A committee of North Bay City Council has approved a plan to convert an 8 unit apartment building on Chippewa into a condominium building.

All but one councillor supported the plan.

One concern was that city taxes would be less under a condo development than currently.

But Rick Miller of Miller and Urso Surveying, speaking for the proponents said a condo building would be assessed at a higher amount and so the city would make the money back within a short time frame.

“What happens with your taxes is that even though condo projects are taxed at a lower rate the city after a year or two ends up getting about the same because the value of the building is greater,”Miller says.

The other concern is the impact on the vacancy rate.

Staff say condominium conversions should only happen when the vacancy rate in the City has been above 3.0% for two consecutive reporting periods.

The rate in 2018 was 1.7 % and 2019 was 3.2 but staff believe the 2018 figure was a bit of an outlier so the application meets the official plan.

(photo by station staff)

Filed under: city-council, condos