The new North Vancouver Museum and Archives won’t be open for another several months, but it already has a brand new exhibit to show off – a whopping municipal tax and strata bill.
City of North Vancouver council voted unanimously but reluctantly Monday night to dip into its reserves for an extra $124,000 for the project after some delays resulted in unexpected costs.
The new museum is still under construction at its new home at 115 West Esplanade on the ground floor below a new mid-rise condo. The city negotiated with developer Polygon to receive the $11-million space as part of the larger rezoning.
Council anticipated taking possession of the space in September, however that was delayed until January 2020, according to a city staff report. That made it miss the October deadline to apply for a permissive tax exemption, which the museum would normally have been entitled to. Because 2020 municipal property taxes were not in the original project budget, council had to find another $71,000.
The city also now finds itself on the hook for $4,110 per month in strata fees, which the museum is expected to pay once they take over the space in August. Worried that COVID-19 may result in further delays, city staff asked to add an extra six months of strata fees to the budget. Any amount not spent will be returned to the city.
News of the mishap was not greeted warmly by council members who had earlier in the meeting adopted the 2020 budget, which slashed spending to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on everyone’s finances.
“Under these circumstances, I’m really not so happy seeing this amount coming forward for this year,” said Mayor Linda Buchanan. “Given that we’re in COVID, it’s not great to get a bill for $124,000 that we have to pay. Timing is everything. It’s unfortunate but I really want to make sure that … when we’re moving through projects like this in the future that we’ve got contingencies in place.”
