C5: Neighbourhood Commercial

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Apartments, townhouses, or one or two homes in a main building, alongside the commercial use; a security or operator suite

Main uses

Convenience store, restaurant, offices and personal and professional services, artisan studio, assembly, small daycare, indoor recreation, veterinary and animal services; with the City's approval, craft brewery or distillery, pub or general store; apartments, townhouses

Smallest lot for a subdivision

500 m², 20 m wide, 25 m deep

Lot coverage

70%

Height limit

18 m or 4 storeys

Setbacks

Front 0 m, interior sides 1.2 m, exterior side 0 m, rear 3 m

Coverage can rise to 85% with permeable driveways or paths on 15% of the lot.

Homes sit above or below the main floor or behind the business, with their own entrance; a house or duplex only as part of a mixed-use development (s. 7.17.8).

No drive-through, filling station or vehicle services (s. 7.17.5).

Whether short-term rental needs the City's approval. The zone lists it as a permitted use (s. 7.17.4), but s. 4.34.1 makes it a discretionary use in C5, so this is unclear; ask the City of Merritt.

A security or operator suite is one home inside the main building for a caretaker, operator or security staff, one per property (s. 2.2).

Shipping containers for storage, vented and labelled, screened and kept in the back yard: one per 0.2 ha (s. 4.19).

An accessory building can't be a home, a suite or a short-term rental (s. 4.16), and goes up only with or after the main building.

Fences up to 1.25 m between the street and the front of the building, 2.5 m elsewhere; a 6 m sight triangle at a corner stays clear above 1.25 m (ss. 4.14, 4.15).

On a lot averaging a 15% slope or more, buildings rise no higher than 7 m above the street centreline's level at the middle of the lot (lots below the street) or above the middle of the rear lot line (lots above it), and no wall rises more than 9 m from the lowest finished grade (s. 4.21).

Minimum lot sizes apply to new lots; an existing smaller lot stays lawful (s. 4.6).

Every zone also allows public utilities, electric vehicle charging, and temporary site buildings and containers during construction (s. 4.2).

Floodplain (s. 4.30, Schedule B): land below the Province's 200-year flood level of the Nicola and Coldwater rivers, or less than 1.5 m above any other watercourse, is floodplain. Floors of homes, businesses and storage there sit at least 0.6 m above that level, and fill stays 30 m from the rivers and other watercourses unless a riparian assessment allows it. Setbacks from streams follow provincial and federal rules (s. 4.24).

Site-specific exceptions listed in the bylaw by legal description can add or change uses for one property, and development permit areas, the ALR and building rules apply on top. Confirm with the City of Merritt's planning department before you buy or build.

Source: City of Merritt Zoning Bylaw No. 2284, 2020 (summarised in our words); zone map: Open Government Licence – Thompson-Nicola Regional District.