By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster’s number of new homes through the first five months of 2017 is lagging slightly behind the same time period from last year, while the city’s number of new commercial buildings is double 2016’s numbers, according to data recently released by the Alabaster Fire Department’s Planning and Safety Division.

According to the division, which issues building permits and provides reports to the Alabaster City Council each month, the city issued six new home building permits in May, bringing the year-to-date total of new home permits to 32 for projects valued at a total of about $8 million.

This year’s numbers are down slightly from the first five months of 2016, as the city had issued 47 new home building permits for projects valued at about $11.4 million last year.

However, Alabaster’s number of residential addition or remodel permits is up significantly over last year.

Through May, the city had issued 118 residential addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of about $1.9 million. By comparison, the city had issued 81 such permits for about $1.5 million during the same time period last year.

In the commercial sector, the city has issued double the number of new building permits as it did during the first five months of last year.

Through May, Alabaster had issued eight new commercial building permits for projects valued at about $4 million, compared to four new commercial building permits for projects valued at about $4.3 million through the first five months of 2016.

Alabaster’s number of commercial addition or remodel permits have skyrocketed since last year, according to the report.

At the end of May, the city had issued 118 commercial addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of about $1.4 million, compared to 25 such permits last year for projects valued at a total of $671,583.

The number of commercial addition or remodel permits issued so far this year is significantly higher than the year-end numbers for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.