Surrey: Update your building, we pay the tax.

[nickinacan]

Was just browsing through the City of Surrey website for any updates on the City Centre plan, and came across this:

http://www.surrey.ca/NR/rdonlyres/671B8C8E-267D-42D2-9F93-CAE8A5E5800B/0/FinalReviteTaxExemptBrochure.pdf

So what Surrey is trying to do is offer a carrot to all the run down buildings to upgrade their appearance. So basically:

Building in the city centre + $25,000 and up in improvements = Increase in property taxes is waived by the city.

[sacrifice333]

That sounds like a great carrot.

[cc85]

this has been in place for a while with a relationship with the dt business association, for over a year not one business took advantage of it.

[GMasterAres]

What cc85 said. I believe they started it back in 2003 so it's about 5 years old. Obviously the brochure has been updated to reflect some of the defined changes aka the downtown image, the new city logo, but the insentive I believe is similar if not the same.

Unfortunately I think the bulk of businesses that are ugly and falling apart from an appearance standpoint, don't really give two craps to improving the way they look. There's a reason their businesses look bad in the first place.

It's like asking a Polar Bear to stop eating Seals.