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NEWS GAZETTE
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Top gun
David Cameron school provides one of the best learning spaces in B.C. for hearing impaired kids. News, Page A3
A champion youth judo athlete from Langford dominates an MMA tournament in Las Vegas. Sports, Page A20
Math. Reading. Success Give your children the tools to write their own success stories.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Property tax uptick for Langford City eyes 2.9 per cent hike Nancy Powell has preserved a plot of forest property in Metchosin in perpetuity with a conservation covenant. Covenants aren’t cheap, but for some are insurance against development decades down the road.
Edward Hill News staff
Edward Hill/News staff
Forever a forest in Metchosin Landowner funds a rare conservation covenant Edward Hill News staff
Light breaks through the canopy of second-growth Douglas firs, as we walk astride fields of ferns and mosses. Birds twitter through the forest. For Nancy Powell, this is nature as it should be — unspoiled, untouched and offering crisp clean air. And it should
stay this way, technically forever. The eight and a half acres on Liberty Drive in Metchosin is the latest property in the Capital Region to be placed under a conservation covenant. “There are so many animals and flowers, the place is so full of life, it’s bursting with life,� said Powell, 48, as we walk through property, which transitions from steep rocky outcrops and wildflowers to dense forest. “What ever happens here happens. If a tree falls down, it stays down. You can’t buck it for firewood.� Powell, a blacksmith artist by trade who now resides in Fernwood, lived on the Metchosin property for 12 years and inher-
ited the 10-acre parcel last year after the owner, her close friend, passed away. Honouring the owner’s attachment to the land, she initiated the covenant process with the Habitat Acquisition Trust (HAT) last fall. In March the covenant — called “Ivan’s Island� — was registered with the property title. Although difficult to imagine under past and current Metchosin councils, Powell says it’s not impossible for a pro-development regime to be elected in the future. Her land is in an area home to cougars, black bears, deer and owls, all creatures great and small. If housing subdivisions
are on the march toward Liberty Drive 50 or 100 years down the road, that patch of forest won’t be going anywhere. “This property will never be a subdivision, logged or destroyed,� Powell said. “You can’t subdivide the property, but that doesn’t drop the value much. But in the future it might be the most valuable property in the neighhourhood.� That fear of a Metchosin council allowing development akin to Langford or Colwood has driven, in part, the creation of the Metchosin Foundation. PLEASE SEE: Covenant land, Page A4
We’re speechless.
Call it a case of beer or a restaurant meal. Any way you frame it, Langford homeowners will be paying about $26 more in property taxes this year. Langford is proposing a 2.9 per cent residential tax hike for 2012, which amounts to a $26 increase for the average $415,000 home. The municipal portion of an average Langford tax bill will be $932, according to a staff financial report. That translates to about $224 in taxes per $100,000 of a property’s value. Even with the modest hike, Langford’s administration points out the City’s municipal tax rate is lowest among the Capital Region’s 13 municipalities. “The proposed 2.9 per cent tax increase in the face of increased costs for growing infrastructure and the difficulties of the current economic environment has been a challenge,� said a finance committee financial report. “But Langford's economic position is still strong relative to other areas.� Langford will collect nearly $12 million in property taxes this year, about 62 per cent of the total. Langford commercial businesses had their tax rate cut slightly (as did light industry and recreational and non-profit properties), and will pay about $7 million in taxes or 37 per cent of the total.
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