The Dell Rapids City Council heard the final 2019 totals for building permits and an updated sales tax numbers during their regular meeting on Monday, January 6th.

The city reported lower building permit valuations in 2019 as compared to 2018.  Dell Rapids had 12 new homes built and one new four-plex in 2019.  This number is down slightly when the city saw 17 new homes built in 2018.  Dell Rapids also did not have any large scale commercial projects in 2019.  Despite the lower number of homes, building permit valuations were just over $4 million.

The council also heard that sales tax numbers continued to remain strong for 2019.  Numbers are in through November, and the city has seen an increase of 5.1% over the same period in 2018.  With the closing of both Shopko and Family Dollar in 2019, expectations were that sales tax revenue would be down slightly from 2018.  Not only have numbers exceeded 2018, but signs point to 2019 surpassing the 2017 record numbers after the December numbers are finalized.

The city of Dell Rapids is on pace to see an increase in sales tax revenue in 2017 over the previous year.  This report was given to the Dell Rapids City Council during their regular meeting on Tuesday, January 2nd by City Administrator Justin Weiland.

Sales tax revenue is currently at $1,128,559.85 through the month of November.  During the same reporting period in 2016, the city collected $1,060,266.89.

“Sales tax is through November, and we’re tracking at 6.4% above previous November.  So we anticipate we will exceed 2016 sales tax totals once again as we have consecutively over the last several years.  So that’s definitely positive,” said Weiland.

The December numbers are not quite finalized, but Weiland said as soon as those numbers become available, the final 2017 sales tax revenue report would be shared with the council.

Even though sales tax revenues for 2017 are trending in a positive direction from 2016, building permit revenue in 2017 was down for the city of Dell Rapids.  The city collected $13,261.50 in building permit fees in 2017 which resulted in $3,681,153.46 worth of building improvements in the city.  In 2016 the city saw $11,816,021.31 worth of improvements and in 2015 the city saw $11,023,410 worth of building improvements.

“These building permit totals were down pretty extensively from the previous year.  I think you can attribute that to the lack of any large scale, commercial or industrial, construction like we have had in the recent years going back to the grocery store, Shopko, or last year was the Midwest Fresh building and the Broin building.  Those kind of combined really elevate your numbers.  We didn’t have one of those in ’17, so I think that’s why you see that number significantly lower than previous years,” Weiland noted.

Not only did the city not have a large scale commercial or industrial construction project in 2017, the total number of new homes built in 2017 was also down compared to 2016. A total number of 10 new homes were built in 2017 which was down from 12 new homes in 2016.

Weiland also said, “The housing starts were a little bit lower than the average has been over the last 10 years or so.  This is something we need to keep an eye on.  I think we’ve all kind of predicted that we might reach a point when housing starts might be a little bit lower from year to year. The housing lot availability is going to continue to dwindle as they get sold.  I really think that’s something that we need to watch and be progressively thinking about the next step for housing.  You don’t want to be limited because your options aren’t there.”