Council passed the motion directing staff to review the current noise bylaws, compare them to bylaws in other communities and provide a report with suggestions and options to limit noise. (Luis Zablah / CHLY 101.7 )

Nanaimo City Council has directed staff to review the city’s noise bylaw, after citizen complaints about construction noise.

At a regular council meeting Monday June 1, Councillor Paul Manly introduced a motion aimed at addressing complaints about construction noise. Council passed the motion directing staff to review the current noise bylaws, compare them to bylaws in other communities and provide a report with suggestions and options to limit noise.

CHLY spoke with Councillor Paul Manly, as he explained the reasoning behind asking City Staff to review the Noise Bylaw.

According to the bylaw, construction related activities, including demolition, excavation, and building repairs, are considered “objectionable” noise when carried out outside of permitted hours. (Luis Zablah / CHLY 101.7 FM)

“Asking them to review what other municipalities do, with a mind to potentially updating our bylaw for construction noise, because the last time it was updated was 1997,” said Manly.

Nanaimo’s Official Noise Bylaw was made to advise the community to be respectful to their neighbours and keep noise emissions to a reasonable level. The official Noise Control Bylaw, regulates construction activities with the attempt of preventing the disruption of the peace and quiet of the public. The document limits construction related noise to specific timeframes during the day.

According to the bylaw, construction related activities, including demolition, excavation, and building repairs, are considered “objectionable” noise when carried out outside of permitted hours. Those hours are 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Saturday, and 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM on Sundays and statutory holidays. The city also limits high impact activities like blasting and drilling, which are allowed from Monday to Saturday from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and are completely prohibited on Sundays and Statutory Holidays.

CHLY spoke with Councillor Manly regarding the intention behind his motion.

“I just thought it would be a good idea to review our bylaw, and maybe make it so that projects that need to make that much noise, breaking rock or whatever, could apply for a permit to do that, and maybe for a limited amount of time, so many weekends or something, but going to be up to staff to determine what options they recommend,” said Manly.

He explained that residents have raised concerns about the ongoing construction, especially rock breaking work with the use of hydraulic equipment.

Manly dove into the differences between Nanaimo’s bylaw and other communities around British Columbia.

“When I looked at the Lower Mainland, they don't allow construction noise on Sundays or statutory holidays, and they had shorter hours, so they had a 12 hour construction day, as opposed to our 14 hour day, and Victoria is the same way,” said Manly.

Manly emphasized that the motion does not impose new restrictions, but will have city staff review the current bylaw, which hasn't been updated since 1997. He hopes that with that review, staff would bring forward recommendations for Council to potentially consider a permitting system for high noise work.

He says he empathizes with the experience of dealing with ongoing construction noise throughout the day.

“I can't imagine working on a loud construction site all day long, and then coming home and listening to rocks being hammered. If you have a loud job all day, do you want to come home to a loud environment as well?,” said Manly.

CHLY spoke with Debbie Narver, a longtime Nanaimo resident living in the Rock City Area, who says ongoing construction noise has affected the lives of her and her neighbors.

“The bylaws allowed them to make noise from 7 o'clock in the morning till 9 o'clock at night, six days a week,” said Narver. “I'd actually phoned the city and they said there was nothing they could do about it, because the bylaws allowed them to do it.”

Narver says that large scale rock excavation work began across from her home years ago, involving heavy machinery that is constantly breaking through rocks.

Narver says the noise started affecting her ability to work from home.

“I was doing a management consulting business from home that was impacted, and in the end I had to pack it in due to the construction noise,” said Narver. “I couldn't do business, I'd have to leave the house and cancel appointments and such, so this went on for, off and on for about six years.”

City staff is set to review the current Noise Bylaw and report back to council with their findings and recommendations. (Luis Zablah / CHLY 101.7 FM)

Rory Kulmala, CEO of the Vancouver Island Construction Association (VICA), said major construction work is often time sensitive and may require evening, weekend, or holiday hours.

“We often have to work within constraints that you know require us to work outside what we would say normal working hours,” said Kulmala. “Sometimes the circumstances and the conditions make the scenario so that we have to work weekends and evenings and holidays.”

Kulmala explained that construction around the city is for needed housing and infrastructure projects. He explained teams are working around the clock trying to do as much work as possible with crews impacted by a current labour shortage.

Kulmala comments on what he hopes comes out of the noise bylaw review.

“We're looking to have a balanced discussion, a perspective that recognizes that if communities and our local governments want projects, it comes with a bit of noise, and it comes with a bit of disruption, but it also comes with an opportunity to get investment in our communities and get this housing built,” Kulmala said. “There is a solution in here. There always will be, but to have a discussion without the construction sector at the table with our perspective that could be a challenge where we'd rather be part of the solution.”

City staff is set to review the current Noise Bylaw and report back to council with their findings and recommendations.
Further information and updates are available on the City of Nanaimo’s website.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.