Light Industry and Business Property Tax Relief and Land Assessment Averaging

The City of Vancouver is considering extending a pilot program that provides property tax relief for eligible Light Industry (Class 5) and Business and Other (Class 6) properties. Additionally, the city plans to continue using targeted 5-year land assessment averaging for Residential (Class 1), Light Industry (Class 5), and Business and Other (Class 6) properties in 2024.

• Pilot program: The city is seeking to extend the pilot development potential relief program (Pilot DPRP) in 2024 for eligible Class 5 and Class 6 properties, as authorized by the Vancouver Charter.
• The program would tax a portion of the assessed land value (up to $5.4 million) at a 50% lower general purpose tax rate than the blended rate for Classes 5 and 6.
• The Director of Legal Services and Director of Finance are instructed to bring forward a by-law to enact the program.

• The city plans to continue the targeted 5-year land assessment averaging program in 2024 for Class 1, Class 5, and Class 6 properties.
• The program will use a 10% threshold above the property class average change to define eligibility for targeted averaging.
• Averaging will not result in a year-over-year change below the 10% threshold or a reduction in values exceeding $5.4 million for eligible Class 5 and 6 properties.
• Properties impacted by a Director of Planning-initiated zoning or policy change will be considered for targeted averaging, while properties that received relief under the Pilot DPRP will not be eligible.
• The Director of Legal Services and Director of Finance are instructed to bring forward a by-law to authorize the use of targeted averaging.

If approved, the overall impact would be a ~0.2% increase to the Class 1 tax rate and a ~1.8% increase to the blended Class 5/6 tax rate (to be finalized based on the 2024 Revised Assessment Roll) in order to collect the same amount of general purpose tax levies from those classes.