Naperville issued 6,287 building permits in 2023, the lowest number in seven years

Naperville issued 6,287 building permits in 2023, the lowest number it has issued in the past seven years. However, city staff assure permitting is on par with expectations.

“We’re probably about where we should be,” said Bill Novack, Naperville’s director of transportation, engineering and development. “We continue to see a lot of interest in Naperville, a lot of interest in redeveloping properties. … It’s great to see that reinvestment in the community.”

Annual permit totals include those issued for housing — from single-family homes to townhouses — but also every other permit issued for new construction, big or small.

Naperville issued 792 less building permits in 2023 than it did in 2022 and 2,071 less than it did in 2021.

Framing last year’s data, Novack said permitting jumped in 2021 after the pandemic and has been steadily, and naturally, declining since.

The biggest year to year change in 2023 stats was in right-of-way (ROW) permits issued, which dropped to 258 from 700 in 2022.

A ROW permit gives someone legal access to work within a city-owned right-of-way or easement. Novack said that type of work is typically for utilities, by wireless network or cable companies, for example.

Last year saw fewer ROW permits because there was less 5G network infrastructure being built out around the city, he said.

Another change was in the number of permits awarded for single-family homes. Naperville issued 114 single-family permits in 2023, versus 203 in 2022.

Asked about the difference, Novack said decrease is due to a prominent builder in town moving at a more “measured pace” with new developments.

Over the past decade or so, developer Pulte Homes has been a driving force for building new single family homes in Naperville, he said. Pulte developments include hundreds of residential units constructed at the Ashwood Pointe, Ashwood Heights, Ashwood Crossing, Atwater and Wagner Farms subdivisions.

Last year, Pulte started work on another Naperville development, but plans have yet to be completed.

The development is a 397-unit project — including 136 townhomes and 261 single-family homes — on a 110-acre subdivision at the northwest corner of 119th Street and Book Road. Pulte promises on its website that the new housing is opening later this spring.

Pulte Homes did not respond to requests for comment.

Another notable gap in city permitting between 2023 and years prior was in the number of “other” permits issued, for the miscellaneous construction that didn’t necessarily warrant its own category. Think demolition, natural landscaping, temporary structure, pavilions, even gazebos.

Naperville issued 1,061 “other” permits in 2023, down 350 from 2022.

Beyond fewer permits overall, 2023 also had a slow start to processing permit requests, according to Novack. Staff turnover in the city’s building department created “some issues” and delays with permit processing through the first half of last year, he said.

With the addition of the new hires, the department caught up. Novack said 2023′s permit totals do not reflection of department delays.

“We made tremendous progress. … By the end of the year, we were all caught up and pretty much on schedule,” he said.

tkenny@chicagotribune.com