Save cultural hubs

No one will thank the Wynne government if it doesn’t come up with a way to adjust the provincial tax policy to save downtown havens for artists, authors and arts organizations from demolition.

For that surely is the fate of the city’s creative hubs, such as 401 Richmond St., if Queen’s Park doesn’t act soon to change a system that evaluates commercial buildings for tax purposes based solely on the “highest and best use.”

That means city-centred sanctuaries for artists, non-profits and antipoverty organizations, for example, are taxed not on their current use but on what they would be worth if they were torn down and replaced with condos or office towers. That is not acceptable for many reasons. First, as urban scholars from Jane Jacobs to Richard Florida have argued, a city’s vitality depends in large part on the strength of its arts and culture sectors. Those must be protected.

Second, the tax policy does nothing to help preserve historic architecture and neighbourhoods. Instead, it encourages owners to tear down their properties and replace them with cookie-cutter highrises.

Third, it discourages the growth of new neighbourhoods, such as the Distillery District, which can spring up around arts and heritage buildings.

In other words, the tax policy could create a downtown core bereft of heritage, heart and soul.

There is a way out of this mess. The province could create a new tax class based on a building’s actual use, not its potential maximized value that might ensure the survival of cultural hubs and encourage the flowering of like-minded ventures.

To give an example of what artists’ hubs are up against, consider the tax bills for 401 Richmond. In 2012, the building’s owner, Margie Zeidler, paid close to $447,000 in taxes. Then in 2013, as condos grew up around her building, her tax bill jumped dramatically, as it has every year since. This year the bill is $846,210. By 2020 it’s estimated it will be $1.29 million.

Zeidler, who renovated the former factory in 1994 to create an affordable refuge for arts-minded tenants, has absorbed as much of the increase as she can. Tenants, too, have borne some of the brunt. Now both owner and tenants are at their breaking point.

City councillor Joe Cressy has tried to save the struggling enterprise. In January he introduced a motion at city hall urging Queen’s Park to change its tax policy. It argued the province should be encouraging property owners to use their spaces “for dynamic purposes, including the arts, as opposed to just ‘highest and best use’.” It passed unanimously.

Cressy now says there’s still hope the government will come through. “The message from the premier’s office is ‘We’re on it, we’re working with you.’”

One can only hope so. The city’s architectural diversity and cultural passion are at stake. The Wynne government must hurry before more artists exit the city in search of affordable spaces.

Havens for artists, authors and arts organizations are threatened with ever-increasing taxes