Watch above: Property owners with undeveloped lots in Saskatoon could soon see a tax increase.
SASKATOON – Should a landowner be penalized for owning a lot and not developing it? It’s a question the city is considering.
Currently, 26 per cent of the downtown core is sitting vacant and there are hundreds of undeveloped lots throughout Saskatoon neighbourhoods.
The empty lots mean the city isn’t collecting the full tax potential from the properties.
“When you have development, you have a higher assessed value and a higher assessed value means more property taxes,” explained Alan Wallace, director of planning and development for the city.
The city is looking at increasing property taxes on the undeveloped lots as a punitive measure much like Moose Jaw, which raised the tax rate by 2.5 per cent last spring on undeveloped lots.
However, there is no guarantee it would result in development.
“You would go after the ones that have no plans for the site,” said Wallace.
“We have, for example, many decommissioned filling stations or service stations that have closed with no for sale sign, no for lease sign, they’ve just simply been removed from the market.”
There would still need to be a balance between undeveloped lots and those with projects in the planning stages.
“If your definition of vacant is too broad, you could end up basically affecting projects like that,” said Wallace.
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