Developers in B.C. have been allowed to make unused land available to gardeners and dog walkers in exchange for tax breaks, but some question whether seemingly underutilized community gardens are worth the large tax subsidies their property owners are receiving from the government.
Shadowed by skyscrapers in downtown Vancouver’s financial district, 1166 West Pender Street houses more than 90 garden boxes, each growing tax breaks for the owners of the empty lot awaiting redevelopment.
“It’s not particularly attractive, but it’s very financially rewarding for the developer,” said real estate consultant and planner Michael Geller.
The province, through BC Assessment, can reclassify land from Class 6 business use to Class 8 recreational property/non-profit organization use for community gardens or dog parks.
Geller believes the initial concept was good but said it’s been abused to the point urban plots are sprouting up everywhere – regardless of whether a community amenity is wanted or needed.
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“Essentially at one level, it’s simply a scam that developers have discovered where you can sometimes save hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes by making a space like this available,” Geller told Global News.
According to the City of Vancouver, the future 32-storey office tower site at 1166 West Pender Street was converted from business to recreational class in 2025, with an assessed value of $50.8 million.
If the property had remained in Class 6 for 2025, the city said the estimated municipal property taxes would have been approximately $323,000.
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Based on its new classification, the City of Vancouver’s property taxes payable were approximately $92,000, or $231,000 less.
“It’s not really value for money for the taxpayers,” said Geller.
A building permit was issued for 1166 West Pender Street in March 2023.
A Nov. 24 City of Vancouver inspection certificate noted the project, which is being developed by Hines and Reliance Properties, was on hold.
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In a statement to Global News, the companies said real estate developers increasingly convert idle sites into community spaces like gardens or dog parks “to provide social value and green space, reduce crime, and receive tax relief during an economic downturn”, adding construction is expected to start once a pre-lease is secured.
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“While in the pre-leasing stage of 1166 West Pender, Hines and Reliance are utilizing the site for a community garden, which is well-used and has received positive feedback from community members,” stated Hines and Reliance Properties in an email.
Vancouver COPE councillor Sean Orr said seeing a community garden surrounded by glass towers brings up bigger questions around speculation and land banking.
“Why are we rewarding these people sitting on this land,” Orr told Global News in an interview. “There’s jurisdictions across the world that would do the opposite, that would tax that speculation and tax the increase in land value to provide other benefits for the city that aren’t just, you know, a few containers.”
The City of Vancouver said it does not maintain a list of all temporary community gardens and dog parks from BC Assessment for the past five years.
24 development sites are currently classified as parks and gardens on the 2025 Assessment Roll, and according to the city, their estimated property tax breaks equate to approximately $1.1 million in forgone municipal tax revenue:
24 development sites are currently classified as parks and gardens on the 2025 Assessment Roll.
City of Vancouver
At the western end of Point Grey Village, the owners of the former Safeway site at 4545 West 10th Avenue saw the largest municipal tax savings this year, at $285,100.
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“It’s a nice chunk of change for them,” said Jean Baird with Friends of Point Grey Village, as she surveyed the empty dog park and community garden which have been set up on the sprawling property. “This is very typical I mean, it’s a sunny day and nobody’s here.”
The lot, which takes up almost an entire city block, has been vacant since the Safeway was demolished in 2019.
In March, council approved a rezoning application for a mixed-use development with two rental towers.
“It’s an easy way to let a property just sit if you aren’t in any hurry to develop it,” Baird said in an interview Tuesday.
“My number one question is why haven’t they fixed this loophole,” said former Metro Vancouver chief planner and Friends of Point Grey Village member Chris DeMarco. “It’s a tremendous amount of money when you add up all the development sites over the whole province that are having to be picked up by other taxpayers.”
Global News asked the BC Ministry of Finance and BC Assessment, which reports to the ministry, if the government is indirectly encouraging developers to let land sit empty by allowing certain sites to be reclassified as recreational non-profit use for temporary community gardens and dog parks, and if temporary community gardens and dog parks are worth the huge tax subsidy.
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We also requested the total dollar amount of tax breaks B.C. developers and companies have received for obtaining a land reclassification from business use to recreational non-profit use in the past decade.
BC Assessment said our questions relate to government policy matters, and referred us to the Ministry of Finance.
Despite repeated requests, the B.C. government refused to provide answers.
In an email, the Ministry of Finance also said “…the minister’s schedule is packed and she is unavailable for an interview.”
“It doesn’t seem equitable that the development industry reaps this big windfall gain on the backs of other taxpayers,” DeMarco told Global News in an interview Tuesday.
The Ministry of Finance said BC Assessment inspects community garden and dog park locations regularly to ensure the criteria for recreation and community benefit is met.
A property can be reclassified for any number of reasons, the ministry said, and if a member of the community feels that a specific property is not meeting the requirements, they can appeal to BC Assessment to change the classification.
