{"id":1317795,"date":"2020-01-20T18:30:25","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T01:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=992812"},"modified":"2020-01-20T18:30:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T01:30:25","slug":"good-economy-but-less-development-on-county-property-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/good-economy-but-less-development-on-county-property-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Good economy, but less development on county property last year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Post<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Garfield County\u2019s economy kept improving through 2018, but that didn\u2019t translate into a lot of housing or commercial products in unincorporated areas last year.<\/p>\n

The number of residential and commercial permit applications dropped considerably from 2018 to 2019, according to county planning staff.<\/p>\n

The county received 92 planning applications for new developments in 2019 \u2013 30 fewer than the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if this is a downward trend, or if this is more settling out, but that\u2019s what we saw in 2019,\u201d planner Sheryl Bower told the county commissioners<\/a> Monday.<\/p>\n

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Graphic: Garfield County Community Development<\/strong>
Screen-Shot-2020-01-20-at-6.13.11-PM<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Bower told the Post Independent that may be a number of factors leading to the decline in developments, and what happens in 2020 would help understand why it dropped.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s fairly apparent that the economy is doing well, and even improving in the county.<\/p>\n

 \u201cThe economy in Garfield County continues to improve, in all sectors except the mining industry,\u201d which includes oil and gas developments, county finance director Theresa Wagenman told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one that pays the bills,\u201d commissioner Mike Samson of Rifle quipped.<\/p>\n

The county receives less than half of a 1% countywide sales tax, 52% of which is distributed to the municipalities.<\/p>\n

The revenue from the 1% tax in Glenwood Springs was the highest, followed by unincorporated Garfield County and Rifle.<\/p>\n

Most of Garfield County\u2019s budget comes from property taxes, but Wagenman projects sales tax will bring in $12 million in 2020<\/a>, a 2% increase from this year.<\/p>\n

The improved economy is also raising the average wage.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonal income is trending upwards, and Garfield County is now above the state average for personal income per capita,\u201d county planner Patrick Waller said.<\/p>\n

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Graphic: Garfield County Community Development<\/strong>
Screen-Shot-2020-01-20-at-6.12.52-PM<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The number of jobs is also increasing, and unemployment falling in the county, but the approximately 35,000 jobs estimated in 2018 is still 2,000 jobs short of the 2008 pre-recession figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sort of in an upward trajectory, but of note, we still haven\u2019t evened out with 2008,\u201d Waller said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garfield County\u2019s economy kept improving through 2018, but that didn\u2019t translate into a lot of housing or commercial products in unincorporated areas last year. The number of residential and commercial permit applications dropped considerably from 2018 to 2019, according to county planning staff. The county received 92 planning applications for new developments in 2019 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 04:34:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}