WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4 2017
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LIVING 13
Harvest Project
Charity wants donors to think and act locally
TASTE 19
One More Szechuan
New Chinese cuisine option in Pemberton Plaza
SPORTS 21
Georgia Simmerling
First ski cross medal since Olympic cycling bronze NORTHSHORENEWS
LOCAL NEWS . LOCAL MATTERS . SINCE 1969
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NEW YEAR’S EVE
Party hopper struck taking highway shortcut BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
Police in North Vancouver and West Vancouver found themselves mopping up after some sloppy drunks put themselves (and others) in peril over New Year’s Eve long weekend. One man was taken to hospital with head injuries after a failed attempt at crossing Highway 1 on foot. The man and a group of friends were looking for a shortcut between two house parties around 11 p.m. Dec. 31 when they opted to run across the orange bridge over Lynn Creek. The driver of a westbound
See Homeowners page 7
COLD PLAY Close to 300 brave souls jumped into the icy water at Panorama Park Jan. 1 to ring in the new year. An annual Deep Cove tradition, the Penguin Plunge raised $380 for North Shore Rescue. Turn to Bright Lights on page 12 for more photos from the event. PHOTO KEVIN HILL
Property assessments soar as high as 50% JANE SEYD jseyd@nsnews.com
When North Vancouver homeowner Anthony Riglietti got a letter from the assessment office last month, he knew what was coming. As a real estate agent, Riglietti is certainly aware of the shifts that have rocked the North Shore’s housing market in the past year. It’s the second year in a row the North Vancouver resident has received the early notification letter from B.C. Assessment, warning him his property value is up significantly over the average increase. The value of Riglietti’s 1950s bungalow in the Calverhall area of the District of North Vancouver soared over 55 per cent between July 2015 and July 2016, pushing the assessed value from just below $900,000 to just shy of $1.4 million. “It’s a small house, not even 2,000 square feet,” said Riglietti, who
North Van District sees biggest overall increase in home values bought the house in 2010 and lives there with his wife and two young children. Since he’s not planning to move, and his home now exceeds the threshold for the provincial homeowners grant, Riglietti said the biggest impact for his family will likely be a higher property tax bill next summer. “It is what it is,” he said. Riglietti is one of about 4,500 homeowners in North and West Vancouver whose property assessments have gone up 15 per cent higher than average in their community. But as homeowners are finding out this week, even average assessments – particularly for single-family homes – are
up significantly, for the second year in a row. Values of single-family homes in both North and West Vancouver are up between 30 and 50 per cent this year – a trend seen across the entire Lower Mainland, said Jason Grant, area assessor. That’s on top of the 15 to 25 per cent increases in assessments a year ago. Grant said you’d probably have to go back to the 1980s to find similar year-over-year increases in property values. Condominium values are also up between 15 to 30 per cent this year. The biggest overall residential property increases are in the District of North Vancouver, where assessed values went up an average of 36 per cent between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016. City of North Vancouver properties were up 34 per
See Notices page 7
CELEBRATING NINETY YEARS