Despite a profound decrease in the number of rezoning requests and the number of permits issued this year in Carrollton, city officials contend the department is much too small for any job cuts or any serious reorganization.

Though he had no hard numbers on the degree to which rezoning requests had dropped off in recent months, City Planner Charles Griffin said the number has dwindled by upwards of 75 percent from years past.

Where there was once a consistent seven or eight requests per monthly meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board, now there’s typically only two or three. Last month, for the first time in his three-year tenure with the city, Griffin said there were no requests for the board to consider.

Similarly, the amount of building permits issued has declined sharply over the past three years.

In 2005, there was a total of 363 permits issued. Since that time, the city has only issued 321 permits, with 82 coming thus far in 2008. That translates into fewer inspections that city inspectors are required to perform.

The vast majority of 2008 permits came courtesy of one project, The Orchard, a subdivision of town homes off of Beulah Church Road marketed to college students.

Because the number of permits has remained stable the last three years - roughly around 100 a year - the city has not found itself in a position where departmental reorganization is necessary, Griffin said, even as the national economy forces city budgets even tighter.

“We’re not too far off base, and changes have not been mentioned,” Griffin said.

In terms of rezoning requests, there is no doubt the city has been affected by the housing slump and the subsequent credit crisis.

Requests coming into the city have slowed to a crawl but Mayor Wayne Garner said that new construction is still sprouting up, to the tune of $67 million, although the lion’s share is coming from publicly-funded construction projects on the campus of the University of West Georgia. This includes the Greek Village and the new stadium complex. Another big commercial project has been the Lowe’s home improvement store on U.S. Highway 27.

“That’s one good thing to me about where we are. Even though it appears to be slow we’ve got quite a bit going on,” Garner said. “In this environment, we’ll continue to monitor and watch to see where it goes.”

Though the economy was only recently declared to be in a recession and economists have warned that it could be a severe recession of longer than normal duration, there are some who remain positive.

City Councilman Gerald Byrd is optimistic the economy will improve soon, and as a result, said the city should not resort to any major downsizing of any department.

“I think it’s important we do whatever we can so our employees can keep their jobs. This thing is going to be over soon, and I think we’ve seen the worst of it,” Byrd said. “It’s important to keep who we have to get over this hump.”