The City of Merritt took its first step toward supplying water to a medical marijuana grow-operation that’s looking to establish a facility in the Nicola Valley.
The company, Sunniva Medical Inc., owns a parcel of land located along Merritt’s eastern boundary, north of Highway 97C, on which it wants to construct and operate a licensed medical marijuana facility.
The company is requesting 120,000 litres of water per day be supplied to the facility. The draft agreement allows for up to 500,000 litres per day to allow for future expansion.
Public Works manager Sean Boven said the city has the infrastructure to deliver the water to the site.
Sunniva Medical’s development plans would have significant investment in the community, create jobs and generate tax revenue in the future if the boundary extension is completed, a City of Merritt report to council stated.
Permission to supply this facility water services has already been granted by the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.
Merritt’s city council was unanimous in its decision at Tuesday’s regular council meeting to approve amending its policy for provision of services outside city limits.
Council also gave the first three readings toward amending the administrative fees bylaw and waterworks bylaw.
These changes will now allow the city to charge a $5,000 deposit to cover an application fee for requests for services outside city boundaries.
At its regular council meeting back on Sept. 30, the City of Merritt received a letter from Sunniva Medical Inc. requesting it provide water services to its property outside the city boundary, to which city council approved considering an application for out-of-municipal boundary water services.
Council also directed staff to prepare a report clarifying the timelines, details of the City of Merritt’s policy for provision of services outside city limits and prepare a water service agreement for service outside Merritt.
That agreement is only in its draft stage at the moment.
Questions concerning what the company will do with wastewater were posed to Sunniva Medical Inc. back on Oct. 10, but haven’t been answered yet, Chief Administrative Officer Allan Chabot said.
Coun. Mike Goetz had reservations about moving ahead with approvals given the unanswered questions.
Chabot said the changes to the two bylaws being voted on would apply to all applications for water services outside the city boundaries.
“The current policy does not have any application fee, and yet applications entail significant costs to the city to consider,” Chabot said.
Water services for this facility wouldn’t be supplied until the water works and meter are completed and have been tested and inspected, and a health certificate issued. The city’s public works manager or engineer would also have to issue a certificate of completion.
Any extension or connection to water services on city property would become property of the City of Merritt upon completion of construction.
The draft servicing agreement between the city and Sunniva Medical Inc. specifies that the company is expected to submit an application for these lands to be incorporated into Merritt by Nov. 1, 2018. Failing to do so would result in termination of their agreement and water services would cease on Nov. 1, 2019.
