Property Section Main
Overview
Property Administration is a section of the Development Services Division. Property Administration is responsible for property matters on behalf of the City of Brandon including some of the following issues;
- Acquisitions of property for the City’s operational purposes;
- Disposal of surplus City property including surplus roads, lanes, and/or walkways;
- Acquisitions of easements and rights-of-ways necessary for the protection of the City’s infrastructure, as well as the release of those no longer required;
- Assigns all new civic addresses and change of address, notifying all agencies affected by the change and responds to all enquiries surrounding civic addresses;
- Liaison with legal counsel to ensure the interest of the City is maintained in acquisitions and dispositions as well as legal issues as they arise from properties adjacent to City owned property;
- Leasing and maintaining the City’s rental properties including land and/or buildings as well as parking spaces within the City owned parking lots located in the City’s downtown core area;
- Assigns all street names in new developments in accordance with City policy and procedure and supplies reports to City Council for approval;
- Ensuring all property transactions are completed in accordance with relevant statutes, acts, regulations and policies, and;
- Coordinates with the City’s Real Estate Agent the appraisal, negotiation, acquisition, and/or disposition of properties on behalf of the City.
Land Uses
There are a variety of land uses which are generally taken into consideration when managing the City’s properties. These properties include:
- City Facilities such as City Hall, Civic Services Complex, Water Treatment Facility, etc.;
- Open Spaces such as parks, playground areas and riverbank green spaces;
- Large Land Parcels available for sale and/or development such as the Black property on the North hill;
- Smaller Land Parcels which may be available for sale such as lots located on Industrial Drive and finally;
- Very Small Parcels located throughout the City to be used for infill projects.
From time to time the City also needs to acquire small land parcels for municipal purposes such as corner cut-offs to facilitate vehicle access in right-of-ways, and small holdings that are no longer viable for owners due to such things as zoning changes.
Land Transaction Policy
The current Land Transaction Policy for the Property Section is as follows;
“Land transactions involving City owned property are to be conducted in a fair and equitable manner whereby all potential purchasers shall receive equal consideration. To accomplish this, the City of Brandon commits to establish, by City Council resolution, confidential land valuation methods, real estate list prices, and minimum sale prices for City owned properties which may be available for sale, and to authorize the City administration to finalize and close such transactions, in accordance with the guidelines set out in the administrative land transaction procedure, providing the offers are within the scope of the established methods and prices.”
Land Transaction Procedure
The Land Transaction Procedure includes various aspects from determining what properties are available for sale to finalizing the offer to purchase and several steps in between. A brief outline of the aforementioned procedure includes the following;
- Identify and value available properties for disposal;
- Meet with City Council in-camera to establish confidential minimum sale prices;
- Annually review established land values;
- Establish a method of valuing property of limited marketability and;
- Tender for the services of real estate agents for the disposal of City owned property.
Land Valuation
There are essentially three methods for valuing property.
- Direct comparison which utilizes sales of similar property, of which few are available of comparable size and use within the City of Brandon.
- Income based approach, which is calculated based on the estimated cost of getting a business operating and the expected return of investment, then calculated back to determine a fair market value for the land.
- Replacement cost approach, where the values that are not to be included are extracted out of the cost to leave only what is desired to be valuable.
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