The District of West Vancouver is taking the Property Assessment Appeal Board (PAAB) to court for determining that the district's Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal should be devalued from $47.7 million to only $20.00 – a decision that will cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in property tax.
"We are appealing this unfair decision, which essentially means West Vancouver taxpayers will now bear the cost of fire, police, parks and roads services at the terminal," said district mayor Michael Smith.
Delta mayor Lois Jackson told media November 21 that her municipality is attempting to gain intervenor status in the case if it gets to court. She fears the decision will act as a precedent for devaluing Delta's Tsawwassen ferry terminal.
PAAB's late-October decision that the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal should have such a low value is because the province has designated the site as only having one use: that of a ferry terminal.
In its ruling, PAAB reduced the previous 2012 assessed values for two Horseshoe Bay land parcels, which had been valued at $41.4 million and $6.3 million respectively, to $10.00 each. The decision is retroactive to 2010, 2011 and 2012 and will require the district to repay property tax revenues collected for the last three years.
PAAB made this determination after BC Ferries asked PAAB to take another look at the terminal's value.
Neither Delta nor Nanaimo has been given notice that BC ferries is appealing their terminals' property assessments.
