By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster’s home-building market is seeing the effects of the city’s yearlong moratorium on new housing development along the Alabama 119 corridor, as the number of new homes built in the city so far this year is down significantly from last year.

In August 2018, the Alabaster City Council voted to enact the yearlong moratorium in an effort to address traffic congestion along the Alabama 119 corridor.

The moratorium only includes new residential development along the corridor. Residential developments approved by the city and with preliminary neighborhood plats submitted before the moratorium was enacted, such as the under-construction Mallard Landing neighborhood off Smokey Road, were allowed to move forward.

The moratorium applies to most of the southern end of Alabaster: South of Fulton Springs Road and Kent Dairy Road, west of Interstate 65 and east of Shelby County 17.

The moratorium seems to be having an effect on new housing developments in the city, as the Alabaster Fire Department’s Building and Fire Prevention Services Department issued no new home building permits in March, and had only issued four new home building permits for projects totaling about $1.6 million through the first three months of this year.

During the same time period last year, the city had issued 12 new home building permits for projects valued at a total of about $3.7 million.

Residential addition and remodel permits are up in value over last year. Through the end of March, the city had issued 22 residential addition or remodel permits for projects valued at a total of $647,404, compared to 43 such permits last year for projects valued at a total of $594,921.

New commercial building is also down this year compared with last year. Alabaster has only issued one permit for a new commercial building valued at $59,540 this year, compared to two such permits last year valued at a total of about $1.6 million.

Commercial additions and remodels are about on-par with last year, as the city had issued 26 permits for projects valued at a total of about $995,184 through the end of this March. Last year, the city had issued 11 such permits for projects valued at total of about $1.2 million.