Man vows to continue fight over value of Tourism Kelowna site

A Kelowna man vows to keep fighting what he believes to be the artificially low property valuation for the new Tourism Kelowna information centre.

Jim McMullan took his complaint to a review panel this week, but the matter has been forwarded to future appeal board proceedings.

“I’m like a dog with a bone and I just won’t give up on this,” McMullan said Thursday.

The crux of McMullan’s complaint is the City of Kelowna struck an overly generous arrangement with Tourism Kelowna when it provided the municipally owned waterfront land, at the end of Queensway, for the new info centre.

City officials sought and received from BC Assessment a reduction in the property’s assessed value, from $6 million down to $1.3 million, in early 2017.

“I believe they did that because they wanted to dramatically lower the public’s perception of the value of the land they were basically giving away to Tourism Kelowna,” McMullan said.

Subsequently, the city provided a longterm lease for the property to Tourism Kelowna at a nominal rate. A municipal tax exemption for the site was also approved by city council.

“With the much lower assessment, the city can say to the public, ‘Oh, we’re only giving up about $4,000 in lost tax revenue by granting the exemption.’ When really, the loss to the city’s revenues, if the proper assessment was used, would be much higher,” McMullan said.

However, city officials say the assessment for the Tourism Kelowna site was appealed because, in the planning for the centre, it was discovered the buildable area was smaller than believed.

“It was discovered that the developable area of the property was significantly constrained due to the required setback from the water to the north, east and west, and the Community Trust covenant to the south,” reads an emailed statement from the city.

Because of similar building constraints, the assessed value of nearby Kerry Park was also reduced, from more than $15 million to $5.8 million, the city notes.

Tourism Kelowna was granted a tax exemption, the city says, as a qualifying, registered non-profit society.

The city’s arrangement with Tourism Kelowna was controversial, with some members of the public believing the new visitor centre, opened last summer, was a poor use of scarce publicly owned waterfront land.