Warm weather has arrived and members of Grey Highlands council are hoping that building statistics in their municipality will start heating up.

Grey Highlands Chief Building Official Rick Cole reported at council's regular meeting Monday morning that building statistics in Grey Highlands are off when compared to the early part of 2007.

In 2008 through the end of March, Grey Highlands issued 57 permits, at an estimated construction value of $3,411,500 and collected $30,883 in building fees. Seven of the projects are for new single-family dwellings.

During that same period in 2007, the municipality issued 62 permits - 12 of them for new single-family dwellings.

"The downturn in the economy seems to be hitting Grey Highlands like everywhere else in North America," Cole told council.

The CBO said the municipality was still receiving plenty of walk-through traffic in the office.

"A lot of this is weather dependent. It is starting to pick up now," said Cole, of the warmer weather that arrived the past couple weeks.

Cole said a frequent comment he hears from potential developers concerns the lack of good building lots in Grey Highlands. Councillor Stewart Halliday wanted to know if the municipality currently has enough building lots to meet the need of developers.

"There's not a lot of buildable lots out there," said Cole.

Mayor Brian Mullin said planning growth strategies say Grey Highlands has enough vacant lots to meet demand - he said the issue with getting them developed is one of the fundamental factors in real estate - location.

"There are a large number of lots, but you have to quantify that by how many are in desirable areas," said Mullin, noting that in a fully serviced area like Markdale there are few lots available.

The good news in the building report showed that building activity in March increased significantly in 2008 over 2007. Grey Highlands issued 25 permits this year, compared to just 13 last year.