ShawneeDispatch.com

The Kansas City metropolitan area saw healthy single-family building permit numbers for January, up 4 percent over the same month last year, from 694 to 725.

According to the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo., led the metro area in single-family construction in January with 147 units. Lee's Summit ranked second with 76 units followed by Overland Park with 59 and Independence with 47. Rounding out the top 10 are Raymore, 38 permits, Lenexa and Grain Valley with 37, Kansas City, Kan./Wyandotte County, 32; and Olathe and unincorporated Platte County with 29.

Shawnee saw a 54 percent decrease in January building permits issued, from 39 to 18. City manager Carol Gonzales said that didn't worry her.

"The bulk of our development came earlier" than other cities in the Kansas City metro area, she said.

"Some of it just has to do with availability of land and a new market. We've had the rooftops come and our focus is now on businesses to support those rooftops," she said.

Gonzales said the city has seen "amazing growth" in single-family residences but that multi-family residential buildings such as town homes and condos would continue to grow, and that a number of such developments were under way in Shawnee.

Nearby Bonner Springs was up from zero to four permits.

"It's because we've had great construction weather," Bonner Springs City Manager John Helin said.

Helin predicted that single-family residential building permits would continue to make up most new construction in town.

Edwardsville's numbers shrank from seven to two, but Mayor Stephanie Eickhoff said she was still optimistic about development in Edwardsville.

"People are moving here form the entire metro area," she said. "They like what they see; they like the free trash service and they like the small community."

Farther up Kansas Highway 7, Basehor saw one fewer permit issued this January, with a total of five. Basehor Chamber of Commerce board member Debbie Breuer said the numbers don't worry her.

"They're going to stay pretty constant from last year if not more," she said. "A lot of builders are trying to go forward with lots of stuff in construction. I know there's a lot of land already plotted and a lot of new ones coming."