Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer
The tax assessment rules are set provincially by SAMA. Municipalities are not allowed to make up their own rules. Municipalities can allow exemptions and they can set the general mill rate. Otherwise they are pretty handcuffed as stated by skyhigh.
I agree there should be more flexibility to tax these lots at higher rates, especially brownfields that can sit idle for decades.
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Could the city decide to withhold tax re-appraisals for X years after teardown on commercially zoned properties?
From my experiences with property owners, the decision to transform a building into a parking lot arises from a combination of vacancy and high mill rates. Therefore the tax bill reduces substantially if its turned into surface parking...
If a teardown doesn't get reappraised for X years after being demo'ed it would do two things: (1) incentivize against surface parking and (2) incentive expanded building. Expanded building would be incentivized it would amount to a tax subsidy on infill. Furthermore, this measure would mostly target commercial infill because it would apply only to properties that have been demo'ed.
This has always been my thought. Could the city do this?