In the past couple of years, sticker shock around the annual assessment reveal in January has focused on ballooning values of single-family residential.
Not so this year. Instead, some of the most significant increases have been to business properties, particularly industrial lands, which have seen average increases of between 40 and 50 per cent.
That’s higher than the 30 per cent increase in the City of Vancouver, than the 23 per cent increase in Burnaby and 21 per cent in Surrey.
The rise in other commercial assessments in North Vancouver has also been higher than hikes in many other areas of Greater Vancouver.
Those in the know point to a shrinking supply as being among the key factors.
In recent years – even decades – we’ve certainly shown a willingness to gentrify the North Shore, letting go of some grimier industries and replacing them with upmarket residential developments.
But a community requires more than that.
If we want to encourage our economy, local businesses – even the louder, messier ones – need somewhere to operate that’s halfway affordable.
Otherwise, expect more businesses with suspiciously North Shore-sounding names to crop up in communities like Coquitlam – because they’ve been forced to move there.
North Vancouver, like many communities around Burrard Inlet, was built on industrial activity, both large and small. The people who make parts and fix things are an important part of our economic ecosystem. They are also our friends and neighbours and many of them have operated here for a long time.
If we drive out families and blue-collar businesses, we face a future where the only growth industries will be in real estate and coffee shops, serving a residential bedroom community of the wealthy.
That’s not a vision of North Vancouver we’re hoping to see entrenched anytime soon.
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