Who says property ownership on the North Shore has to be expensive?
For a lean $88,000 you can buy a piece of land in the District of North Vancouver, and a quarter acre at that. Not too shabby.
What you get: a pristine plot of Pacific Northwest forest.
What you don’t get: the ability to plumb or heat any structure that’s built there. Oh, and no parking.
In a listing posted to Zillow.com, Indian River Drive Lot 1 is described as a “treed oasis.”
“Off the beaten track, just east off Mount Seymour Road, just past power lines. This scenic lot is the ultimate in privacy,” the listing reads. “No road access, District of North Vancouver has no plans to develop this area.”
While you can't drive to the property, it’s accessible via Three Chop Trail, which connects to Indian River Drive 10 minutes away on foot. The Baden Powell Trail also connects to Three Chop at Indian River Drive, increasing connectivity for the hiking inclined.
At this point, your brain might be whirring with calculus on the value of this land. Who would buy this treed oasis? Should I buy this treed oasis? Is it an oasis at all – or just treed?
Indian River Drive Lot 1, and several near-identical properties nearby, are remnants of old planning processes, explains Mike Little, mayor of the district.
“We call them isolated alpine lots, and we don’t intend to service them,” he said. “They have been speculated on in the past, traded around at different times, and some people have presented different ideas for developing them. But there are pretty tight restrictions.”
You could build a shelter, but you couldn’t have plumbing, heat, a range plug or cooking facilities, Little said.
“They are available to go and look at your wonderful trees, but they’re not there as a potential for housing,” he said. “They do stand to be quite a bit of a risk for fire hazard and other things, so we’re very cautious about adding density to those spaces.”
Owners likely feeling the pinch of speculation and vacancy tax, mayor says
These properties have traded hands several times in the past, but Little said he assumes that the current owners are feeling the pinch of the thousands of dollars in speculation and vacancy tax that would apply.
The district has no intention of adding road access to the area, and will step in if people are building things they’re not supposed to, he said.
“We have had people try to acquire these lots and sneak something in,” Little said.
The mayor said he has more sympathy for people who have bought lands on lots with no road access near Fire Lane 1 and Fire Lane 2, up Indian Arm.
“Their value is much higher. So if you’re paying a spec and vacancy tax on [$88,000], that’s one thing,” he said. “These are valued in the market and at the BC Assessment level in the $400,000 range.”
The district has no intention to provide roads there either.
“It would be unsafe, and the cost for us to extend a road to them, we would never make that back in property tax,” Little said.
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