Cottage Q&A

QUESTION
If I purchase my shoreline allowance, will my taxes go up?

Leslie Hershfield, Toronto, Ont.



ANSWER

Before we get to the specifics of the shore road allowance money grab as it affects taxes, let’s review a little history, shall we? Back when early settlers were claiming their little piece of heaven in Ontario’s wilderness, the Crown kept its mitts on a 66-foot ribbon of shoreline around many lakes and rivers. It did this so that travellers on the waterways could stop and set up camp without asking permission of private landowners, and so that, later, roads could be built along the shores if needed. Well, before too long, waterways stopped being the main travel routes (though with the traffic snarls on Hwy. 400, maybe that should be reconsidered).

So the shore road allowances government holdback amounted to just so much legalese on property deeds, which stated waterfront property owners had title to their land “excepting a strip of land one chain in perpendicular width along the shore.” That is, until the province figured out it might get brownie points by giving the land to municipalities, who could then squeeze some cash by selling this shoreline to the people who had been blithely enjoying it for years.

So now you can apply to buy your shore road allowance from your local municipality for a fee, along with legal and survey costs. The process can take up to a year and easily set you back a few thousand.

When you’re done, and you own the land that your dock has been sitting on since your Grandpa built it years ago, yes, your taxes might go up slightly for your troubles, says Josef Kreppner, senior manager, property values for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.That’s because owning the shore road allowance may increase the assessed value of your property since you will own a larger area (and maybe even more frontage, if you have a wedge-shaped lot).

To find out how adding the shore road allowance would affect assessments in your area, check with your municipality or a local realtor. Barbara Quinn, customer service manager at the MPAC office in Bracebridge, says assessments seldom go up much with the addition of a shore road allowance, unless a lot of frontage is added; however, while local MPAC staff can give a rough estimate of how adding the shore road allowance might affect a particular assessment, they will need the new survey to give an accurate figure.

So why bother? Because you never know what they’ll think of next, says realtor Jack Janssen of Port Carling, Ont. For example, the new rule this year in Seguin Township, in the district of Parry Sound, is that property owners will only be issued permits to build boathouses on the shore if they have first purchased the shore road allowance. And in neighbouring Township of Muskoka Lakes, the price to buy the shore road allowance increased by 50 per cent five years back.

Christine Langlois

* Published in the September/October ’07 issue of Cottage Life.