By LEE HINNANT

There are days when if you didn’t know all those people were in front of you to get some sort of permit, you’d think the office was giving something away.

That’s how busy it can get sometimes at the Building Inspections and Environmental Health offices for Columbus County. Two full-time inspectors have to handle building, electrical, plumbing and air conditioning inspections for a place than spans 950 square miles.

The health inspectors have to approve new septic tanks, in addition to regular inspections of restaurants, schools, nursing homes and other facilities.

Right now, the action is steady but scattered. The trend, however, indicates that the busy staff at Building Inspections is going to get busier.

Mobile home permits have long outnumbered single-family home permits but that number is starting to change. In 2000, mobile permits outpaced single-family permits 645 to 77; in 2001, they were ahead 440 to 74.

Mobile permits led 491 to 59 in 2002; the count for 2003 was 354 to 58. By 2004, the lead for mobile permits was 305 to 49.

The year 2005 saw a significant shift. That year, mobile permits held fairly steady at 300, but single-family permits increased to 181 – roughly three times more than their historical average.

To date in July, single-family home permits are continuing their upward trend. So far, the county has issued 204 single-family permits and 169 mobile home permits.

These numbers include only the rural parts of Columbus County and the municipal areas that do not have their own inspectors, such as Lake Waccamaw and Boardman.

If this trend continues, permits for single-family houses will overtake mobile home permits as soon as this year or next. For county government, that’s encouraging, because tax revenues from new, site-built homes tend to be higher and more significantly; properly maintained site-built homes tend to increase in value. Even the best mobile homes depreciate eventually.

The handful of subdivisions that have been built in the county in recent memory tend to be of high quality. Think of the homes near Land O’ Lakes Golf Course and the gated community at Marl Point. White’s Crossing has nice areas. And with its underground utilities and roads built to state standards, Inman Lakes and Timber Cove are examples of thoughtful development.

As the county looks to impose minimum standards for new subdivisions, the trickle of outside development pressure is beginning to grow.

Some people are sick of the traffic jams and ridiculous real estate prices at the beaches and Wilmington. Others are retiring to hobby farms or along our rivers and lakes.

Construction of the new state prison near Tabor City is part of the mix. At least one developer is working on a subdivision in that market that would feature “affordable” site-built homes.

An out-of-state developer is in the early phases of planning a subdivision in that market that would have more than 200 homes. Also, Nextel and Verizon have plans to each add seven new cell antennae in rural areas.

Columbus County may remain a rural place for a long time to come, but it’s my bet it won’t remain “undiscovered” for much longer.