Here is an article about the worth of Citadel Hill. The Feds say that because the lower portion can't be built on it is worthless.
The site should be assesssed in terms of lost revenue for the city. Potentially the site would represent millions and millions of $$$ in assessment if it wasn't there and developed as part of downtown.
Not only does the hill represent a major loss of tax revenue for HRM, the site itself causes reduced assessments for all properties from the hill to the harbour due to the viewplane legislation.
Point being for the feds ....don't complain as you are getting off easy.
Citadel Hill: What’s it really worth? December 12, 2011 - 4:37am By PAUL McLEOD Ottawa Bureau
Legal dispute over historic site’s tax value hits Supreme Court
Federal evaluators say Citadel Hill in Halifax is worth just $10. But provincial assessment authorities value it at $17.5 million. (TED PRITCHARD / Staff) .OTTAWA — The legal battle over whether most of Citadel Hill is worthless hits the Supreme Court of Canada today.
The decade-long dispute between Halifax and the federal government will likely set a precedent about whether national historic sites are valuable pieces of land or worth nothing from a tax perspective.
The federal government gives cash payments to Halifax Regional Municipality in lieu of property taxes for Citadel Hill. Ottawa claims that 18.8 hectares of the 19.4-hectare site have no tax value because nothing can be built there.
The federal government decided that Citadel Hill fortress is worth about $5 million. The grassy incline around the fortress is valued at little more than pocket change: $10.
"(It) has no development potential whatsoever," federal lawyer Reinhold Endres said back in 2010 when the case was before the courts in Halifax.
"You cannot put anything on it, you cannot excavate it, you cannot do a thing with it."
The municipality contends that the entire national historic site should be worth just over $20 million. Municipal lawyers say under their proposal, the city would receive an extra $500,000 in revenue each year.
There is also an outstanding tax bill worth more than $7 million if the municipality wins.
Municipal lawyers argue that even though nothing can be built there, Citadel Hill has intrinsic value as a national historic site.
The land that federal evaluators say is worth just $10 was deemed by provincial assessment authorities to be worth $17.5 million.
Ottawa argues that only Parks Canada offices, kiosks, a conference centre and some historic structures used for storage have taxable value.
Court documents filed by the municipality call this conclusion "startling and unreasonable" and say it "cries out for rectification."
Federally owned national historic sites are not taxed directly. But under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act, the federal government provides grants to municipalities that are supposed to represent what the assessed value would be if the properties were taxable.
The court case now centres on whether the federal government can set its own assessment values when it makes payments in lieu of taxes or if it is compelled to consider outside property valuations.
"If the (federal government’s) discretion is unconstrained with respect to value, the result will bear no resemblance to taxes that would be payable if the property were taxable," reads a municipal filing with the Supreme Court of Canada.
Provincial property assessors calculate the value of all land in Nova Scotia, regardless of whether it is taxable. In 2005, the province assessed Citadel Hill at a value of $38 million. That figure is agreed to be too high because it includes improvements that are exempt under the act.
The Supreme Court hearing marks the last chapter to over a decade of litigation. The municipality first appealed the federal assessment 11 years ago.
In 2007, the case went before a dispute advisory panel, which ruled the land beneath the ineligible improvements had no value. The panel pegged the taxable value of Citadel Hill at just $4.1 million.
The municipality successfully appealed and had the ruling quashed by the courts. Ottawa then appealed that ruling to the Federal Court of Appeal and had the decision reinstated, with the court siding two to one in favour of the federal argument.
Another municipal appeal now has the case going to the top court in the land this morning.
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