The 30% Tax Reduction policy for Commercial vacant and excess land and the 35% reduction for Industrial Vacant and Excess Land was removed by city council in the 2023 Operating Budget (D7-38).
This means that roughly $400k in property taxes every year would shift from being paid by residential and occupied property owners to property owners of vacant commercial/industrial properties.
In 2022, there was $35 million worth of vacant and excess commercial property and $9 million worth of vacant and excess industrial property in Belleville paying a $730,000 and $218,000 worth of property taxes, respectively (see Bylaw to Adopt Estimates and Sums).
Removing the discounts for vacant and excess properties does not cause a change or reduction in the overall tax levy, but means that the vacant commercial and industrial properties will be paying roughly $430,000 more, while other property classes will pay less.
[In the] previous term, we brought in a reduction or elimination of the vacancy rebate in certain areas of the city and essentially the message was build it, sell it, do something with it, but sitting on vacant property and then getting the incentive of not paying full taxes just allows the perpetuation of vacancy. I understand in this world, particularly in the retail sector trying to get occupancy is difficult as the economy changes, but nonetheless, it’s not lost on me that we do have some properties that are in a perpetual state of vacancy and we just can’t keep cutting the brakes.
Councillor Carr
There was $73,000 worth of commercial vacant / excess land in the downtown BIA:
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