Owners of empty lots in Prince Albert will now pay $1,600 per year in property taxes. (Susan McNeil'paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Taxes

Vacant lots get more expensive in Prince Albert

Mar 30, 2023 | 4:00 PM

Owning a vacant lot in Prince Albert will soon cost the property owner a lot more money, following a council decision to put a minimum $1,600 levy on empty land.

The idea is to spur development and avoid some of the negative consequences of having undeveloped lots, explained Mayor Greg Dionne.

“The empty lots- garbage is left there, weeds grow there, vagrants camp there. I wouldn’t want to be a neighbour with an empty lot beside me,” said Dionne.

Previously, empty lots were only charged a few hundred dollars in property tax per year, which meant that owners could have the lot remain empty for a long time without incurring much cost.

“When you’re only paying $200 for that lot, you don’t have any desire,” said Dionne. “Well, now you’re going to pay $1,600 lots, you’re going to have some desire.”

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Several owners have already called and asked if they could surrender the empty lots they own to Habitat for Humanity, he explained.

Having taken one step, Dionne said the city is still open to other ideas as to what to do with lots that remain undeveloped.

Every year, the city will earn about $160,000 in extra revenue from the higher levy, which Dionne would like to see go back to incentivize more building.

“Let’s say we take 10 one dollar lots and say, anyone that builds an affordable house, could get a $10,000 forgivable grant from the city,” he said.

No decision has been made yet as to what will happen to the extra money but the city has multiple other programs that are geared towards turning empty lots into a construction zone, including multiple locations it is selling in the West Flat for one dollar.

Those lots are empty but owned by the city.

In other tax bylaws, the city needed to raise $1.58 million this year over last year’s budget of $45.5 million for operations.

That meant an increase in the mill rate from 10.570 mills to 10.872 mills, a 2.86 per cent increase. The snow management special tax was increased to $72 for residential properties, the road tax will go up to $204 and the library rate will go up to 0.682 mills.

Tax bills are finalized once the province passes the education portion of the rate.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com