,685 in 2019 to 33,025 in 2020 to $40,550 in 2021.
"There were a lot of pole barns," Fouch said.
The number of pole barns projects Fouch oversees in the rural areas of the county went from 35 in 2019, to 45 in 2020 to 59 last year.
With the growth in projects comes more work inspecting the developments. Fouch's office went from 585 building inspections in 2019 to 1,025 in 2020 and on up to 1,342 last year.
Money the county takes in by way of permits and registrations goes into the county general fund, said Moody.
After delivering the report she jokingly told commissioners that she would remind them of the revenue her office has brought in come budget time later this year.
David Penticuff is the local government reporter at the Star Press. Contact him at dpenticuff@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Delaware County, Indiana sees burst of construction during pandemic
