All in all, 2012 turned out to be a pretty good year for building permits in the city of Bonney Lake and 2013 is already looking promising as cost reductions for builders begin to take effect.

Led by a 41 percent increase over the previous year in single-family residential permits the city brought in a 46 percent increase in building permit revenue, with indications that 2013 should continue a positive trend for the city.

Community Development Director John Vodopich said while the numbers are no where near the city’s heyday in the middle part of the last decade, the 2012 numbers were comparable to 2010.

In total, the city issued 233 building permits in 2011, including 104 single family residential permits, bringing in approximately $700,000 in permit revenue, above the projected budget numbers of $681,000.

Vodopich said the city had one major project in 2012 – the Franciscan Medical Building – but began to see an uptick in residential permits several months ago as national builders and developers began buying up pre-approved plats, such as the 54-lot GMG plat on West Tapps Highway, the 20-lot Orchard Grove II plat on 184th Avenue East and the 17-lot Church Lake Road East plat.

Vodopich also said there were few permits in November as developers waited for reductions in traffic and water fees to kick in, but business again picked up in Decemebr as developers took advantage of the savings.

The City Council in October passed a series of resolutions dropping temporarily the water fees by 30 percent and offering a program to drop traffic impact fees by 25 percent on certain projects.

The reductions are also spurring building in the early part of this year as well. According to Vodopich, the city has a pre-approval conference with a developer looking to build an 88-unit apartment complex near the library and recently, the city was contacted about a multi-family residential/commercial project on the former “Compass Pointe” property in Eastown.

According to Vodopich, the fee reductions, as well as the council’s readiness to approve a utility latecomers agreement that will begin putting sewer pipes in Eastown, were key in gaining interest in that parcel.

“It’s only been a month since the 30 percent reduction, but we’re hearing people cite it as reasons,” he said.