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Little change in Chilliwack property assessments
■ B UILDING B RIDGES
Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
“Stable” is the operative word being used to describe provincial property assessments for 2013 arriving in Fraser Valley mail boxes this week. And it’s especially true for Chilliwack’s residential properties, according to the numbers released yesterday by the B.C. Assessment office. The Fraser Valley Assessment Roll went from $87.5 billion last year, to $89 billion this year. Most of the growth was attributed to the rise of subdivisions, rezoning and new construction. “Most homes in the Fraser Valley are remaining stable compared to last year’s assessment roll,” said John Green, Deputy Assessor. Only “minimal changes” in the value of most properties are expected. In terms of local market trends, a typical Chilliwack single family home valued at $385,000 last year, was assessed at exactly the same amount, $385,000, this year. A typical strata apartment went from $113,00, down slightly to $112,000, while a townhouse went from $238,000, dipping slightly to $237,000. It wasn’t the same, however, in other parts of the Lower Mainland. Decreased values of as much as five per cent and gains of up to 10 per cent are typical for single detached houses in Surrey, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities, as well as many other parts of the region. White Rock was one of the areas where drops were more likely, with changes tending to range from negative 10 to plus five per cent, according to the assessment authority. Significant decreases were also more common in Whistler, Pemberton, the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island. “For the first time in many years a significant number of properties in the region are actually decreasing in value,” Continued: ASSESS/ p12
Soldiers create waves on a boat to help move sections of a medium raft into place at Cultus Lake during Exercise Paladin Response 2012 on Saturday. About 200 Canadian Army Reserve Combat Engineers and support personnel from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario were in Chilliwack for four days of training. The exercises included building two types of land bridges, the medium girder bridges and Acrow bridges which are used to span gaps, plus medium rafts (aka medium floating bridges). The main focus of the exercises is to be able to use these bridges for natural disasters here in Canada, although they can and have been used overseas. For more images, go online to theprogress.com for a photographic slide show. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Chilliwack heats up, but 2012 wettest since ’97 A general warming trend continued in Chilliwack in 2012 with 14 days over 30 degrees Celsius, longer than the average seven days, for the 11th consecutive year. That’s a trend “never previously observed,” says Roger Pannett, Environment Canada’s volunteer weather observer in Chilliwack. He said with ten high-temperature records in Chilliwack, and only one low-temperature record, the mean temperature
for 2012 was 0.36 C above normal “continuing the general warming trend which commenced in 1986.” The mercury in Chilliwack hit a record-breaking 34.6 C on Aug. 17 and dipped to a low of -14.0 C on Jan. 18. Pannett said the coldest and wettest June since 1981 preceded the driest August and September since Chilliwack records started in 1879. With total precipitation slightly above normal, 2012 was the
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wettest year since 1997. Four 24-hour rainfall records occurred during the year, which included the 13.1 mm rainfall on July 23, which made it statistically the driest day of the year. “This was followed by an amazing 80 days with minimal rainfall,” Pannett said. But there were 8 cm of snow on the ground come Dec. 25 making it the first white Christmas in Chilliwack since 2008. Pannett said white Christmases in Chilliwack also
occurred in 2007, 2000, 1996 and 1990. December temperatures hit a high of 10.4 C on Dec. 3 and a low of -3.2 C on Dec. 31. “With an on-going series of Pacific frontal systems moving across the province, weather conditions (in December) were generally dismal with 23 consecutive days of precipitation,” Pannett said. There were only three dry days, the lowest December total in over 31 years, he said.