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Delivery 604-942-3081 • Wednesday, January 19, 2011
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Your source for local sports, news, weather and entertainment! >> www.burnabynow.com PROPERTY VALUES UP, BUT RETIREE WORRIES ABOUT TAXES RISING
JUST FOR FUN
Zipping through the city? Parks department explores where a zipline could go and how it would work Janaya Fuller-Evans staff reporter
Cars, bikes, buses, SkyTrains, gondolas … Burnaby might be looking at an entirely different form of travel within the city, but it’s just for fun. Berthier Kyobela proposed the idea of a zipline on Burnaby Mountain to Burnaby’s parks, recreation and cultural department last fall. The city is now looking into the feasibility of such a project. “We always like to explore innovativethings,”saidDaveEllenwood, parks director. “The likelihood depends on a lot of things.” The department is considering whether it is feasible or advisable to bring a permanent zipline to the city, what the costs would be and whether it is something the department should run alone or with a partner company. “The bottom line is whether it has a synergy with existing facilities in the city,” Ellenwood said, mentioning bike parks and conservation areas. He added it would have to be unobtrusive. While Kyobela suggested Burnaby Mountain as an ideal location for the zipline, Ellenwood said Zipline Page 3
Larry Wright/burnaby now
Financial crunch: Dave Stafford is concerned that a recent 20 per cent increase in the assessed value of his Watling Street home could result in a property tax hike this year.
‘It’s a bit much’ – homeowner Janaya Fuller-Evans staff reporter
David Stafford has owned his home in Burnaby for more than half a century. This year, he was very surprised by the assessment on his South Burnaby home, which he bought in 1964 for $15,000. The house at 4457 Watling St. was assessed at $760,800 in the 2011 B.C. Assessment roll, a 20 per cent hike over last year. “I don’t think they have the right,” Stafford said. “It’s a bit much.” Stafford, a 77-year-old Air Canada retiree, is worried about the effect the assessment
could have on his property taxes this year. The last large assessment increase, he said, was in 2007, when his assessment was $577,500, a 19.5 per cent increase from 2006. He plans to appeal the 2011 assessment, because he is concerned about the effect it could have on his property taxes later this year, he said. He is on a pension, he added, but also has some investments and owns his home outright. He’s concerned that other pensioners who do not have additional income, or who are carrying a mortgage, might have a hard time of it. As for him, each tax and utility rate
increase takes up a bigger slice of his fixed budget, cutting into what he can afford to do, Stafford said. “Eventually, you have to say, what don’t I have to give up?” he said. Last year, Stafford saw a drop in his property taxes - $2,212 from $2,222 in 2009, he said. But last year’s assessment only increased his property value by 4.7 per cent, according to Stafford’s accounts. He isn’t sure why the assessed value of his home would jump so much, he said, as there Property Page 4
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