In late 2021 it was announced that Toyota would be building its first vehicle battery manufacturing facility at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite.

It was a game-changing economic development announcement that will radically change the growth trends in the area.

However, game changing as that announcement was, it isn’t reflected in the “Growth and Development Trends” report released this week by the Greensboro Planning Department.  The Growth Trends report is about the past, not the future, and there is data in the report that indicates Greensboro before the megasite announcement was headed in the right direction and data indicating areas that need work.

The City Council frequently discusses the housing shortage in Greensboro.  According to the report, from 2010 to 2020 the population of Greensboro grew by 10.9 percent but the increase in housing units only grew by 6.4 percent.  In 2020, about 10 percent of the housing units in Greensboro were vacant and that number fell to 7.4 percent in 2020.

However, the report also indicates that Greensboro is moving in the right direction regarding housing.  In 2021 Greensboro had the more annexations approved than any year in the past 10 years.  There was also an increase in the number of building permits issued from 2020 to 2021 and the percentage of residential building permits issued also increased.  The average percentage of residential permits issued from 2010 to 2020 was 66 percent with 34 percent commercial building permits.  In 2021, 76 percent of the building permits issued were residential with 24 percent commercial.

Also in 2021 the value of construction permits issued was the highest ever at $817 million.  It far surpassed the value of construction permits in 2020, which was $567 million, and is higher than the highest year of the past decade, which was in 2016 with construction permits issued for $796 million in construction.

The lowest year of the past decade was 2012 when permits were issued for construction valued at $296 million.