“This is unicorn land for cannabis,” said Stevan Perry, standing atop a layer of ice covering a 56-acre piece of land in Collettville, the wind howling on a brisk morning in early March.

Perry and his team at Emerald Plants Health Source (EPHS) just recently closed on a deal to acquire the property, located a stones throw away from the Merritt Green Energy Plant and the site of the former Tolko sawmill.

Aside from a few rubber tires and whole lot of ice, there wasn’t much to see at the 1227 Midday Valley Road property on March 11. That could change in the coming months, as EPHS embarks upon a plan to develop a large-scale cannabis facility in Merritt, which could provide employment to hundreds of locals.

What the property currently lacks in curb appeal, it makes up for in utilities, explained Perry. Nearby gas and power hookups, as well as access to high speed fibre optic internet are bonuses. But what makes the site a ‘unicorn’ piece of land is that it is already appropriately zoned for the production of cannabis, he said.

The M1 (light industrial) designation means that the developers won’t have to petition city hall to rezone the land — a process which could prove to be time consuming, with no guarantee that Merritt’s city council would approve the new designation.

Instead, EPHS will have to apply for a development permit, and then a business permit, in order to begin operations in Merritt.

While his team plans to submit their application for a development permit to council in the near future, Perry said the company’s next step is to conduct an elevation survey of the property and to begin to put together an architectural plan to build their facility.

As part of the visit to Merritt, the EPHS team met with Mayor Linda Brown at city hall to discuss the project.

“We met with the group, and they seemed like a really community-minded group of professionals,” Brown told the Herald. “I welcome them to our community, I think they would make a great asset to the community.”

She noted that the team explained their plans for a high-security facility, which would be subject to regular inspections from Health Canada.

“They will need to answer some of those questions from the public that we can’t answer,” said Merritt Mayor Linda Brown.

But not all of the hurdles that EPHS will have to clear are bureaucratic — Perry said his team has been working to be transparent and responsive to the concerns of locals and nearby homeowners.

“The question is ‘How do you guys manage the smell?’ Well one, there will be smell,” said Perry. “Two, we’ll put in systems, filtration systems to mitigate those smells.”

Homes line the street across from the EPHS property. Collettville Elementary is located about 500 metres down the road from the site.

Perry pledged to hold community information sessions and town hall style meetings to help the company get a handle on the concerns from locals. In the meantime, EPHS has set up an email where locals can ask questions about the Merritt development ([email protected]).

Brown recognized that there are concerns in the community about the development that should be addressed by the company at a regular council meeting, or a committee of the whole meeting.

“They will need to answer some of those questions from the public that we can’t answer,” said Brown.

Though the company has yet to break ground in Merritt, EPHS has already sold its first harvest of recreational cannabis, which was produced at a smaller-scale facility in Montreal, said Perry.

To maintain the quality of the product, Perry said he plans on developing the Merritt property in phases, starting with a 55 to 65,000 square foot enclosed construction, which could take the form of a greenhouse or an indoor facility for hydroponic growing.

That will leave plenty of room on the land for future phases of development, said Perry, adding that he also envisions carving out a chunk of the land to give back to the community, in the form of a park or amphitheater.

“We want to give back, 100 per cent,” said Perry. “We’re up here to create jobs, we want to give back to the community [and] educate people about cannabis.”