THE FRIDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS
JAN. 4, 2013 www.tricitynews.com
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Out of bounds bucks
Christmas clean-up
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE 11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE 14
INSIDE
Books Plus/15 Sign Me Up/18 Wellness/24 Sports/27
Taking the plunge in Port Moody, hundreds kick off 2013 with a splash
DEVIN JAIN/CITY OF PORT MOODY
There were costumes, crazy hats and a large group of brave swimmers clad in gold tights ringing in the New Year at the annual Penguin Plunge Tuesday morning at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park. It’s estimated up to 3,000 people came out to cheer on the plungers, who were able to stay warm beside the PoMo firefighters’ bonfire, and check out the historical photographs and artefacts display to kick off PoMo’s centennial celebrations. The Pleasantside Community Association’s Nicki Forster estimated a record 375 swimmers registered for the Penguin Plunge. For photos from Tri-City News readers, see page 3.
Fit to be tied Reporters versus a pair of personal trainers... Who won? They all did. See stories on pages 24 and 25
Home values up in Tri-Cities Home values rise up to 5.59% in assessment roll By Janis Warren THE TRI-CITY NEWS
The Tri-Cities is a bright spot for property values compared with the rest of the Metro Vancouver, according to rolls released this week.
BC Assessment reports the North Fraser region, which includes the TriCities, showed combined increases for all residential properties — from single-family homes to townhouses and condos — at: • 5.59% in Coquitlam; • 3.04% in Port Moody; • 2.21% in Anmore; • and 1.69% in Port Coquitlam. In Belcarra, however,
property owners saw an average drop of 4.85% in their values. The biggest single increase in the region was for a single-family house — built 29 years ago in central Coquitlam — whose value jumped about $60,000 to $800,000. As well, a detached home on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam went up $40,000 from last year, according to the roll.
WHAT’S YOUR HOME WORTH? To check your assessment, go to bcassessment.ca, click on “e-ValueBC” and follow the steps. But a two-bedroom suite in a Coquitlam strata low-rise, built in 1990, dropped $16,000 while a Citadel Heights t o w n h o m e i n Po r t Coquitlam, built in 1994, sunk $15,000 — largely
due to an oversupply of such units, said deputy assessor Zina Weston, who called this year relatively “status quo” for land values in the TriCities. Meanwhile, Tri-City
commercial and industrial land values went up as much as 20% in neighbourhoods such as Burquitlam and Moody Centre — in part because of official community plan and zoning changes, and the upcoming Evergreen Line that is due to be built by the summer of 2016 from Burnaby to Coquitlam. see TRI-CITIES, page 12