REDMOND, OR -- Redmond saw a big jump in residential building permits, in the past few months. Mayor George Endicott credits the boom with the recent approval of several master plan developments. While construction is underway on single family homes and several apartment buildings, Endicott says the city is also getting its first cottage development, "A senior community where the land is commonly owned by the cottage is owned by the people – to help with maintenance, and that. So, we not only have a lot being built, but we have a great variety being built, which is what we’ve all been needing."

Mayor Endicott is hopeful it will continue in to 2019, if things remain modest. He tells KBND News, "If you go back to say the early 2000s, when Alan Unger was Mayor, we had 11% growth; then, suddenly, we went to zero." He says things all but stopped between 2011 and 2013, "Through that stretch, there’s one year we had no building permits; there’s one year we had one and another year we had two. So, now you look at hundreds. I would much rather see it balanced and more steady over time." Now, he estimates the growth rate is 4-6%, "Which is probably a lot healthier number than that huge, big shoot up and catastrophic drop. So, I’m hoping we don’t see that this time."