Assessment Review Board

Commission de révision de l’évaluation foncière

ISSUE DATE: May 29, 2015 FILE NO.: WR 130786

Assessed Person(s): 1126744 Ontario Inc. Appellant(s): 1126744 Ontario Inc. and Nick Vidinovsky Respondent(s): Town of Wasaga Beach Respondent(s): Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (“MPAC”) Region 16

Property Location(s): 3267 Mosley Street Municipality(ies): Town of Wasaga Beach Roll Number(s): 4364-010-015-44900-0000 Appeal Number(s): 2986169, 3022823 and 3087621 (deemed 2015) Taxation Year(s): 2013, 2014 (and deemed 2015) Hearing Event No. 578329

Legislative Authority: Section 40 of the Assessment Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A.31, as amended

Heard: February 18, 2015 in Wasaga Beach, Ontario

APPEARANCES:

Parties	Counsel+/Representative
1126744 Ontario Inc.	P. Gignac
MPAC	J. Thompson
Town of Wasaga Beach	No one appeared

DECISION OF THE BOARD DELIVERED BY LESLIE FLEMMING

INTRODUCTION

1This appeal was heard in Wasaga Beach on February 18, 2015. At the conclusion of evidence and submissions, the Assessment Review Board (“Board”) reserved its decision.

2The subject property is a 3.99 acre parcel of Institutional land located on Mosley Street in Wasaga Beach. The property is level, partially treed, and is the site of the former Silvercrest School owned by the Collingwood and District Christian Elementary School Association. The structures consist of the one-level brick schoolhouse of 6,150 square feet (“sq. ft.”) and two portable classrooms. The property has 300 feet of frontage on Mosley Street, and a depth of 580 feet. The area immediately surrounding the property on three sides is a forested tract of land. The subject property was purchased by the Appellant for $430,000 in July, 2011. At the time it was exempt from property taxes by virtue of being operated as a school. However, the school closed in 2011 and the property was converted to a taxable property in the commercial property class.

3The current value assessment in the amount of $692,000 is being appealed by the owners of the property on the ground that the sale in 2011 for $430,000 established the current value of the property as of the valuation day, January 1, 2012. If anything, the Appellant argues, the current value should be reduced to $369,000. The Appellants dispute the MPAC assessment on the ground that it is derived from a speculative approach to value that ignores the applicable zoning by-law and Official Plan for Town of Wasaga Beach.

4The Assessment Corporation argues that the current value assessment is governed by two things: (1) the fact that the sale by a soon-to-be-defunct not-for-profit group when the school was closed was tantamount to a forced sale and could not be described as a sale by a willing seller; and (2) that the value must be governed by the highest and best use of the land which in this case is described by MPAC as multi-unit residential development land.

ISSUES

5The task before the Board is to determine the current and equitable value of 3267 Mosley Street as of January 1, 2012. For the taxation years in question, 2013 and 2014, the burden of proof as to the correctness of the current value of the subject property rests with the assessment corporation. Both parties relied upon a highest and best use analysis in arriving at their proposed current value, derived from the sales of similar lands in the vicinity.

DECISION

6The Board determines that the current value of the subject property is $430,000 as of the valuation day of January 1, 2012.

7The Board finds that the evidence does not support a conclusion that the current value of the property as determined above requires an equity reduction.

8Accordingly, the assessment is reduced from $692,000 to $430,000 for the 2013