Wednesday - Jan. 3, 2024 - Assessed values down, taxes up

🌦 High 8C

Good morning!

Yesterday, I published a detailed story about a dramatic increase in corporate spending at Fraser Health and BC’s two other largest health authorities. The sudden increase in spending—a half-billion dollars in a single year—is massive and seemingly out of nowhere, given previous years. It is so large, and the figures so obvious on the balance sheets of the organizations, that one presumes there to be a reasonable explanation.

And yet… the public relations staff at the three organizations (who collectively likely outnumber our newsroom by a factor of 10) either couldn’t find a good excuse or just couldn’t be bothered to explain it to the public. I tend to think the latter is more likely. It’s also incredibly dispiriting. Three health authorities don’t boost one sector of spending by $100 million without people within those organizations knowing where that money is going. But either the organizations don’t want to reveal how the money is spent, or the health authorities’ own communications teams couldn’t find, or couldn’t be bothered to look for an answer themselves. None of those possible explanations is a great look.

– Tyler

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

Your home is less valuable,
but your taxes will still likely rise

The assessed value of your home likely decreased over the past year. But you’ll still probably be paying more property taxes in the coming years.

This week, homeowners across the Fraser Valley received assessment notices. Most will have been told that the value of their home declined from the previous year. But for most, their property taxes won’t decline.

• Tyler explains why the average assessed property value in your community is the key to knowing what your tax bill will look like. (We also have those numbers in the story.)

Related

Need to Know

🏀 A UFV basketball star named Google has helped the team to a 7-1 start [Abbotsford News]

👉 Another truck scraped an overpass—this time between Chilliwack and Abbotsford [CityNews]

🌲 A digital-payment system for buses is coming ‘soon’ to the Fraser Valley, BC Transit says [Twitter] / Local officials had expected the technology to be rolled out in the fall of 2023 [FVC]

⚽ Langley Township’s mayor says the growth of high-level sports in the community has made it harder for leagues for others to access recreation space [Langley Advance Times]

👮‍♂️ Police are appealing for information but saying little about the killing of a 35-year-old man in Chilliwack last week [Chilliwack Progress]

🚔 Two men arrested in Langley last week have been charged in connection with a shooting in Surrey [CityNews]

🔥 Mission firefighters snuffed out a house fire New Year’s Eve [Fraser Valley Today]

🚑 A new Chilliwack winery is expanding with a tasting room and lounge [Fraser Valley Today]

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The Agenda

Property owner hopes buyer will bet $8 million on Abbotsford changing its mind

A rural Abbotsford property that city politicians and officials say can’t be developed is up for sale for $8.8 million, with the seller suggesting that value reflects a potential for future development.

The 83-acre rectangular parcel of hilly, vacant land on Sumas Mountain sits outside of both Abbotsford’s urban development boundary and the McKee Neighbourhood Plan adopted by the city last year. City politicians have repeatedly promised that they won’t be further expanding the urban development boundary, a move that would precede the subdivision of the parcel into multiple lots.

But just the fact that the parcel is next to the neighbourhood plan—for which the city last year adopted a plan to guide significant future development—has led to the owner to ask for $100,000/acre. The advertisement of the property reasons that “The subject property abutts the new McKee Neighbourhood Plan, suggesting it could have potential for low to medium density residential development in the future.”

Just whether such development is possible rests on whether politicians in the future would be amenable to future subdivisions. The ad nods at that fact, saying it is up to the buyer to “to verify all measurements and future development potential.”

The financial impact of city planning decisions can be seen in assessed values. While the property for sale has been assessed for $4.1 million, an adjacent lot of the same size located within the urban development boundary is assessed at $12.1 million.

🤝 Now hiring

• Hockey instructor at Atomic Hockey in Langley

• Office assistant at Abbotsford’s Urgent and Primary Care Clinic

• Investment advisor at RBC in Chilliwack

• Director of community development at the District of Hope

• Staff pharmacist at Heritage Park Pharmacy in Mission

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Think you know where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form.

🗓 Things to do

Hockey ticket fundraiser: The Abbotsford Horseshoe Club is selling $30 hard copy tickets for the Jan. 13 Abbotsford Canucks Hockey game to raise money to replace equipment lost in a recent break-in. Email [email protected].

Bandits v. Giants: The Vancouver Giants host the Calgary Bandits Jan. 3 at the Langley Events Centre. Tickets online.

Quilting: The Abbotsford Quilters Guild invites both new and experienced quilters to its first meeting of the year on Jan. 9 at 10am at Ross Road Community Church. For more info contact Carole 604-853-0867.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

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