I went before the appeal board last week and gave an in depth presentation that was very well received. The bottom line is that BC Assessment has done a good job assessing the fair market value of the home ($370,000). Their mandate IS NOT TAXATION, but simply the valuation of the home…
John Horgan visited Gord and I last week on the day before my appeal. We had a lovely three hour chat about many things. He agreed that this taxation was wrong but that changes would have to come from legislation in the ministry of finance. He said that this would be a difficult push at this point because, face it, there not too many people in this position. It comes back to the chicken and egg argument.
The appeal panel also agreed that this seems to be unfair and is effectively a dis-incentive. They said the solution may be something like the farm tax credit. They also had some vision in saying that in a perfect world all homes would have solar roofs and there wouldn’t need to be special treatment.
So, that’s where I’m at. I may take it to the next appeal which will be recorded for public record…and thus perhaps get the media involved. (the first appeal was private with NO record) other than my own memory.
Ann
The Living Building Challenge
Eco-Sense 
Comments from some email correspondence we have had on this topic…seems very wise…
The thing about getting a wholly new housing classification is that it would be province-wide. It would come with education for the assessors so they can identify the houses better This advantage is huge because administrators don’t like going out on a limb too often or too far, if the policy is there then they can run with it. If not, too bad, tough luck.
The resulting lower valuation which would yield the de facto tax benefit, not a tax credit. I am guessing that Iniitially this would take the FIn Min approval but it would be on the whole category and not on a house by house basis. I can see how BC Assessment would ike it because it would allow them more budget for training (public servants love courses) and to rehire staff to administer the applications for ‘natural built/green status’ applications.
My thought was this, if zonings are tackled one by one across every municipality it could take decades to get a substantial change happening in this province. Municipalities are slow-moving entities and somewhat slow to take on new ideas by their nature. BC Assessment valuates every homes (structures) in the province by a very narrow set of parameters and they are all based on traditional building styles.
If the BC Government (via BC Assessment) were to add a special designation for natural built homes and or homes with carbon neutrality, then it would give the ability for the province to potentially give tax benefits for homebuilders/owners who employ natural, local materials and processes and systems that are carbon neutral.