Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark
Too bad they are creating another empty lot just as they are finally building on all of those empty lots that had been there for decades.
Maybe the Spring Garden area has a minimum 'empty lot' requirement?
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This is a drawback of a tax system based on assessments (and slanted toward commercial tax rather than residential). If there were land taxes instead that did not tax improvements there would be less incentive to tear buildings down, and "land banking" would be less viable. Developers for the most part are just reacting to the (usually bad) financial incentives we create for them and maximizing profits.
Higher land taxes would also fix the runaway property values in several Canadian cities. They could be revenue neutral if we, say, got rid of the sales taxes in exchange. Unfortunately, different levels of government are tied to different types of taxes so setting optimal tax regimes is harder than it should be.