Homeowners from a community in northern Alberta say a 50 percent reduction in their property assessment because of a nearby feedlot is proof large livestock operations devalue neighboring property.
“The tax assessor agrees with us that the value of our property has dropped,” said Helen Rich, who operates the post office from her home in the hamlet of St. Michael, northeast of Edmonton.
“It’s a victory,” said Rich, one of 13 landowners who appealed the assessed value of their property.
“Yes, we’ve proved our point, but it doesn’t help because we won’t be able to sell.”
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Members of the St. Michael and Area Landowner’s Protection Society felt the smell from the 10,000-head Cam-A-Lot Feedlot located 1.5 kilometres from the hamlet reduced their property values after it was built in 1999.
But Al McNaughton, tax assessor for the County of Lamont, said the reduced assessment does not set a precedent for the value of homes near other intensive livestock operations.
McNaughton said while it’s clear the feedlot has caused the community a “lot of grief,” the tax reduction is not proof that property values have dropped.
Generally, assessors look at the price nearby homes have sold for in the community to see if house prices have dropped. But in St. Michael there were too few houses for sale to take an accurate picture.
Agreement reached
During a Municipal Government Board appeal hearing in mid-December, residents who appealed their assessments agreed to withdraw their appeals if there was a 50 percent assessment reduction on property located within a two-mile area of the boundaries of the quarter section containing the feedlot.
There is a 25 percent reduction for property located within the next half mile beyond the two-mile boundary, a 25 percent reduction on property within the next one mile beyond the two-mile boundary and a 15 percent reduction on property located in the next half mile.
Evelyn Kucy of St. Michael, said the changed assessment has reduced property taxes on her farm home from $1,370 a year to $350.
She said the reduction should send a warning to other communities where intensive livestock operations are being proposed.
To arrive at an assessed value, McNaughton said he based his figures on experiences he has had elsewhere.
“It wasn’t just out of a hat. It was based on my experience with other blight factors.”
Since the feedlot was built more than a year ago, truck traffic through the hamlet has increased, dust from silage and manure trucks has increased and the smell has generated complaints from people who live nearby, he said.
“We know there was a loss of values, but there was nothing to measure it by.”
Other communities shouldn’t wave this assessment reduction around as proof that intensive livestock operations lower property values, he added.
The mutually agreed upon reduction was imposed because there was no “scientific” way of finding out if there was a reduction in value.
If the group had not agreed to the reduction and not withdrawn its appeal, the board would have based its decision on evidence provided at the hearing and may have used decisions from other communities with similar appeals.
Dennis Hawthorne, senior secretariat adviser with the Alberta Municipal Government Board, said a recent appeal in nearby Sturgeon County upheld the assessed value of a rural property. The board decided there was no evidence a nearby intensive livestock operation devalued the property.
“That’s what gave pause to the people of St. Michael,” Hawthorne said.
“The people of St. Michael wanted to prove more of a point than just getting a reduction in taxes.”
