By Ashley Legassic

Booming Sun Peaks building sector hits nearly $32 million in 2018

Jan 14, 2019 | 2:15 PM

SUN PEAKS, B.C. — It’s not just the growth in population that can be seen in Sun Peaks.

The resort town just outside of Kamloops has seen immense building growth over the past five years. Mayor Al Raine says the value of building permits issued in the municipality reached nearly $32 million during 2018.

“If you put that into market value that’s probably getting into the $80 million range,” he says. “It’s really happening. We had a very, very busy year last year, and certainly the building inspector had his hands full.”

Raine says 2017 was also a good year — but nowhere close to what last year brought. He estimates 2017 numbers were roughly two-thirds of the 2018 values.

The available numbers for building permits in the town during 2017 show 33 granted permits, valued at $21,571,110. Compare that to 39 permits granted in 2018 valued at $31,860,121.

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Many of these building starts include large projects, like townhomes or staff accommodations. You can see some of the major projects given permits in 2018 below.

Developments like Peaks West are set to open up more housing for locals and employees. That project is a mix of commercial and residential space, with phases one and two of the project already sold out.

A rezoning application also came before council at the beginning of the month, which proposed building an 80-unit tourist accommodation with two buildings.

After the 2016 census was released, Sun Peaks was pegged as one of the fastest-growing municipalities in BC. Although during the busy months Sun Peaks can have a population as large as 2,000, yearly residents fall somewhere around 600 according to the latest numbers.

But it’s not expected to stay that way.

The municipality’s official community plan predicts the year-round population of Sun Peaks to be roughly 1,000 by 2021. Younger families also make up a large part of the population, and people 65 years and older make up a very small portion.