I find the following story, about a neighbourhood’s four-year battle to force the BC Assessment authority to reduce their property values, fascinating.  To want to have your property assessment reduced, to save a small amount of money each year on your property tax in exchange for communicating to the world that the home you own has been significantly devalued, sounds like an expression of extreme desperation.  I suppose if you’re certain that your neighbourhood has become such a lesser place to live compared to before and you’re sure you’d get less for selling your home, then there’s a certain logic in also paying less for property taxes.  It might also serve as a wake-up call to politicians and bylaw enforcement, who admit to having been aware of the problem for years and unable to resolve the issue to everyone’s (or anyone’s?) satisfaction.

   On that latter point, if the area is zoned residential and there’s commercial activity afoot, I must admit to confusion about why this would be hard for City Hall to resolve on behalf of the local residents.

- Steven Hurdle – Read the rest of this entry »

   It has been alleged that the anticipated costs of the interchange have dropped from three years ago.  Come again?  How is that possible when construction costs have done nothing but go up for the last many years?  You’d be lucky to come up with the same estimate now, and a lesser estimate is beyond all probability.  Here is the relevant quote (the entire article available in the previous post):

“The total interchange price tag has been refined down to about $19.5 million, plus $5 million granted by the province and about $2.5 million from development cost charges.  Langford is still shopping around for the best deal to borrow its share, Young said. They are also looking at federal government funding, he added.  Interchange project manager Tim Stevens said borrowing $25 million was based on the worst case scenario established three years ago.”

   This doesn’t ring true to me.  This is especially true given that the McKenzie/Pat Bay Interchange cost Read the rest of this entry »