---

New construction activity in Chisago County in 2025  came to well over 2,000 permits issued from the county alone, with another several hundred from North Branch and Wyoming— which provide their own municipal building permitting and inspection services.

These thousands of permits last year were for everything from changing out old windows for new, replacing bathroom tubs and showers and of course, roofing services.  Permits not meant to create new housing stock also includes burning abandoned structures, putting up shelters for farm animals to introduce solar panels and inground pools.

For the purposes of this week’s summary the Press only tallied up the new residential construction permits and there were a handful of ADUs included, which are accessory dwelling units on parcels where a single family home already exists.  

The newly- activated county permitting system on-line is hundreds of pages long if you want to do some research for yourself.

No surprise, the area that is leading with new housing permit numbers is North Branch.  

Community Development Director Nate Sondrol,  reports 99 new housing permits.  Almost $17 million in new valuation is estimated coming into North Branch. 

The city of Wyoming is next by quite a large gap. Fred Weck city building official, reports 34 single family homes were permitted last year.  Added valuation is in the $10 million ballpark.

If you are not looking to build in Wyoming or North Branch you will need to apply at Chisago county.  For the county-issued permit numbers we broke out areas and their activity:

Chisago Lake Township is attracting home builders. The township (south and north) was the stated location for 24 homesites.

Nessel Township is next in number, at 19 residential permits.

Sunrise Township and Rush City tied coming in at 12.  

Harris and Fish Lake Township tied at 11 residential new buildings each.

Lindstrom and Stacy (including former Lent Township) had 10 permits, Franconia Township recorded nine and Chisago City came in with eight permits.

Taylors Falls had six permits for new housing, with

 Shafer Township at five Amador/Almelund had four.

 Center City racked up two residential new builds.

County Environmental Services Director Kurt Schneider commented that the permit numbers are not what he would call “high” but,  “they are also not markedly lower” either when compared to recent activity.

Volume has been noticeable in remodel permits and permits for additions or alterations.  This activity seems to have picked up, he observed.

.

---