Property Tax Increases
and other public realm improvements and maintenance, over and above baseline City service levels and budget allocation In San Francisco, there are 14 “Green Benefit Districts” (GBD) focused on park improvements, the majority of which are located in commercial districts. 2 Each property owner pays an assessment based on property size and type of use, which is collected twice annually. The GBD also applies for grants and solicits donations. One of San Francisco’s Green Benefit Districts was created by community members in two residential neighbourhoods (Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill) comprising a 200-acre (70 blocks) area. The Dogpatch and Potrero Hill Green Benefit District includes 1,403 properties and 1,150 property owners. 3 Its website reads,
While typically not politically popular, a straightforward property tax increase could help offset some of the funds lost due to the changes from Bill 23.
Special Assessments/Green Benefit Districts
Harry Kitchen, professor emeritus at Trent University and an expert in Canadian municipal finance, recently reported on park financing in Canada. Special assessments have been used in some American cities to pay for park development. Kitchen writes,
“A special assessment is a specific charge or levy added to the general property tax on residential and/or commercial/ industrial properties to pay for new and improved neighbourhood parks. These properties are deemed to benefit from the park, either through usage and/or higher property values, and hence could be expected to pay higher taxes to cover some of the park costs” (p. 9) 1
1 Kitchen, H. (2017). “Financing parks in Canada: What might be done?” Heart of the City Papers. Park People. Retrieved from https:// parkpeople.ca/cms/custom/uploads/2019/11/ Park-People_Financing-City-Parks-2017-2.pdf businesses within a designated area based on property assessment; funds from that revenue are then pooled for parks, open spaces, neighbourhood beautification, A Business Improvement District (BID) or Business Improvement Area (BIA) is a public-private partnership that taxes
2 https://cityparksalliance.org/ funding-hub/local-funding/
3 https://greenbenefit.org/about-gbd
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Appendix D
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