News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville issued 106 building permits in October, one short of the all-time monthly record set last January.
Community Development Director Jon Ward said the spike serves as a testament to how confident developers are in the city’s economy. Ward said he has not seen any indicators that the city’s overall growth is going to slow down.
“I think they’re just seeing a lot of success, right?” Ward said. “I mean I think that the developments that have been approved have been successful and I think they’re continuing to, hope to see continued success. And that’s why that we continue to see interest and investment in our community here.”
A large portion of the surge was for single and multi-family homes, with 63 permits issued for housing. Ward said there has been a lot of townhouse development in the city but single-family developments are becoming more common.
“I think it’s important for a city to support housing types of all sizes,” Ward said. “You have to have high density, you have to have apartments, you have to have single-family product, you have to have lower density product. There’s demand for all these types of products.”
Ward said the growth rate may feel extreme to locals but the city is working hard to manage its infrastructure. Ward said a busier city also means more tax revenue and support for local businesses.
“We’ll continue to look at those things,” Ward said. “And where we feel like the infrastructure is not sufficient I don’t see the planning commission or our development boards recommending to approve these types of projects.”
Ward said he does not expect November to be another record-high month but his department is still seeing a healthy stream of projects.
“People talk about interest rates (having) been a factor,” Ward said. “We definitely haven’t seen that having negative impacts and, if so, I would hate to see what our permit numbers would look like if we didn’t have those negative impacts.”
