Council adopts tax incentives to redevelop motels, resorts

Accommodations and motels which are redeveloped into housing or mixed-use will now qualify for tax incentives

Accommodations and motels which are redeveloped into housing or mixed-use will now qualify for tax incentives.

At its common assembly on Tuesday, council adopted a bylaw offering a revitalization tax exemption that may see the rise in assessed worth of enhancements and property tax will increase following renovations deferred for 10 years.

The bylaw goals to encourage outdated motels and resorts to assist fill the town’s housing wants. It was adopted in a 7-2 vote, with Mayor Ken Christian and Coun. Denis Walsh opposed. Walsh stated he thought it was “sick suggested” to present such a broad tax exemption.

“We’re within the enterprise of property taxes — that is the premise for all our providers,” Walsh stated.

He additionally raised difficulty with the actual fact there was no deadline for functions to be submitted as an added incentive for property homeowners to implement the renovation.

Walsh additionally instructed the bylaw needs to be focused at an space of ​​city deemed in want of revitalization, and famous the necessity for a wide-variety and of resorts and worth factors in Kamloops.

“I simply can’t see why we’d love ahead with such a beneficiant present,” Walsh stated.

Town’s growth, engineering and sustainability director Marvin Kwiatkowski stated the bylaw isn’t unique to redeveloping multi-family developments.

“It may be mixed-commercial, it may be a resort together with multi-family, so it is just a little bit broader than that,” he stated.

He stated the town did contemplate narrowing the exemption to motels and resorts alongside Columbia Road West, however in the end did not need to exclude prospects.

“We do not see {that a} new resort will redevelop right into a multi-family. We see for rejuvenating particular areas, however it’s not only one space we wish,” he stated.

Kwiatkowski stated the bylaw may be revisited and re-evaluated in just a few years time, at which level metrics on the way it has been used can be offered.

Coun. Kathy Sinclair lauded the bylaw. She stated it’s a method to assist alleviate the present housing disaster in Kamloops.