Property Tax - the bluntest instrument for City finance

The manner in which our municipal government levies and collects tax is becoming increasingly detached from its responsibility to deliver service and allocate collections among the citizenry in an equitable fashion.

Right now the City seems to charge property tax in a way that bears little resemblance to the amount of services consumed by the owners.  For example, if you own a high value property, you will undoubtedly pay a high tax, but perhaps you don't own a car or have children attending school.  In this case you'd pay a lot of tax relative to the amount of service needed.  In another case, perhaps a person rents a house, has five school aged kids, and makes dozens of daily trips up and down the most congested freeway at rush hour.  This person is arguably not even paying property tax directly, yet places a heavy load on municipal services.  And of course it goes without saying how much higher inner city taxes are for comparatively tiny homes vs. suburban palaces.

I would argue how property tax is charged significantly distorts behaviour in the City by encouraging undesirable behaviour such as peak time traffic congestion, and migration of young families to outer communities that lack public amenities such as schools and public transit options.  Lower value properties are obviously going to be preferentially selected by a buyer who will also benefit from lower tax.  Since road use isn't charged via a toll, a house shopper may significantly alter his or her behaviour to avoid tax, yet via the locational handicaps of outer communities, may require a lot of public investment in infrastructure.

Essentially I think that taxing based purely on assessed value rather than adjusting the tax for locational and behavioural patterns is subsidizing unwanted behaviour and punishing desirable behaviour.  

We may be better off by lowering property tax to some basic minimum, then charging usage based fees to ensure Calgarians are paying a more equitable share of how they use public services and infrastructure.

The likelihood of this happening, despite Maxime Bernier winning the Calgary vote for the recent leadership campaign (by a landslide over the other candidates) of the conservative party is really remote.  Until then, we will continue to use property tax as a blunt instrument to deal with the complex issue of financing the City.  

Two of these properties are vacant, either under construction or ready to demolish.  Only the last one comes with school aged children (probably should be taxed a lot more!).

Preparing for final electrical meter base in areas with rear detached garage.

The project is finally at the stage where we can get permanent electrical power.  The task was complicated by my inability to get the garage pad poured during winter.  Now that the garage is framed we can fasten two new meter bases on either side of the building.  Conduit leads underground to the panels inside the houses.  A second conduit is run back to the front of the garage from the house.   This will power the garage circuit.  The power company seems insistent on having the homes with detached garages and lanes where the poles are in the lane to be energized in this way. It does eliminate a lot of the risk of long above ground wires from being damaged in storms or interfering with tree growth. 

Ideally in a future project I'd be able to get the garages up a little quicker and the permanent power installed.  We'd then be able to disconnect the temporary power line and run more lights and plugs inside the house.  I may impose a new rule on myself not to start building any houses in the winter, it is just a lot of unnecessary aggravation.  

New meter base and mast is installed. The meter base is very close to the lane. Once connected the power will run underground into the basement mechanical room and we can disconnect the temporary pole we've been using for the past six months.  

Illegal dumping - lazy thieves are everywhere

I think it is fair to say when working in the City you must be prepared to absorb losses from theft and illegal activity such as dumping.  Those that are engaged in this type of behaviour are fearless and brazen in their daylight activities.  They rely successfully on the anonymity and speed at which they do their work. The chances of being caught dumping garbage at a job site are low, so these crooks are doing it constantly.  

I may be investing in some security cameras for a future project to see if I can catch some of this in the act.  My plan will be to reload the unwanted couch or pile of debris that someone decides should be emptied on my site, and dump it on the guilty parties front door.  I'm sure they will appreciate getting their garbage back.

Here is the remnants of someone clearing brush and cutting out old fencing.  They were able to take down my fence, dump their material, and actually put the fence back up.  I guess I should thank these idiots for actually putting the fence back.  That is generally too much to ask for.  

Hardwood install 3 - finishing the stairs

The stair tread install has been as difficult and time consuming as I had thought it would be.  This job really takes a patient craftsman to execute.  The finishing work of course takes a long time, because it involves precision and attention to detail.  The final trim piece of the stair is going on now, he actually has to shave the veneer off a piece of flooring to make it look right.  Here is a photo of the final process.

The second from top tread has received its final veneer trim piece on the side of the riser.  This is my first experiment with finishing an old fashioned carriage style of tread in a contemporary hardwood.  I may use this again in a project I am planning in Killarney.

Dying trees are expensive

UPDATE - I asked the City crew to take out the tree, they agreed.  apparently they have a contractor working in the Shaganappi area this year, and will be taking out the dying willow.

With a new development permit application for my fourplex submitted, the city arrives to inventory any trees in the front.  They put a price tag on tree damage or replacement of city owned trees.  The site has two weeping willow trees, both really old.  One is in good shape and valued over $8500.  The other is 2/3 dead and valued over $550.  I think the tree is worth negative $550 because someone is going to have to pay to deal with it.  

Im going to ask the city to see if it can take down the tree. I suspect the city wants me to take it down and then bill me for it 'damaging' it. This makes no sense because I'm not allowed to operate on city property. This is the same city that observed some rutting in the alley and threatened to charge me $10000 to fix it and said I wasn't allowed to make repairs on city land. So I'm either allowed to operate on city land or I'm not.  Either way the tree needs to go. We've got to get a new sewer connection into the project and it likely must pass through that location.  I'm glad both trees were not valuable otherwise I'd be in a tough position, excavating a trench beside a mature tree would likely damage it beyond repair.    

this is the dying willow.  

still worth $565  

Visiting the dump

there is always a time during the project when dumpster placement becomes a problem.  Right now the garage is under construction so the rear isn't an option.  The front yard was just being prepped for sidewalk so it also wasn't an option to store a bin.  

You can store a bin in the street but that tends to attract a lot of dumping from people in the area.  There is a good chance your new empty bin will be a target for nasty couches and junk of any description.  It is also in the way of deliveries and parking. with fees for tipping waste being so high I'm currently not going to do that until we can find a lidded bin, or set something up in a garage once the door is on  

So for now I'm back to mobile dumping courtesy of my truck. you can get a lot of junk in one truck if you recycle all the cardboard first.  At this point in the project I've likely done five large cardboard loads to the local recycle depot. The main rule of bin management is no cardboard in the bin. That results in just paying to ship air to the dump which is a huge waste of money.  Another option I have been resisting is buying my own dump trailer. As soon as I do this I'm sentencing myself to a lifetime of dump runs and I'd rather not. 

lots of junk for the dump  

No Appeal. The rowhouse permit marathon is nearly over...

I think the greatest relief of last week was not getting my stucco finished and the scaffold pulled off or the sidewalks poured so we can start landscaping.  It was having the appeal window expire without an appeal being filed to attempt to overturn the row house development permit.

While the permit hasn't yet been released, (I did pay the $4000 fee called the offsite levy), we have to meet a few more attainable technical conditions, the permit itself cannot be contested.  The cost of moving the project along has been heavy in terms of funds, time and sanity.  I wont be able to get a building permit for another month or so, and we still have the stormwater management and site servicing project drawing outstanding, but despite all the big hurdles left, I am pretty sure I can get this basement dug before the end of summer.

The project was arguably susceptible to being overturned on appeal because we had to negotiate a front setback relaxation.  The appeals board could easily have required that relaxation be revoked, and we'd be back at the design phase.  It would have been another major time consuming and costly process to re-submit a modified plan, and the project would have suffered mightily in terms of design quality.

The City is providing the public a better online tool to track these projects from beginning through to final permitting.  Here is a screen shot of the rowhouse application showing the approval from developmentmap.calgary.ca.

No appeal was submitted.  The four best words on screen.  All of this information is located on a mobile friendly page at development map.calgary.ca

Comments on front setback requirements - where is the common sense?

While pouring the front sidewalk today and seeing the end product, a sensible person can't help but look how we are building homes on lots in the inner city and and feel there is something wrong.   

This means we are rebuilding the city from the inside out but not in a way that we won't come to regret. By this I suggest that the front setback is such a burdensome and project damaging requirement that it should be changed by the city.   

The result of long contextual front setbacks is 'backwardization' of the site coverage.  Tiny back yard and oversized front yard is the outcome.  This is what we are building in 2017, although the context was set 50-75 years ago by homes that are largely being demolished now. I would prefer the opposite site use than what is currently allowed, and so would my buyers, the new community members that are going to live in these houses.  The buyers have zero say in permitting matters, by the time they enter into the picture the project is long since permitted and possibly built.  

What will it take to change this bylaw?  I'm not sure, but what we have now needs a redo.  This is another problem with a 400 page zoning bylaw. It doesn't contain a chapter on common sense.  I have heard there is support at the political level to change this, and it looks like some planning staff are considering new rules on front setbacks.  Maybe with the main streets initiative passed earlier this month some planning staff resources can be reallocated to this issue?    

The flatwork is done. My crew did a nice job. The front setback looks ridiculously long from this vantage.  Can we ever change this?  Why are we building houses with bigger front yards that are essentially used for nothing except sod, and smaller rear yards where a lot of outdoor living is meant to take place?

Hardwood install 2 - stairs

Covering the treads and risers in hardwood is a significant use of our finishing budget.  The work is labour intensive and consumes a lot of material.  The outcome is worth the expense in my view.  My installer is working by himself, unfortunately he's a one man team.  I like the end result however. Here is a shot of the first few treads going in. 

Each tread is a paintstaking process. But it looks great. Carpeting these treads would be a fraction of the cost.  

Hardwood install 1 - handmade nosings

The project we are working on features a lot of nosing material.  These can be provided by the manufacturer, however we've been making our own for a more custom and flexible installation.  In this project the appearance of the nosing is a big factor in how the finished product will turn out. Of course this comes with a significant installation bill, but for this type of work you need to pay for a really good installer otherwise you risk not only bad workmanship, but wasting costly material as well.

While it isn't clear in a photo, the nosing are also grain matched, so the grain of the wood wraps around the edge.  This makes the transition from vertical to horizontal even nicer.

Stucco Final

The stucco crew is on its second day of applying the acrylic coat onto the scratch coat.  The final stucco coat has encountered a new and unfamiliar weather phenomenon, it was too hot in the direct sun to apply it.  The guys had to wait until the morning sun had moved off the east face of the building to start applying the acrylic.  We had a productive holiday monday, and the weather was so fine I felt guilty the guys were working.  This is an issue with construction work in Calgary, the best weather needs to be taken advantage of despite weekends and holidays.  The stucco guys go back to Lebanon in the winter, so they do get a long break, but still I would rather seem them spending time with the family on this day.  

The acrylic goes on and the scaffold comes down, what a relief.  Sidewalks are next.

Tile Part 4

We are nearing the end of the tile project.  A lot of the tile selections were the same for both sides, one of the final choices was the glass herringbone mosaic we used for the backsplash.  This has turned out to look very nice, I may use this product again.

The herringbone tile takes more skill to install, and a wet saw to cut.  I like the outcome. 

This is another selection from stonetile west.  I like to shop there and they make an effort to supply tile at reasonable prices, this helps a lot when you are buying 3-400 pieces at a time.

Garage framing...long weekend work

The crew elected to start framing the garage over the long weekend. This is an odd choice because this weekend in particular is known more for beer drinking and camping than construction.   

We also have the stucco crew back on site starting the final coat.  This was also unexpected but a huge relief to get the scaffold taken down.  We have concrete booked on Tuesday and the poles were in the way.  Now we can actually landscape the front yard. Overall a very productive May long weekend.   

Garage framing

We've taken delivery of the garage package.  This normally uneventful event is getting its own post on the blog.  It was an opportunity for me to get a little exercise.  The package was fairly large, so we had to drop it in the alley.  This isn't really allowed (blocking alley, storing stuff in the alley), so I had to move it all onto the pad by hand.  

Unfortunately, or maybe with very good reason, the delivery forklift company policy is not to drop lumber on a new slab, or maybe even on any slab. They just don't want the liability that comes with possibly damaging fresh concrete work.  As is typical for the inner city, there simply is no space to store material.  I would have put down some plywood and dropped the load onto that slowly, and it would have been ok.  Given that I wasn't driving the forklift, I at least got my exercise in.

This is all complicated by not having a really firm delivery time.  I don't have anyone that can just wait around all day for lumber.  Inevitably it means I waste a half day waiting around and trying to get guys to be 'on call' to assist with the moving.  The lesson here is just make sure you organize your delivery and manpower to be all at the same time.  If not you are taking a chance your lumber could block access to the neighbours garage, and the neighbours at my current site are fairly 'particular' about these issues.

Hardwood - ready to go

It seemed like the entire city was in a rush to get some last minute work done before basically everything shuts down for the weekend.  We have hardwood install ready after the break, so they delivered today.  In theory the material can acclimatize to its new home, I think this is pretty much nonsense because the boxes are individually wrapped.  Undoubtedly the wood is arriving from a super dry warehouse somewhere in SE Calgary, not exactly a climate controlled environment. 

We have some interesting details planned for the install.  I have used this shop before, and found their sales, service and install to be very good.  I've given them a challenging install and we are going to see what they can do next week.

Garage Slab

So we finally had the right combination of schedule and weather and the garage slab is done. Just in time as I have booked the framers and lumber.  

Placing concrete is another job that looks fairly easy until you try it yourself. There is a lot of pressure on the placing crew because you can't afford to get it wrong and concrete dries according to its own schedule.  Seems like four guys is good number for a large pour.  

The last wet concrete is being placed. Note the size of the blue shaft that allows them to reach way into the forms.  

The power trowel is used to polish the surface. A lot of gear goes into flatwork, another reason not to try this yourself  

Pot light details

The pot lights fit almost like a surface mount fixture, instead of a large metal can they just grip the ceiling drywall. Each light comes with AC to DC transformer and that acts as the junction box.  These are the fixture we will be using just about everywhere in my next project. I am going to be building a project to be 'hardened' for leasing, so I don't want to be changing bulbs and cleaning dusty fixtures (or worse fixing damaged wall lights).  

These are a plug and play item.  Easy to install as well

The transformer gets the other end of the plug.

Selecting lights

I tend to always leave lighting for the end, and then scramble around the various suppliers to find some last minute pieces.  The good news is the large hardware stores have started to stock replicas of the really expensive designer stuff at reasonable cost.  And all the new stuff tends to be integrated LED, which was unobtainably pricey just a few short years ago.  

Similar fixtures that are now in customized LED with shapes and styles that can't be easily made used to be lit by G9 style halogens.  Those were the kind of bulb that often blew out prematurely and were hard to replace, burnt really hot, and sucked a lot of power.  Often you'd see a bathroom light with 3-4 x 60 watt halogen.  That is way too much electrical use for one fixture.  

We will be starting the interior completion of the project shortly, that means we are going to do the lights and plumbing first, the hardwood second, and then the carpet and appliances at the very end.  It is always nice to be at this stage of the project because the end is definitely near.

Round shaped LED fixture are now available at your local hardware store. 

The insane greed factor of Calgary land sellers is off the charts...

Another interesting couple of properties arrived in my inbox today.  The first is a classic example of the typical Calgary land seller today.  Essentially the strategy of the land seller is two fold:

1. Capture more than the intrinsic value of the land in the sale, and attempt to take as much of the builder margin as possible when doing so, despite many months of work and investment needed to even begin to develop the site into a viable business venture.  

2. When marketing the land, misrepresent and exaggerate the ultimate development potential of the site to further increase the listing price, thus feeding into item #1.

You can pick up this delightful property for an easy $850,000.....

The second lot is now a multifamily zoned site that was re-designated for free (for the seller) thanks to the mainstreets initiative at City Hall.  While the land now has the right zone to be useful, the seller of course neglects to mention how terrible the access to the site is for needed requirements (i.e. parking),  and how poor the actual development potential is for the site without bundling the land along with another parcel (may be difficult or impossible to do this). Of course the land is priced as if it is immediately suited for a multi unit project (I don't think this is the case whatsoever).  The agent doesn't mention that without a lane, and fronting onto a couple busy roads, parking is going to make for some seriously awkward planning.  The listing agent claims it has 'excellent development opportunities'. I think not. 

Note the poor site access, the detached garage that exits onto 37 st cannot be allowed in future development.  How else will parking be accessed here?  Well I guess 19 ave can be used, but this is also less than ideal.  I wouldn't touch this lot at half the current valuation.

Blog readers, feel free to send me addresses of property you'd like to build on, and I will be happy to identify its failings' free of charge!

Construction screw ups continued ...

Here is the latest in our ongoing series of construction screw-ups.  I had the engineer out to review the preparations to the garage slab.  Since he designed the slab, he wanted to see it pre-pour, otherwise it would be too late to determine if the pad was built to his specs.

The crew unfortunately had not thickened the edge of the slab adequately, such that he couldn't pass the work.  I had to call back the company owner and give him the bad news.  Fortunately they were willing to return quickly and make corrections, so our pour date is not jeopardized.  

When the engineer calls for a 16 inch thickened edge, he actually means he wants 16 inches.  This is how it looks now that the excavation increased from 12 to 16.

This type of situation can often decay relationships between the builder and the contractor.  Undoing and re-doing work is something nobody wants.  For me, I just want the pad prepped correctly, and I don't want to pay for it twice.  Construction has become a game of passing responsibility on to someone else, and of course the expense that goes with it.  

My job here is to make sure I have evidence of documentation on what specification the job was quoted to by the contractor.  Very often the response to this type of failure is something like 'we built it according to the plan you gave us, etc'.  I was able to pull out two instances where I had provided the engineer's drawings to the contractor before work began.  This goes a long way toward minimizing disputes about charging for extra work.