A formal first step has been taken to rebuilding the Nicola Valley’s oldest building which burned down in January.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District has passed first reading to rezone the Murray Church property.

Director of development services Regina Sadilkova says there were no zoning requirements when the church was first built in the 1800s.

“I can’t tell you why, but our zoning bylaw had that zoned rural as it did the whole 900 lots over the grazing fields in that area,” she said. “So for us to be able to issue them a building permit to rebuild , they do have to rezone the one acre where the church and the cemetery is to institutional.”

Community members have pledged to rebuild the church, and a public hearing on the rezoning matter will now happen on June 13th.

“Buildings codes are quite different now, especially for churches which are considered assembly use. So we hope to work with these folks so they can rebuild something to as close as what they had with the heritage building previously as possible under current building codes,” Sadilkova added.

The Murray Church was torched by an arsonist on January 11th, and a suspect was arrested days later.