Legal Update – Recent Court Decisions

549196 B.C. Ltd. v. City of Kamloops
B.C. Court of Appeal (2000)

• development cost charges apply if a new building imposes a greater capital cost burden on local government facilities than the burden imposed by the most recent use of the building’s land prior to the application for the building permit
• in determining if development cost charges apply, the most recent use of land that is compared with its new development, to determine if there are increased capital cost burdens, may be either an active use or a dormant use

“Counsel for the City submits that the chambers judge erred in finding the relevant comparison to be between the burden which the petitioner’s building will create and that created by the hotel in a period ending 20 years earlier. The relevant time for making the comparison, he submits, is the date of application for the building permit at which time, of course, the land was vacant. Put in that way, the submission goes too far. In the nature of things, land will almost always be vacant at the time of applying for a building permit….But…to go back 20 years to find a point of comparison cannot be justified. The appropriate point for comparison is the most recent use of the property prior to the application. In this context, I would not confine that to an active use such as the operation of the hotel but would include what might be called a dormant use such as holding the property for future development.”