From village to town

October 25, 2015 By in Days Out, Uncategorized Tags: Leave a comment
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Friesenheim

Vicki and I recently enjoyed the hospitality of friends in Friesenheim, a village of 7,000 people set in the wine hills of southwest Germany near the French border.

Rathaus historyOur hosts Alexander and Ingeborg live in the house that Ingeborg’s father built, where I first visited them in 1975. Friesenheim’s central area has hardly changed since those days, and the village council apparently sees this as a problem. The council has approved a controversial   development plan for the main street — to make it more like Kitsilano, let’s say, or Burnaby Heights — with a four-story mixed-use complex, apartments upstairs, commercial space at grade, across from the 400-year-old municipal hall. Continue reading →

2015 property taxes — further to

September 13, 2015 By in Housing, Real Estate and Property Taxes, Urban Life and Local Government Tags: , Leave a comment
Walnut Grove, Langley Township

Walnut Grove, Langley Township

Last week’s post on 2015 British Columbia property taxes was shared with the “Maple Ridge Council Watch” Facebook group, and there were comments on that site about  gaps in my presentation.

I’ll point out again that there’s no magic lens to provide clarity on the property tax situation. The system is complicated, and the question of whether you or I are receiving value or fair treatment will always be open to debate. Continue reading →

Property taxes 2015 – in search of the obvious

September 8, 2015 By in Housing, Real Estate and Property Taxes, Urban Life and Local Government Leave a comment
Ladner, Municipality of Delta

Ladner, Municipality of Delta

Every spring, homeowners across British Columbia receive a statement from their local government demanding payment for local and regional services, including elementary and secondary education.

The individual statements are complex enough. But with 30 cities and towns in the Fraseropolis area alone, all facing different economic circumstances and delivering services in  different ways, and a wide range of property values within each jurisdiction, it’s close to impossible for the lone taxpayer to evaluate their own position in terms of fairness and value. Continue reading →

Return to Central Lonsdale

August 29, 2015 By in Days Out, North Shore, Urban Villages Project Tags: , Leave a comment

Lonsdale Ave 1

Since we toured the Central Lonsdale village in January 2013, the area has taken on much more of a big-city feel.

Lonsdale Ave 2Controversy over tower development around Lonsdale village divided the residents of the City of North Vancouver in the November 2014 municipal election. The incumbent pro-development mayor, Darrell Mussato, was returned with just 52.5 per cent of the vote, but landed a full slate of council supporters. In my view, this part of Lonsdale Avenue is turning into one of the finest urban high streets in Western Canada, and the pedestrian traffic on the pavements tends to prove that — with the qualifier that the competition, looking out to Surrey, Calgary and Regina, is sparse. Continue reading →