The City of Kamloops has bolstered its permiting staff for 2019.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says the city hired a new plan-checker in the fall and says another staff member came back from maternity leave two days ago.

He says that should help prevent a backlog of building permit applications waiting to be approved.

“So that should help a lot. I know it was a tough year for my team, people put in a lot of extra time and a lot of effort to keep up with the demand.”

In 2018 the city approved more than $285 million worth of new construction, and Dixon acknowledged his team at times was swamped with permits.

“The development community and the builders had to be patient with us, and we appreciate their patience,” he says. “Because we definitely had some periods this year where it was hard for us to keep up and processing times were longer than we’d like. And I think we’re in a better place to manage that this year.”

Of last year’s record construction value, Dixon adds there was a trend to more dense housing development, with total building permits worth more than $85 million for apartment-style housing specifically.