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full text of riding of judge robinson in county assessment appeal cfotcowniiaia when you need help in a hurry you reach for your telephone think of the difference it makes just knowing your telephone is there ready to serve jou in any emergency vo price can measure its usejulness the bell telephone compafflfof canada j tvro subscribe to the herald today continued from last week in he county court of the county of halton in the matter of an appeal by the town of oakvllle and by ihe town of burlington against hal ton county equalization bylaw 1952 this weelt nelson and trafalgar a case nelsons case- tine assessors for nelson took their instructions from the county assessor and rated the properties not according to their own judg ment whatsoever hut rather on the instructions issued by thetjounty assessor they assessed the prop erties at the south end of the township at extremely low values ns compared with similar property in burlington i neecuaauaifeinto the various inequalities as the assessors for nelson were in con stant attendance at the hearings of this appeal and must have seen for themselve the groat differ ence between their assessments and those of burlington on both land and building assessments evidence was given to show that with similar homes in burlington and nelson the nelson assessments were much lower than burlington and miswas proven clearly by photographs filed as exhibits by counsel for burlington blanket obsoscence was applied through out nelson township and of course none was applied in bur lington or oakyill there were some glaring examples of proper ties in nelson whilwere sold in 1051 for manj tps the assessed value one example the eaton farm sold for 50 000 00 and assessed at only 3 000 00 and then again the johnson farm of sev enteen acres which sold for 35 550 and was assessed at only 3 500 the the expert aircraft technician is an important man in the expanding field of modern aviation his ser vice his okay are required by the pilot before 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hundred dollars por acre and the evidence disclosed many similar inequalities but i need not illustrate further here as the assessors and also municipalsrepre sentatives of nelson were present in court when the evidence of these discrepancies was given in consequence of the abovemen tioned inequalities the assessment of nelson must be substantially in creased to bring it in line with other parts of the county for equalization purposes the county assessor gave evi dence as part of- nelsons case and admitted that he knew that the nelson assessment should be sub atantially increased when he made his report to the county council at the time of the passing of the equalization by4aw but he did not advise the council of this condition in his report made in june 1952 he stated that he tried to bring nelson lake front assessments in line with trafalgar but did not try to bring them in line with burling ton or oakvillc he admitted that he had instructed the burlington assessor to give no obsolescence to the part of the niagara brand spray company plant located inside the limits of burlington but to give the part of the plant in nelson an obsolescence of ten per cent which was obviously quite unfair indian point assessments are also badly out of line as compared to bur- jinglon the eaggles property at indian point in nelson sold for 18 000 00 and is assessed at 4325 the english inns property on the lake shore highway sold at seven times its assessment even after tak ing into account the value of the hotel license a location obsoles cence was allowed there of twenty jjercent on all of the buildings evidence showed that the bonar- bemis factory is in a very valuable location for its purposes and it was discountde by 23 243 00 for lo cation obsolescence on the instruc tions of the county assessor this is a comparatively new plant and is located on the main line of the canadian national railway ideally situated for shipping their product mr john coombe an assessment exipcrt produced by nelson stated in his evidence that no blanket obsolescence should be allowed iu any port of the county he also stated after inspecting many prop erlics that either burlington ass cssments are too high tor nel son assessments are too low par ticularly on lake front properties he also stated that there is a great disparity in frontage rates on lake shore properties west of burling ton in nelson as compared with burlington properties he admitted quite frankly that these assessments should be substantially increased he agreed also that there should be no obsolescence allowed in rose land survey as had been done by the nelson assessor he agreedlhat the business properties at the cor ner of brant street and queen ell zabeth way should be assessed as commercial properties rather than as residential land burlington as sescd the sen ice stations on the south side as commercial properties but nelson issessed the service stations and the clans restaurant at only residential rales mr coombe also stated that no land should be assessed for its potential value but rather for its actual use at the time of the assessment he also agreed that no obsolescence discounts should have been made by nelson on any industrial building he thought that the burlington garden land is muoh too highly assessed for its present use a comparison of two apartment buildings of the same size and iden ileal construction showed the bur lington building assessed at 111100 and the one in nelson at 79500 or a difference of thirty nine percent in assessment evidence was given by two ex perts which proved conclusively that the assessments in the south ern part of nelson were ridiculous iy low as compared with actual value or with the burlington land assessment a great many other instances of extremely low assess ment in nelson were given but again i do not need to go into these in detail here but it will be taken into account in my finalconclusions as to the extent by which i must increase the nelson assessment before leaving the nelson assess ments i think i should discuss the homel property as described in the evidence of mr purnell which was sold in 1949 for 43 000 00 and again in 1951 for 47 000 00 and it is now assessed at only 7 550 00 in regard to the assessments in nel son township i think that their rep resentatives and officials realize that the assessment in their muni cipality is far from being equitable and its expert mr coombe agreed in ffis evidence arid also his coun sel on this appeal stated that several adjustments should be made and that ttiey are now making an attempt to correct the situation in the next assessment i think it is only fair for me to say here that in my opinion the nelson assessors tried to do a good honest job but they were guided entirely by the instructions given them by toe county assessor these instruc tions however were not in accord ance with the assessment act where the county assessment sys tem is in force trafalgars case the first witness for trafalgar was the assessor b m dunbara he had no previous experience as an assessor but followed the same rules as nelson in regard to loca- jlion discounts he also followed the instructions of the county assessor and attended several meetings with him and other as- ihe geomtiktown 1 wednesday evening jan 14 19 page 7 he allowed blanket location dis counts from five percent to twenty percent on buildings from the easterly boundary of oakvllle to the easterly limits of the town ship in the southern portion and extending to the upper middle ftoad being the first concession north of the queen elizabeth way east of the sixteen mile greek he allowed as much as forty percent discount on buildings west of the sixteen mile creek blanket location discounts in more remote parts of the township being north of dundas highway were allowed up to fiftyifive percent on build lngs the highest location discount allowed on residential property in the township of traelgarwas forty percent and the lowest was five percent the blanket discount commenced in the district east of oakvllle at gloucester road on the north side of the lake shore highway and at the eight line on the south side of the highway this discount was allowed at five percent from mor rison road to the ninth line the discounts allowed were ten percent prom the ninth line to the eas terly limits of the township they were increased to fifteen percent farms in the whole area were al lowed a discount of twenty per cent on all buildings the proper ties between the seventh ling find- the sixteen mile creek from the queen elizabeth way to the upper middle road the discount- was from twenty percent to twenty five per cent the properties on the west side of the seventh line in this district received a discount of fifteen percent some of the properties on the queen elizabeth way west of oak- ville enjoy location discounts up to forty per cent particularly on country estates these high dis counts cannot be justified their owner wish to have their homes where they would have a substan tial acreage and assessments otf their lands a divided between the part used for residence and the part used for farming at vary ing rates per acre no blankest obsolescence should be applied on any of these buildings or any other residence on the queen elizabeth way i will now deal with the proper ties on the lake shore highway between the highway and the lake in most cases the owners have all the land between the highway and the lake in these cases the land assessment should be in line with the burden estate property m oakwlle which is two thousand dollars per acre it would not be practicable to assess them on a per foot frontage basis because of their great depth loathe lake any of these properties which have swamp or waste should receive some obsolestnce on that ac count the assessments on these lands heretofore have varied from four hundred dollars an acre to twelve hundred and fifty dollars an acre no building discounts should be allowed on these so far as land is concerned properly used as farm land with no lake frontage should not be assessed at the said land rate as to the properties on the north side of the lake shore highway the land assessments must be substantially increased from one end to the other small parcels should be assessed on a frontage basis on the lage par cels they should be increased to one thousand dollars per aere for the front portion and the balance at a considerable reduction according to the type of land end the use made of it no blanket dis count should be allowed on any of these and each property must be considered on its own merits the use of the land at the time of assessment should toe the guid ing factor garden land and that used for nursery stock between the queen elizabeth way and the lake shore highway is assessed far too low at two hundred dollars per acre this should- be assessed et least at five hundred dollars per acre accord ing to the assessments on similar land in the towns no fruit or garden land between the queen elizabeth way end the lake should be assessed at less than five hun dred dollars per aife it was shown in tills appeal that one parcel of about ninety acres assessed at two hundred dollars per acre was sold lor two thousand dollars an acre several parcels of land between the queen elizabeth way and the canadi natio railway tracks have been recently sold for the purpose of the new ford develop ment some of these lands are not being used in the construction of the industry until they are so continued on page 8 mart shoe in georgetown exclusively at silvers highest prices paid for scrap iron steel melala batteries miscellaneous farm serap delivered to our yard 175 caroline st n hamilton 1 waxman sons phone hamilton 21061 and 83611 eavestroughing plumbing heating don houston phone 547w flowers for every occasion design work a specialty bonded member tds telegraph delivery service flowers by wire anywhere in the world norton floral phone s15w georgetown travel notes pre coronation tour amexpense boac 12day tour z to britain includes air sansportation from montreal to london and return rooms and meals full sightseeing program in lon don only 495 owd mul march slat john r barber travel aehrbar kuikk c thompson insurance sertick 11b mb1 street ma j m- commns 01 our classified page modomld and mr and mrs- phone no 8 ningham on sunday evening with people held a skiatianarty on stew friends the chickadees these snowy cheerful little fellows mtirgaret btnland ralph cunning- varttown pond afterwards enjoying