Steve Sintich is caught between bureaucratic opinions about his farm land and it is costing him thousands of dollars.
The longtime Prince George resident and former city councillor has been told by BC Assessment that one of his properties previously valued at about $90,000 is now valued at $900,000 and the property next door, previously valued at $86,000, has jumped to $808,000. The combined size of these parcels is about 70 acres and there have been no capital improvements made recently to either of them.
Sintich's tax bill went from about $2,000 in 2011 to about $17,000 now. He appealed the increase and lost, although he did get a small reduction.
"It was a shock, wooph," he said. "It sets you right back on your heels. I've seen increases over the years, but small ones. We have two other properties in the same area and those values changed. I just couldn't believe my eyes. And I couldn't believe their explanation. I was told properties around me sold recently for really high prices, so they think big money is market value."
Sintich argued unsuccessfully that the properties fetching big sales money were located in areas zoned for industrial use. His is alongside Highway 97 right across the road from a desolate expanse of property where commercial development was proposed years ago. There is still nothing there except for a recreational vehicle sales lot in a pre-existing building.
Furthermore, Sintich's property is locked up in the Agricultural Land Reserve - the provincial program that strictly allocates farmland in the province. Few other activities but farming may happen on ALR properties, including major industrial or commercial developments, unless the provincial government grants an exemption. Farm land in the Prince George area is worth relatively little compared to residential, commercial or industrial land.
"Some of that property [that sold for big money] was in the Agricultural Land Reserve," said Geoff Radtke, a deputy assessor in the Prince George branch of the BC Assessment department. "There were some in the Boundary Road area and one also right near the subject area."
The four sales that most guided BC Assessment's thinking on Sintich's properties were:
7817 Pacific St. - sold for $650,000 in April 2007. It is approximately 123 acres and it is in the ALR.
7538 Hwy. 97 - Sold for $1,450,000 on Jan 12, 2006. It is approximately 43 acres, and it is not in the ALR.
1909 Gunn Rd. - Sold for $865,000 in August 2007. It is approximately 56.05 Acres and is not located in the ALR.
1595 Torpy Road - Sold for $350,000 in January 2006. It is approximately 151.5 acres and is located in the ALR.
In the written submission BC Assessment used to defend their values during Sintich's appeal, officials wrote that indeed the properties were unattractive for farming "given the soil capability in the site will not support a high level of productivity" and it was also a poor site for residential development. The property's best and most productive future would be for industrial use, they wrote, but that was not feasible in the short term due to the lack of roads and amenities.
"Given that the majority of properties in this neighbourhood are designated as Light Industrial in the Official Community Plan, couple with the probability of the subject being removed from the ALR in the future, it is reasonable to assume that a light industrial use of the property could be potential future use."
Sintich dismissed those sentiments.
Firstly, he said, it was grand speculation that any developer might be interested in his property now or in the future, and his experience with the zoning decisions and ALR decisions in the area were expressly the opposite. He and his father before him had tried to get the property out of the ALR a number of times and had been repeatedly refused.
Sintich produced a 1973 document (when the ALR was invented and applied to the property without consultation other than grandfathering a recreational vehicle and mobile home park that was already in business on Sintich family property) that said any requests by the Sintich family to be excluded from the ALR "be refused" and the ALR boundaries should "be maintained as proposed."
In 1977 the City of Prince George reiterated a desire to "permit no commercial or industrial expansion beyond the B.C. Railway industrial site" which borders the Sintich lands.
In 1992, Sintich tried again to get a variance and open his properties up for development. He appealed directly to the Agricultural Land Commission. In their letter to him, stressing their "thorough review of all information" on his application, they acknowledged their desire to proceed with a variance on that neighbouring property across the highway for commercial development (aforementioned, still sitting vacant today) but that the commission "refused your application to exclude" the requested ALR removal.
The commission did agree to give some development variances to a fraction of the property, under certain conditions, but if they went any further the precedent "would undoubtedly lead to non-farm expectations on the part of many nearby ALR landowners, most of whom hold smaller sites with less farm potential."
Sintich said he took yet another refusal to be binding. As he and his wife were set to retire at that point, he no longer had the energy to argue, nor any sense of how to appeal it further. Now, Sintich feels betrayed to be told by another department of government that all the things he hoped for in the past were now going to come to pass but not for him, except for the hefty tax bill that comes with owning property that has gone up significantly in assessed value.
"I'm not saying we shouldn't protect farmland, it's just that these phantom planners are trying to have it both ways - bill me for industrial use that doesn't exist, after I tried for years to get it to happen and was told no, this land was going to be farmland forever by government decree," he said. "I didn't established the value of this land, they did, as farmland. I can only sell my land for the amount someone is willing to pay for the activities allowed on that land - farming and only farming, as stated more than once by the Agricultural Land Commission. A farmer in this area could never pay the amount they say it's worth. Not by a country mile. That is what I should see reflected in the assessed value."
According to Radtke, Sintich was not singled out.
"There were 14 larger acreage properties in the area. All of them were reviewed. Eight of these properties were in the ALR and saw significant increases similar to the Sintich properties," Radtke said.
He added that some or all these properties could see their assessed values go down, if the sales figures on similar properties' transactions also go down, based on the provincial formula.
