That Staff review the noise bylaws of other communities and provide a report on options to limit construction noise in the Nanaimo Noise Bylaw including the allowable hours during the work week and on whether construction noise is allowable on Sundays and Statutory holidays.
number 4760. Councillor Manley, please. For my mic. Um, yeah, so this, I like to move the motion at staff review the noise bylaws of other communities and provide a report on options to limit construction noise. In the NaNIMO noise bylaw, including a lawa's during work week and on whether construction noise is allowable on Sundays and statutory holidays. If the second year I'll speak to it. Secretary Council Armstrong. Thank you. So, um, we've had a number of complaints. And it's mostly related to, like, we're not allowed, we don't allow blasting outside of certain hours. I think it's 7 a. m. to 5 p. m. Blasting and related activities, but we've had a lot of complaints for rock smashing using hydraulic excavators, which is a very loud process. And it's carried on for quite a while. A number of years, seven days a week, weeks on end. And, um, in particular, in the Rock City neighbourhood, but I know this is happened in other places. Um, I looked at a number of other municipalities and what they do. We allow construction noise from 7 a. m. to 9 p. m., which is usually an hour after young kids go to bed for school. A lot of parents put their kids down at eight o'clock. Um, I can't imagine having, trying to get kids to sleep when rocks are being crushed in the neighbourhood. Um, and we allow construction on Saturdays from 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. and on Sundays and statutory holidays. Looking at a number of other municipalities, some of those municipalities also doing major projects, a lot of construction going on, uh, like Vancouver, Victoria, Suri, Kotquitlamb, Bernaby. They all have restrictions. Ours are construction times or 14 hours a day. A lot of them have 12 hours a day, shorter hours on Saturdays. And some of them allow construction on Sunday, but not on holidays. And some, uh, some don't allow it on Sundays, but allow it on holidays. So there's different rules that apply. Um, all of them have permitted processes. So when, um, development companies are looking to extend ours, uh, they can apply for a permit. Uh, to extend ours for construction. Some of them have on city street lanes in Boulevard Times that allow for construction on Sunday or holidays, but not on not for construction related noise on private property. So the number of different municipalities have different rules. And based on complaints that I've heard, I thought that it would be worthwhile for staff to take a look at this. I am in no rush for staff to do a report on this right now. I know that staff are busy. And, um, so this could generally be at the end of the pile of things to do. Thank you. Thank you very
Yeah. I'm not really in a rush to restrict what developers do. I just think that sometimes that some regulations are needed for some folks who don't necessarily concerns themselves with the wellbeing of others. And that's why we have a lot of laws and regulations. I just have to say I'm disappointed that, um, I didn't hear something from, um, Exodus or Genesis or Isaiah about keeping the Sabbath. But from the mayor. But that's okay. Give me time.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Gesselbrook. Thanks, Mayor, through you. Yeah, just the times listed off by Councillor Manley seemed quite permissive. And I would be curious, you know, what the other municipalities are doing that were listed, you know, the very large centres that were listed there. And I think, you know, having noise bylaw that's aligned with sort of that type of standard is reasonable. So I think, you know, this is just asking for a staff report. But I do, you know, I've taken note of the complaints throughout the years. And I do think having, uh, solid guardrails in place, um, is a smart thing. So I'd be keen to see a report on this.
Thorpe. Thank you, your worship through you. Yeah, I'm sort of of two minds on this. I wouldn't mind as councillor Hennons just said seeing where we stand compared to others. And what is considered best practice. But I recognise that if we limit the noise or construction during certain days or certain hours, that just extends the overall length of the time it takes for the project to get completed. And maybe that's more of an inconvenience or any nuisance to the neighbours than getting it all done a bit sooner would be. I personally can't recall a lot of complaints on this topic. So I'm not totally sure. It's worth staff time for a report. But as I say, I'm not really opposed to finding out how we
but, um, I must say I'm very conscious of what the potential impact might be of council did make this a much more restrictive bylaw in terms of time. Um, what is it to the Bible says the wise men builds his house upon the rock and the foolish men builds his house upon the sand. And we have certainly encouraged development on rocky areas, uh, less ecological damage, not cutting down trees. All of those sorts of things generally. So on one hand, we should be supportive of those folks who are breaking a little rock, so to speak, which seems to be the greatest source of complaints. And indeed, I think it's probably the only significant source to complain this area. Having said that, uh, it would be nice to know, as Councillor Hemmons and Councillor Thorpe and others have suggested to know where we sit in terms of other municipalities. But I am very conscious of the fact that when you rent equipment as a contractor and it's sitting on site idle, you're still paying for it. And the owner, the developer is going to have to find some way to recoup those costs. Either that or turn a winning project potentially or a profitable project into a losing project potentially. It does have an impact. Equipment that necessary to do this kind of rock breaking work and things related to it are very, very expensive pieces of equipment to operate. So I'm, I'm, I'm giving warning that I'm supporting the concept of getting a report, but I'm by no means saying that I will support restrictions on the hours. The work is going to have to get done. And I guess it's like the old band - aid analogy. Do you want it ripped off quickly?
sad in the gearbox. Council Armstrong. I was just going to say when this came up, I actually did my own search. And nobody in the lower mainland allows construction on Sundays or holidays. So they don't chilluac doesn't. So the majority don't Victoria doesn't. So. I think it's cost doing business, which I understand. But I would be interested in hearing. And I'm sure you'll talk to the developers. What would be the cost and what is the, uh, the trade - off? Because that will be, that will be determining factor for me because I did hear from other people. They'd rather have the construction done over four months instead of eight months. So that's something to think
You worship at a question for you to our staff. I'm just wondering, uh, the hours that councillor Manley mentioned, is that correct? Is everything that he said correct? I was, it's longer than what I had anticipated. That's where
I'm asking. I think you have three of your worship to Councillor Prino. So it depends on the activity. Uh, so for construction, uh, demolition, uh, those types of activities. Excavation, um, 7 a. m. to 9 p. m. Monday to Saturday. And 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. Sundays and Statutory holidays. And for blasting, uh, it is 7 a. m. to 5 p. m. Monday through Saturday. And at all times on Sundays and Statutory holidays. So yeah, it is, it is, uh, different depending on the
activity. Okay. And the only other question that I have, your worship, is, um, obviously, uh, changing the hours, shortening them. Definitely a positive for the public that is under, you know, listening to it on a regular basis is the cost of doing business for those companies or homeowners. Did you anticipate, um, a huge amount of difference compared to what you're seeing out from other cities? Three or
Okay. That's three of your worship, Councillor Prino. So, um, so difficult to say, I mean, industry will be interested. Um, and but we do have, um, actually a process to provide exemptions from the noise boiler requirements. And that does happen for major projects from time to time. I don't actually handle those myself. Mr. Rosen might have a better idea of some of the more recent applications to exempt the noise bylaw. So to operate outside of the restrictions on the noise bylaw, there is a process for that. To allow, um, major projects to move ahead. More
To staff. Um, I remember when this came up a while ago when the blue stone apartments over on Nelson and Uplands area, I think those were the ones that were going up. There was constant hammering on Sundays. And I talked to staff. And one of the things I heard then was the cost and time to developer would increase substantially. Could you comment to that, please? I couldn't
uh, three worship to council Armstrong. I mean, I couldn't comment on the cost, but it would, um, it's going to take a certain amount of hours to do the work. And if they're concentrated in the in the hours, um, they're able to operate because of the noise bylaw. Then that's going to stretch it out farther over the number of days that they're working on it. So, uh, there would obviously be delays in projects, uh, advancing the amount of work as far as the rock chipping or blasting would be the same. They would just have to stretch it out over a longer period. So there would be costs, but I would, um, defer to, uh, to industry reps to best answer what those costs might be.
Thanks. I can say that with the construction projects that the city lats out. And we do a lot of construction. We know that the more we constrain the contract, the higher the prices are going to be. So we can't speak specifically to the noise bylaw. But we do occasionally constrain projects because of like the road or, or, and there are periodically exemptions that are requested for the noise exemption bylaw. Typically those that are looked upon favorably are the large slab pores that can't be stopped. So they have to complete the slab and the polishing all in one, one operation. So sometimes they have to run beyond the end of day. So we'll approve those. Uh, the, uh, exemptions requested by fairies that have to do work related to the tides. And then the third one is for really busy roads where you can't disrupt the road during the day. We do a noise exemption for work in the evening. Those are the main three ones that are looked upon favorably. But we do notice correlation
between cost and constraints. Yeah. Thank you. Cause I did talk to developer at the time. They said if you have to extend it like even four Sundays or five Sundays, that they're lending goes up considerably because of the interest rates on the dollars. So I'm a little bit concerned about it because in my time on council, I think I've only seen six complaints on this. I could be wrong. But, uh, that's all I recall. So thank
you. Thank you, Councillor Brown. Yeah, thank you. Question through to Steph. Maybe you can answer this. Maybe you can't. But is there any. Limitation or do places? Do any limitation on the total amount of consecutive days done? Because I used to live actually near a place that, um, they probably could have achieved what they wanted to achieve by just a couple of days of blasting. But instead chose like six months of excavator work. From like within the hours and sometimes with outside. And it was just unfortunate. So I, there was just no break ever. And that was, I think the challenge where. You know, I think if they chose an alternative form of. Works that could have been done a lot quicker. So I'm just wondering if any places have limits on consecutive days. I
can speak to the exemptions, um, but if they're following the bylaw, we don't, we don't get involved in because they're following the bylaw. But for the exemptions, we periodically put on constraints because we don't want, like you said, we don't want to disturb people at night for too long. If they're near hotels, we limit things. So we're fairly careful with the exemptions. We need to make sure that we balance the construction need with the impact on the community. But we only do that for the exemptions.
Yeah. And there are no, um, further to that. There are no, uh, constraints within the bylaws, far as the extent of the, um. The period, like Councillor Brown was referencing. So if they were to blast rather than over a shorter period rather than rock chip over a longer period, there's nothing that's, um, explicitly in the bylaw that would dictate to take the shorter period approach. So, right.
Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hens. Thank you for you to staff. Can I ask, are we an outlier. Presumably we have some sense of how municipalities our size are mitigating this or working with it? Are we an outlier? Part of me in terms of how. The seven days a week that we allow it. You worship. Maybe I
can take that one. Cause I think this bylaws 1994, if I recall. And I think the last amendments done to it. We're 1997. Um, so I don't think we've done recent work on comparing to other bylaws. So I'm sure at the time the bile I was brought in, we were consistent, but what's happened in the, uh, intervening
30 years. I couldn't speak to. Thank you. I will, um, I'm going to support then because I would like to understand where we sit in this and decide then if we have to make any changes. Thank you. Councillor