Abbotsford, B.C., property assessment increases nearly 12-fold because blueberries weren't planted in time

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On its face, the property assessment doesn't seem particularly unusual: a roughly 1,400-square-foot home with a finished basement, five bedrooms and three bathrooms on 9.5 acres in rural Abbotsford, valued at $2.8 million this year by BC Assessment.

It's the previous year's value that signals something strange is going on.

In 2021, BC Assessment valued the property on Ross Road at just $239,847. Why the nearly 12-fold increase in just 12 months?

A recent decision by the Property Assessment Appeal Board provides the explanation, and it involves blueberries.

According to the decision, owner Gurtej S. Bath acquired the property in August 2020 – after the July 1 date on which the 2021 assessment was based – with the intention of developing it into a blueberry farm.

The property is located in B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve, and had previously been used as a leased cattle pasture. This use allowed it to be classified as a farm, rather than as residential property, wrote Kenneth Wm. Thornicroft, chair of the appeal board panel, in the decision.

"If land is classified as farm, it is not assessed at its actual (or fair market) value but, rather, the land is valued and assessed in accordance with the provisions of the Land Values for Farm Land Regulation," Thornicroft wrote.

"These prescribed values commonly result in a significant decrease in the land value assessment relative to what would otherwise be the land’s fair market value."

Because the ownership of the property had changed, Bath was required to submit a new application to classify the property as a farm, which he did on Oct. 31, 2021.

"The new farm application set out the details of a proposed blueberry farm operation utilizing seven acres of the property with an expected annual yield of 35,000 pounds," Thornicroft wrote. "The intended date of planting was June 2022, with the crop to be harvested in July 2025."

The farm was not operational as of the application date, so review of the application considered whether the property could be classified as a "developing farm" under the regulation.

The assessor visited the site in December and determined that it could not be considered a developing farm. Thornicroft's decision quotes from the assessor's findings:

"On Dec. 9, 2021, the site was in the midst of being cleared of vegetation and this physical state could not satisfy Section 8(8)(a) of the legislation for a developing blueberry farm. Section 8(8)(a) required that the farm land be physically ready for planting by Oct. 31, 2021, to re-qualify as a developing farm for Jan. 1, 2022. The cattle lease had not been renewed and it was not an option for sustaining farm class."

Thus, property's assessed value for 2022 reflected a reclassification of the land as residential, which led to a massive increase in the valuation.

Bath appealed his 2022 assessment to the Property Assessment Review Panel – which upheld the valuation – and then to the Property Assessment Appeal Board, where Thornicroft did the same.

The property owner submitted that the land had been erroneously "removed from the ALR," and provided documents – including an invoice for the purchase of 12,600 blueberry plants – to show that he was actively working toward farming the land.

Thornicroft clarified that the land had not been removed from the ALR, only classified as "non-farm" for the purposes of assessment.

"While the appellant has taken some concrete steps to establish a viable blueberry farm, such as clearing some of the land parcel, ordering blueberry plants, and taking steps to establish a necessary irrigation system, these steps fell short of meeting the strict regulatory requirements to have the land classified as a developing farm for the 2022 assessment year," the panel chair concluded.

"That being the case, I find that the review panel correctly determined that the appellant’s entire land parcel should be classified as 'residential.'"