Oct. 1, 2021

Sioux Falls’ historic building year has reached more than $868 million in permit valuation and prompted the city to add staff.

The total compares to $477 million for the same time last year, which also was a record year.

A big difference-maker last month was the nearly $61 million in permit value for the new Amazon fulfillment center. Other large projects included the Vineyard Heights apartments near 69th Street and Southeastern Avenue and a building for Border States Electric at Career Avenue and Marion Road.

Through September, new residential permits totaled $246.5 million, up from $184.7 million for the same time last year. That includes 697 new single-family houses, which is 140 more than the same time last year.

Multifamily units, which are considered commercial construction, totaled 1,592, compared with 694 at the same time last year.

New commercial construction reached $330.8 million, up from $161.4 million last year, while commercial additions and renovations are at $235.6 million, compared with $81.5 million last year.

And that doesn’t include all the projects in line for permits.

Earlier this week, there were 66 projects actively being reviewed or waiting for review.

“We’ve been between 65 and 70 for most of the summer,” said Jeff Eckhoff, director of planning and development services. “It’s everything: restaurants, a dorm remodel, condos, apartments, storage units and retail.”

The goal is to reduce the time from when a building plan is brought in to when a permit is issued, he said. Right now, that’s averaging four weeks, and it takes longer if the applicant is missing information.

“That seems to be a little better,” Eckhoff said. “Right now, we only have less than 10 where we’ve had to send stuff back, so I think people are figuring that out.”

The city also posted for a new building plan examiner this week. Realistically, the hiring process will take at least six weeks, Eckhoff said, and there will be training time after that.

“We posted that as quickly as we could after the City Council approved the position,” he said, adding those with a variety of backgrounds will be considered. “Obviously, if someone has experience drawing plans for builders, that would be perfect. If they’ve had to work with building code or construction plans, that would be ideal.”

Once that person is on board, the process should speed up, he said, adding that the city recognizes the challenge the timeline puts on developers and builders.

“We very, very much appreciate their patience and understand it’s been frustrating along with the other delays they’ve had to face this year,” Eckhoff said.

“We understand this has been an unusual year, and it’s taken longer than we like it to take as well, and we’re really looking forward to getting staff on board. There’s some training time, but we really hope that will speed things up and make it more efficient.”