Water + Sewer Expansion to Gateway 286
UPDATE | MARCH 2024
Watermain construction on Hamilton Hill Road will commence, requiring a road closure from March 21 – April 11, 2024.
Water + Sewer Expansion to Gateway 286
The City of Merritt is furthering its implementation of the City’s Official Community Plan by providing water and sewer services up to the Coquihalla Highway Exit 286, in support of a future Ranchlands Village development.
This City project includes the installation of sewer and water lines from about 1900 block of Sage Place near Clapperton Avenue and up through Thorpe Avenue, crossing under Nicola Avenue/Highway 8, following the road right of way along Highway 8 through the Joeyaska Reserve, reconnecting again with City lands around exit 286, ultimately servicing private properties in the Ranchland Villages area, otherwise known as Gateway 286 and the site of Destination BC’s former Visitor Information Centre (closed in January 2018).
In addition to sewer lines, the City will be working on potable water supply to the area. This project involves two reservoirs east of the Coquihalla Highway. The existing southeast reservoir will get a new water supply main to the Gateway 286 area. An additional reservoir will be built above the Ranchlands Village project site, and will include a water main to the new development area.
View details in the site plan below.
Future Development Plans
This former site of DestinationBC’s Visitor Information Centre is expected to be transformed into a 30,000-square-foot commercial center by a private organization. This site is expected to include restaurants, convenience retail, gas bar, dog park, and electric vehicle charging station, serving an estimated 10,000 cars a day. This project is the culmination of three decades of work and reconciliation between the five Nicola Valley First Nations, provincial, federal, and municipal governments. The land, which sits on part of the Nlaka’pamux and Sylix traditional territories, was turned over to the Nicola Valley’s five First Nations, as a measure of reconciliation, in 2020, and is now held by a unified indigenous development corporation, Spayum Holdings LP. The project is being leased and developed by Troika Developments and PR Petroleum.
