Lumby Adopts Business Tax Exemption

By Tom Mark

Jul 19, 2018 | 7:21 AM

Lumby Council has adopted its new Revitalization Tax Exemption Bylaw aimed at improving the look of its downtown and commercial zone.

It gives a tax exemption for five years for businesses that add on to their current premises or to new construction.

Mayor Kevin Acton says it’s an investment in the village’s future.

“A few people were waiting and hopefully anticipating this would pass and so I would expect that we’re going to see some pretty major activity in downtown Lumby over the next year or two for sure.”

New construction would require a building permit of 100 thousand dollars.

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For current buildings, renovations or add-ons need to be worth 20 thousand dollars or more.

“How it will work is if you invest and build another building or add on to your building or whatever your dollar value investment is, you want be paying taxes on that portion, the village portion of the taxes, for the next five years.”

A 50 per cent discount would then be available for the following five years for the increased assessed value.

“Cost is sometimes prohibitive to get things going. You know small businesses are quite often run on a shoestring budget or a very tight line. So, we’re hoping that this will be just the incentive to help people invest and get over that little bit of a hump and make things work for them.”

Acton says the benefit to the village is long term financially and hopefully will attract new business.

by Tom Mark