Port Coquitlam
Port Moody
things-to-do
PoCo council works on regs for legal weed businesses.
PoMo city hall repairs are almost $700k over budget.
High school plays and much more in Things-to-do Guide.
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Assessment authority is grilled over biz lands Austin Heights biz hit particularly hard over the last few years Grant GranGer ggranger@tricitynews.com
Coquitlam gymnast Tamara O’Brien shows off the bronze medal she received at the 33rd world trampoline gymnastics championships in Russia. Even though she wasn’t able to compete because of a cancer diagnosis in 2017, the Canadian squad presented her with the medal it won in the team competition when she was able to travel to the meet with the help of a foundation that provides life experiences to young adults facing a difficult health challenge. For more on O’Brien’s trip – and her journey – read story on page 3. MarIO BarteL/tHe trI-CItY neWS
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Coquitlam council took exception to BC Assessment’s methods of determining property market value when two officials from the provincial body came calling Monday. Mayor Richard Stewart and others on council came to the defence of businesses in the Austin Heights neighbourhood whose assessed values have jumped substantially in the past three years, creating hardships in paying increased property tax. Stewart said in many instances, the market is being driven up by speculation for potential property use even though the city has either not passed a rezoning or is un-
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Who spent how much to run for office in last fall’s civic elections? tricitynews.com likely to do so. He said for one property in Austin Heights, “there is not a hope in hell a 25-storey office tower will be built there but it’s being taxed like it is… and I don’t know how to get it past that. It’s not possible to have a 30-storey office building on Austin.” The high assessed values, said Stewart and other councillors, place a significant burden on many business tenants because, in many cases, they’re the ones paying the property tax, not the land owners. see
increases, page 7
.ca