The Town of Niverville has seen a dip in the total dollar value of building permits issued in the first half of 2018.

So far this year a total of $9.1 million in building permits have been issued in the Town of Niverville compared to the $17.1 million in permits issued over the same period in 2017.

Mayor Myron Dyck says this drop in numbers is no reason for concern as there are a few significant projects on the way.

"We had an announcement this last week of Dairy Queen coming to town as part of the Drovers Run development. Those permits would not have been pulled for construction yet. We had the announcement of the Canadian Dollar Store coming, I don’t believe those permits have been pulled yet and then we have some that are close to pulling permits on development in our industrial park and those are some commercial things that we are looking to see in the next couple of months and into the fall."

Despite a drop in total dollar values, residential development remains steady in Niverville. Dyck says there has been a shift toward multi-family housing this year.

"What I have seen from development whether it be single-family, multi-family or commercial is that things ebb and flow and you kind of have to look at the overall big picture and this year we have seen a fairly significant multi-family push. All in all I would say things are moving forward and progressing nicely."

So far this year there have been 5 multi-family housing starts for a total of 52 dwelling units, whereas in the first 9 months of 2017 there were only 3 multi-family housing starts for a total of 27 dwelling units. Meanwhile, single-family housing starts are down from 25 in the first 6 months of 2017 to 17 over the same period this year.