C6: City Centre District

What the zone allows

Homes allowed

Apartments and townhouses, or one or two homes in a main building, with secondary suites; a security or operator suite

Main uses

Apartments, townhouses, shops, restaurants, pubs, craft brewery or distillery, hotel, liquor and cannabis stores, offices and personal and professional services, entertainment, commercial and indoor recreation, private school, gallery or museum, animal services; with the City's approval, motel, assembly, place of worship, schools, daycare, community care, bus depot, funeral services, gaming, pay parking and others (s. 7.18.3, not on Quilchena Avenue between Charters and Chapman streets); secondary suite, short-term rental

Smallest lot for a subdivision

120 m², 6 m wide, 20 m deep

Lot coverage

95%; 100% with a rooftop garden on 15% of the roof

Height limit

25 m or 6 storeys; main buildings at least 3 storeys

Setbacks

0 m from every lot line; rear 3 m where there's no underground or in-building room for waste and recycling bins (s. 7.18.7(d))

Homes sit above or below the main floor or behind the business, with their own entrance (s. 7.18.8).

On Quilchena Avenue between Charters and Chapman streets, buildings over 4 storeys step back 1.5 m at the fifth storey and again every third storey.

Private outdoor space for each home, unless 15% of the lot is open space.

Short-term rental (stays under 30 days) is allowed (s. 4.34), with a business licence shown on site, written permission from the strata council in a strata, and guests staying up to 30 days in a row and 90 days a year; here, unlike other zones, a suite and a short-term rental can share a building (ss. 4.34.6, 4.37.3).

No drive-through, filling station or vehicle services (s. 7.18.5).

No shipping containers for storage (s. 4.19.4).

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.