Monday’s council meeting saw a presentation by the Arrowtarian Senior Citizens Society who are requesting a tax exemption amounting to $9,532 on their property taxes for their four buildings, Phase I, II, III, and IV.
“We can only exempt the village portion,” said Chief Administration and Financial Officer Laurie Taylor. “We cannot exempt the school district, nor the regional district portion. Even then, we can only exempt up to a certain amount, a maximum of 2.5 per cent of the annual taxes, and this would put us at 2.95 per cent, so I have to recommend the council deny this request.”
The Arrowtarians’ request will be brought back at the next meeting, with further information made available to council and the public in the meantime.
A presentation was given by Sarah Holden — this summer’s Village Office student — regarding rezoning some Nakusp properties, and the usual reports from the senior management team, along with some bylaw updates.
Sarah Holden, the 2017 summer student at the Village Office, is enrolled in urban planning studies at the University of Victoria. She gave a presentation during Monday’s council meeting on an extensive survey she has undertaken this summer, regarding the current zoning and uses of some properties in Nakusp.
She found that only some properties in her area of study conformed to their zoning, and brought forward a proposal to update the zoning to match the current uses. The details of the properties, including their location, owner(s), and use(s) are available on the Nakusp Village website, under Agendas and Minutesat http://nakusp.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Agenda-August-28-2017-reduced.pdf.
Questions around the room indicated some concern about updating the zoning bylaw for some properties, only to have to go back and re-update it later on, if the owners decide to go another route with their properties. As well, there was a discussion about the implication that the rezoning would have for the extended audience.
The motion on the table is to take the information Holden has harvested over the summer and solidify it into a proposal to be reviewed in a public setting, details of which will be advertised by the Village Office within due time.
Taylor expressed her delight at the quality of Holden’s work and the opportunity to have UVic’s Urban Planning Department available for the Nakusp Village’s use as a resource.
Brace yourselves, the tax sale is coming. That is, 17 properties in Nakusp are close to going up for sale for the “upset price.”
“Current taxes are for 2017. Twenty-sixteen owing is in arrears. Delinquent means, there are taxes owing for 2015,” the CAO explained.
This means that 17 homes in Nakusp are delinquent on 2015 taxes and are liable to go up for sale in September, if their accounts are not settled before then.
The upset price is the sum of all the property taxes outstanding as of the date of the tax sale, plus all applicable penalties and interest, plus an additional five per cent of all taxes, penalties and interest, plus all applicable Land Title Act fees.
As to why this is occurring, Taylor said, “there’s a variety of reasons. There is no advantage to doing this, as you not only postpone paying that amount, but you have all the penalties on top.”
“By this time, we’ve already advanced all the funds to the school district and everyone else, so it’s an admin hassle,” Coun. Bill Tobey said.
“In Keremeos, where I was before, we did have two properties actually sell through the tax sale. This time of the year, there are people who start watching the tax sale properties and making phone calls to inquire about them.”
“Every year around this time we deal with the same issue, and it’s pretty much always the same people. They know it’s coming, they’ve been notified in writing,” said Taylor.
These properties still have one year for redemption, before the title changes hands.
“Last year we had two properties go up on the tax sale but they were both redeemed,” Taylor said.
Sufferfest’s request for a road closure on Broadway, the non-exclusive use of the community park, skate park, trails, and athletic fields, as well as a reduction of the facility rental on the gazebo, passed. This will be their third-annual CX Bike Race and Duathlon, so the request was supported enthusiastically and passed unanimously.
The signing officers were updated at this meeting as well. There currently is no actual financial officer on staff, so the responsibilities of that role fall under the CAO’s very large umbrella. Given the requirement for two signatures on any given cheque and the fact that there are only three signing officers currently on staff — one of whom is working on a flexible schedule — making signing rather difficult at times, a motion was passed to add the Director of Operations Warren Leigh to the list of signing officers for the village.
