The new construction economy in Chelan County in 2024 has been described as "going strong" by the head of the county Community Development Department.
845 overall permits issued last year for single family homes, accessory dwelling units (ADU), adjacent to existing homes and mobile homes.
"We do commercial permits, we do remodels, we do plumbing, mechanical, we do everything, decks, garages," reported Chelan County Community Development Director Deanna Walter. "it includes everything; docks, piers, pools, signs."
Walter says changes in regulations have helped. "Our code used to require that if you had an ADU it had to be your primary residence and you had to live on-site," said Walter. "As long as the ADU was used for year-round residence and not as a short term rental, why did it matter if the owner lived there? So we made a few changes so that you could have a house and an ADU and you could rent both of them out long-term if you wanted."
The county also saw an associated increase in construction permit revenues., with proposed large corporate facilities fueling the increase.
As an example, on Dec. 31, 2024 alone, Community Development brought in $120,000 in permit fees.
"Some of them were STR (short term rental) permits, some of them were building permits that were just being picked up by the end of the year, whatever it was, we were so busy," Walter told the Chelan County Commissioners. "It was the strangest thing."
"We are about $200,000 to $300,000 over (in permit revenue) what we projected last year," Walter shared. "In part because we had the Microsoft buildings which were big ticket building permits. We can not rely on that year-over-year . We'll probably have a couple more big ones this year."
In 2025, county Community Development projects to bring in $3.5 million in revenues.
"If the revenues come in greater than expected, I'm wondering if there's an opportunity with your department, where it could essentially pay for itself or it there's some other opportunities," Chelan County Commissioner Brad Hawkins asked Walter. "I think we probably need to look at expenditure reductions or realizing savings, and then maybe also some revenue opportunities wherever we can."
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