Facts Clarified on Property Taxes and Oceanfront
The District is receiving form letters from residents via an anonymous website that is spreading inaccurate and mis-information. We urge residents to seek the facts and correct information before sharing blindly or signing petitions and sending form letters.
In response to the misleading posts, here are the facts.
- A 6.6% increase on property taxes is false. The impact to the overall tax requirement was 0.4%, which was shared amongst taxpayers. This looks different to each taxpayer depending on their property assessment change.
- The Oceanfront developer pays regular property taxes on their land. A Revitalization Tax Exemption bylaw was adopted in 2015 to stimulate economic interest in the Oceanfront lands, but this only applies to improvements to the land and not the land itself. No tax exemptions have been made to date, and the program ends in 2025. The property owner pays regular property tax on the land in accordance with the Assessment Class identified for each parcel.
More information on each topic is available below.
Property Taxes
The District of Squamish continues to grow due to development of new housing, strata or business units that came online in 2020. This non-market growth offsets the impact to tax payers in the 2021-25 Financial Plan. Once the growth (of 6.1%) is factored in, the the 2021 financial plan results in an overall increase in the property tax revenue requirement of 0.4% from 2020 levels, to be shared among existing taxpayers.
The impact to each taxpayer varies. This depends on how much your property assessment changed in relation to other properties and property classes in your neighbourhood.
Estimated municipal annual property tax impact on an average assessment:
The above information was mailed to taxpayers with their property tax notices in May. View this insert here.
Oceanfront Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw
Council adopted a Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw in 2015 to generate interest, investment, activity and employment opportunities in the Squamish Oceanfront Lands, thus achieving a range of social, economic and environmental objectives for a priority area that had been vacant for many years prior to the District obtaining the land in 2004.
It's worth noting that the real estate climate was very different six years ago from what it is today, and so a revitalization incentive was considered helpful at the time. The District had spent more than a decade working with the community on a vision for the former industrial site, and finding a developer willing to bring the community vision to life.
No tax exemptions have been made to date, and any exemptions will only apply for the remaining years in the 10-year period until the program ends in 2025.
The Revitalization Tax Exemption is only on the improvements on the land, and not on the land itself. The property owner pays regular property tax on the land in accordance with the Assessment Class identified for each parcel.
To learn more visit squamish.ca/squamish-oceanfront-development.
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If residents have questions about property taxes, please call us at 604.815.5035. If residents have questions about the Oceanfront bylaw, please call us at 604-815-5002.
June 23, 2021