Town of Drumheller council passed first and second reading of a proposed bylaw during the regular Monday, December 2 council meeting which would roll all property tax rolls from manufactured home communities into a singular tax roll which the park owner rather than the homeowner would be responsible for.
The item came before council after administration received feedback following the proposed Minimum Tax Rate bylaw in September which proposed the implementation of a minimum tax rate of $500.
“The Town has received some feedback from the community, primarily regarding two major concerns,” shared Chief Financial Officer, Victoria Chan during the meeting.
Unlike other homeowners in the community, residents in manufactured home parks do not own the land their home sits on and are only taxed on the Improvement and not the land itself. There are a total of 112 manufactured homes across the three manufactured home parks, with an average residential property tax of $264.76; of those properties a total of 97 homeowners would be affected by the minimum tax rate.
Ms. Chan explained the Municipal Governance Act (MGA) allows a provision for the owner of the manufactured home park to be designated as the assessed person, though a bylaw would be required to be passed by council. This would see all tax rolls consolidated into a singular tax roll which would become the responsibility of the park owner, and the minimum property tax would not apply as the single tax roll would exceed the minimum property tax of $500 and would resolve challenges stemming from collecting tax arrears on these properties.
It was noted other communities have passed similar bylaws, including the Counties of Lac La Biche, Red Deer, and Stettler, and the Towns of Oyen and Vauxhall.
