For the second time in as many months, a proposed hotel is moving through the process of becoming a reality in Merritt.
At last Tueday’s regular council meeting, city council approved and gave first and second reading to an application to rezone the property at 3969 Crawford Ave. near the Wagon West Travel Plaza and sent the matter to a public hearing.
The application would rezone the 4.62-acre property from C7 (tourism commercial) to C4 (highway commercial) to allow for a hotel, convention centre and restaurant.
According to the application, the hotel development comes in two phases, with a cultural centre and retail stores planned for the second phase — which will require another rezoning application.
The City of Merritt is in the process of an overhaul of the city’s zoning bylaw, which would apply to this property. Rather than wait for the entire zoning bylaw to reach adoption, the applicant, Kulwant Sekhon, decided to move ahead with the land use amendment on his own.
“Staff are concurrently reviewing a building permit application and the application for a development permit in anticipation of this zoning amendment being adopted,” chief administrative officer Allan Chabot said.
Council’s vote to approve the application and send it to a public hearing was unanimous, except for the vote of Coun. Clara Norgaard, who was absent from the meeting.
The date of the public hearing was not determined by press time.
Property owners within 30 metres of the one in question will be notified of the proposed land use amendment prior to the public hearing.
