Pubdate: Sun, 18 May 2014 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 Times Colonist Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Bill Cleverley Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) MEDICAL POT FACTORIES TRIGGER TAX DILEMMA Politicians Fret Over Bunker Grow-Ops and the 'Llama Loophole' Local governments, still wrestling with how to best deal with applications to build fortress-like, medical marijuana grow-ops on agricultural land, now have to deal with a budding property tax issue as well. Some local government representatives in B.C. are worried new medical marijuana grow-ops may be able to avoid paying property taxes under what's being called the "llama loophole." The term dates to 2012, when a Chilliwack business owner, who had placed llamas on his land, successfully argued that his commercial property was being used for agriculture. That saw his property tax bill in 2013 drop to about $1,400 from the previous year's $156,800. Juan de Fuca electoral director Mike Hicks is all too aware of the case. The Capital Regional District is in the process of rezoning a warehouse in an Otter Point industrial park - right next to Hicks's new Juan de Fuca administrative headquarters - for a medical grow-op. "If the value of the property was $495,000 - $195,000 for the building, $300,000 for the land - the present taxes would be $7,300. If and when they apply [for farm status], their tax bill will be $172," Hicks said. The irony is that when Hicks presented proposed regulations at the Capital Regional District board this past week to increase required setbacks for medical marijuana operations on agricultural lands in Juan de Fuca electoral area, he faced criticism from some directors who said the medical marijuana grow-ops should be sited on industrial property - not rural land. Hicks said that as the Agricultural Land Commission deems the medical grow-ops agricultural use, he has no option but to permit them on the agricultural land. By establishing 30-metre setbacks from property lines, he hopes to minimize impacts on neighbours and force anyone wanting to build a facility to go through a rezoning process so neighbours can weigh in. Neighbouring Metchosin has taken a different course and will permit the medical grow-ops only on industrial land. Mayor John Ranns said the land commission has given municipalities latitude in dealing with medical grow applications. Ranns said it makes no sense to allow a fortress-like bunker to be built in the middle of arable land. Establishing 30-metre setbacks from the property lines "doesn't do anything" to address issues, Ranns said. "We've got a dark-sky policy in the community. That means that we try to discourage night time lighting as much as we can. Those things by law have to be completely illuminated outside. You have to have cameras. You have to have all of that kind of stuff," Ranns said. "So, the obvious thing on the farmland is you don't want to disrupt farming activities, not only on that parcel but also on adjacent parcels." Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt agreed with Ranns that medical grow-ops built to federal specifications would be more properly located on industrial sites. "I think open fields of hemp and marijuana are clearly agricultural, but that's not allowed in Canada at the present. And I don't want to see these reinforced bunkers installed on our most fertile land," Isitt said. Ranns was not aware of the llama loophole, but said it probably wouldn't have much of an impact in Metchosin. "In Metchosin, the farm-tax rate is higher than our commercial tax rate. We recognize that the B.C. Assessment Authority, once they assess a farm as a farm, that it's pretty low, so that in order to balance the residential component of it, we actually have our tax rate [for farms] quite high. So for us, it wouldn't make much difference because the tax rate is near the industrial rate." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom