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7 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Residential The City has experienced steady growth in the 1980's with accelerated growth in real numbers of the new households over the last two years. Table 5 illustrates the number of building permits issued over the past 11 years. As shown, urban service areas have only been available since 1985, with all prior development activity in non-sewered areas. Public sewer and water systems were first constructed in 1985, with an initial 22 homes constructed in the sewered areas. The number of homes built in the urban area nearly doubled in 1986 and doubled in 1987. In 1988, the total number of permits issued was approximately the same as in 1987, indicating a leveling off of housing activity paralleling regional trends. In 1989, 121 new residential permits were issued again paralleling regional and national trends of decreased new housing starts. The number of permits issued for urban area development was essentially the same in 1988 as in 1987. Of the 121 new home starts in 1989, 30 were developed in the urban area. Discussions with contractors and developers in the City brought forth the concern that the flattening of growth in the urban area was due primarily to the limited supply of quality lots remaining in the urban service area. The permits issued for sewered and non-sewered areas indicated that approximately 55 percent of the lots developed in 1987 and 1988 are in the non-sewered area and 45 percent are in the urban area. In 1989, only 25 percent of new housing starts were in the urban area with the remainder occurring in the non-sewered "rural" area. This trend continued into 1990, with 119 residential building permits being issued, of which only 28 (24%) were for urban lots. In 1991, 26 permits of the 149 (17%) issued were for the urban area. In 1992, 104 of the 281 permits issued (37%) were for the urban area. This increase in the number of urban building permits is related to the number of new urban lots created (202 lots) during 1993. In 1993, this trend continued with over 70% of the building permits issued being for urban lots and the City issuing more building permits than any other year. Table 5 supports the assumption that a reduced number of building permits is directly related to the number of urban lots available. The chart shows that the number of permits for the urban area shadows the number of lots available. This is shown by the fact that in 1986 and 1987, the City had a large number of urban lots available; as the number of available lots decreased, so did the number of permits issued. This is emphasized by the following comparison: in 1986 with 145 permits, 43 (or 30%) of the permits were for the urban area as compared to 1991 with 149 permits and 26 (or only 17%) for the urban area. The City desires a greater emphasis on development within the sewered urban area. This can be facilitated by the expansion of the MUSA which will allow for the continued growth of the City at a controlled pace; unlike previous years in which the City's growth fluctuated depending on the availability of urban lots. The number and availability of the urban lots would be controlled by the City limiting the expansion of the sewered area by both the economical feasibility of the construction and the number of building permits to be issued. As shown in Table 3, the City currently has 35 acres of land zoned residential remaining undeveloped in the MUSA. This number is somewhat misleading as this property is the second stage of the Rivenwick development which has already received City approval. The City currently estimates that builders will require a total of 252 urban lots during 1994, and that the estimated number in the urban area represents 80 percent of the total estimated absorption of lots in 1994.