City council in Merritt has approved changes that will help make processes for developers more straightforward.

Mayor Linda Brown says one of those changes is taking out wording about density in the Official Community Plan that contradicts some of the city’s zoning bylaws.

“Instead of just overriding the development zoning bylaws, we are actually going in now and piece-by-piece looking at these little ones, so that we don’t have to go down the same rabbit hole every time we have an application that looks similar.”

An example of where the city’s zoning bylaws and OCP have conflicted recently is for a developer proposing a 95-unit residential apartment building.

Another change approved by council was to allow two residential units above businesses in C2 commercial zones of the city.