A BC Supreme Court judge will be asked to review the Property Assessment Appeal Board’s decision on the Oakridge Centre assessment.
PAAB chair Simmi Sandhu filed a requisition to B.C. Supreme Court on Oct. 20, which said a judge must decide whether PAAB erred in failing to apply certain valuation methodology, by excluding evidence of the $867.75 million assessment or in finding the conduct of the complainant, the South Vancouver Parks Society, “frivolous, vexatious and egregious.”
In their Sept. 9 written decision, the board’s Dale Pope and Bruce Turner dismissed the society’s challenge of the $500.54 million reassessment for the 28.3 acre mall and parking lot. The property had been assessed at $867.75 million after the Vision Vancouver majority city council approved rezoning in principle in March 2014 so that landlord Ivanhoe Cambridge and developer Westbank could build 11 towers. Society president Glen Chernen argued unsuccessfully at a June hearing that the proper value is $750 million to $1.1 billion.
The board confirmed the $500.54 million value as decided by the Property Assessment Review Panel after it accepted assessor Vicky Yip’s $517.3 million valuation based on the income approach, within 3% of the roll value.
“The board found that the reason for a change to an assessed value at PARP is not relevant to the board’s duty to ensure the accuracy of the assessment and to determine the actual (or market) value of the property at July 2, 2014 in its condition as of Oct. 31, 2014,” said the court filing.
The society claims that its attempts to get copies of the property value summary for the property were frustrated by B.C. Assessment, both routinely and through applications to its freedom of information office.
A hearing date is pending.
