Thornhill homeowners get property tax break

By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News - May 16, 2008

While land values keep rising, Thornhill homeowners keep groaning under steadily rising property taxes.

Relief, though, is on the way, thanks to Betty von Hardenberg, who took on BC Assessment this spring and won.

While appealing the value of a Thornhill property on behalf of an elderly couple, she learned that residents can have their properties revalued, and possibly their taxes trimmed, through a section of the Assessment Act.

BC Assessment lawyers conferred and agreed. And to make sure everyone knew it, the agency hand-delivered letters in April explaining it all to residents in 65 Thornhill homes.

“I want people to know that this is available to them,” von Hardenberg said Wednesday.

Many people didn’t even know about the option and weren’t told about it when they inquired by phone, she added.

The relief is going to make a difference to Stuart Pledge and Beryl Eales, members of Friends of Jackson Farm.

After applying under Section 19 of the Assessment Act, both have had their 2008 property values reduced by about 30 per cent.

For Pledge, it should mean an equivalent reduction in the $6,000 to $7,000 tax bill he’d otherwise face this year. On a monthly basis, that’s about $600. In 2005, his property tax bill was about $3,700. Five years ago, he was paying just more than $2,000.

Von Hardenberg said the higher taxes could be enough to force long-time residents out of their homes. The couple she helped was thinking of moving for that reason, she added.

Pledge and his family have lived at their Thornhill home, at 100th Avenue and 262nd Street, for 30 years.

They enjoy the rural lifestyle, even though it means no sidewalks, no sewer and relying on well water.

“We don’t want to move, we like it here,” Pledge said.

As a result of the appeal, the value of Eales’ family property on 262nd Street will drop from $981,000 to $658,000.

She’s not swayed by the fact that she could get double or triple the price she paid if she and her family sold her property. One realtor suggested that step to her, adding she could buy a small lot in a subdivision right next to Thornhill.

That’s not going to happen, she said.

“This is our home. We want to stay here forever, so Section 18 (19) really helps us.”

Eales, who’s lived on Thornhill since 1973, blames the speculation on the district’s continued classification of the area as an urban reserve – reserved for future urban development.

The official community plan says subdivision won’t happen there, though, until densification of Maple Ridge’s current built-up area has happened and the population reaches 100,000.

That hasn’t deterred buying and selling and absentee landlords sitting on property waiting for it to go up – which it has.

“The label of urban reserve really causes a lot of suffering for us to pay our taxes because this is our home,” Eales said.

A lot next to her’s has been flipped three times the last few years. The area is losing its families and children. A young couple can’t buy a fixer-upper home because prices are too high as landowners wait.

Eales also noted the district hasn’t yet started its study of Thornhill ground water, which supplies the wells people use for drinking water.

“There’s no reason for speculation not to happen,” von Hardenberg said.

Under Section 19 (8) of the Assessment Act, people can apply for assessment relief if they’ve lived in their homes for 10 years and they’re on parcels less than five acres.

“What we’re looking at is property where the value has been influenced by future development potential,” said John Green, acting deputy assessor for the Fraser Valley office of BC Assessment.

Homeowners, though, have to apply for the relief each year, and until development on their property actually takes place, they should qualify each year.

He said other cities have the same issues, but didn’t know how many properties this year have been revalued under the section.

Coun. Judy Dueck favours keeping the Thornhill urban reserve designation because it provides certainty for the future and shows where growth will take place, just like planning transportation corridors. She foresees a mix of housing there, once an area plan is done.

Property values have jumped everywhere in the Lower Mainland, she added.

“It’s just part of the economy. We don’t control realtors … they know what the OCP says. There’s a number of triggers in place for that to happen.”

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Thornhill homeowners get property tax break

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