Quote:
Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn
Can the province tho? If they can expropriate homes to build a parking lot for a museum, they should be able to expropriate vacant properties or vacant land. They really ought to do something about all the vacant land in Saint John that goes undertaxed and underdeveloped, regardless of which family or group of companies own a lot of this vacant land. One look at the SNB property assessment site in SJ shows how much vacant and underdeveloped land that exists within the city proper of Saint John.
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That's psychotic and dangerous. They can't expropriate just because they want to. They need a valid civic reason to do so- road construction, public works like schools and museums, and so on. They try to avoid expropriation at all costs, preferring to negotiate a purchase above FMV. The only contentious one around here lately was one of the half-dozen homes on St James being demolished for the new school. All the other St James and Douglas owners seem to have accepted their lot and taken the deal offered.
Saying 'hey you know that land you own, that we considered for years to be worthless? We actually are going to take it from you and sell it to someone else to build on, or perhaps create a homeless camp," is not functional or civilized.
The goal is to get lot owners to develop or sell to developers, not for the city to steal stuff and dole it out. Fix assessments and rates on vacant land and make it more expensive to hold onto. I've been saying this for years. I own vacant land I am in no hurry to build on, because it costs next to nothing to own. If the government starts confiscating land because they can't be arsed to fix taxation, you'll never see developers invest here.