Merritt applying for large grant from UBCM

The City of Merritt is applying for $444,020 in grant funding for a long list of initiatives through the UBCM local government development approval program.

“With the current active real estate market, development applications continue to increase. From January 1 to March 31, 2021, the City received 33 development applications, compared to 53 for the entirety of 2020 and 47 for the entirety of 2019. This dramatic increase has led to longer processing times and numerous complaints from applicants,” said Planning Manager Don McArthur.

“The Local Government Development Approvals Program, a component of the Canada-BC Safe Restart Agreement, is intended to support the implementation of established best practices and test innovative approaches to improve development approvals processes while meeting local government planning and policy objectives,” added McArthur.

The City drafted a list of improvement that could occur if the grant application is successful including;

– Outsourcing the review of various existing bylaws to consultants

– Digitizing historical property file documents

– Hiring a community planner

– Software license purchases and training

– Staff training

“The application has been structured so that if UBCM does not want to fund all the proposed activities and costs, the remainder of the grant request could still be funded,” added McArthur.