Kane County sees increase in new construction

In perhaps a small sign that the economy is beginning to mop up the detritus of the housing bubble, Kane County officials reported an uptick in new home construction Tuesday that’s large enough to get their attention.

The overall numbers are small, but Mark VanKerkhoff said an upswing is better than the dearth of activity the county’s development department has seen in recent years.

“Nationally, new home construction is still down 1.5 percent,” he said. “Our numbers are really bucking the trend. It’s up significantly from the same period last year.”

The county has issued 836 building permits so far this year. That includes 29 permits for new single-family home construction, with seven of those coming in July alone. Those figures compare to 746 building permits at the same point last year. The county only had issued 17 new single-family home permits by the end of July 2010.

July will be the last true apples-to-apples comparison the county will be able to make for building permit activity to 2010. As of Friday, the county will no longer issue building permits or perform inspections for Campton Hills. The village has decided to take over those services.

But in another sign of optimism for future development in the county, officials indicated they will restart the farmland preservation program. The program has been mostly dormant since the economic collapse. The program involves the county purchasing future development rights from farm owners who may sell their land in the future. County staff members indicated some local farms will complete foreclosure in September that will drain most of the remaining farmland preservation dollars the county has. Those dollars are a mix of the county’s cut of riverboat gambling proceeds and federal matching dollars.

County board member Barb Wojnicki said she’s eager to see the program begin again.

“We’re the only county in Illinois that has a farmland protection program,” Wojnicki said. “Because of that, we’re almost guaranteed the federal funds.”

The county staff will form a plan based on using a segment of riverboat proceeds to lure the matching federal grants. The plan would not ultimately move forward if the federal grants are not secured.