Nearly 100 building permits were pulled in the City of Kalona in 2024. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says with the number of permits pulled, Kalona held steady with a little bit of growth from previous years, “We’ve had a really busy 2024. We will most likely end the year right at about 99 building permits and that’s a mix of new home construction, remodel, pulling electrical permits to commercial construction. We had 22 new home starts in 2024. And we had a total, a little over $13 million in total building permits pulled for the year in those 99.”

He explained that by annexing land, the City’s footprint grew by about 25 percent with roughly 600 acres added. And the City is working on developing a comprehensive plan on what projects need to be on the docket in the future, including things like road improvements, sidewalks, trails, parks, development, and more.