The Blue Mountains council has said no to an update of the town’s noise bylaw, for now.
At its committee of the whole meeting on Feb. 5, council rejected a recommendation from town staff to clarify and update the town’s noise bylaw, which has been on the books since 2002.
Council instead turned the report around to staff and asked for more information.
Town staff brought forward a report to council about a noise bylaw update. The report essentially presented two options for the town to consider: using the existing system, but updating and clarifying the definitions in 20+ year-old bylaw and continuing with a complaint-based system or switch to an entirely new system that would use specific decibel levels for noise concerns.
Staff said the current bylaw needs an overhaul and update.
The bylaw’s current parameter for noise is: “no one shall make noise nor permit noise to be made, that is likely to disturb the inhabitants of the municipality.”
“That is very 'all-encompassing' and leads to an expectation of 'zero tolerance,'” said Wayne Dewitt, supervisor of bylaw enforcement.
Staff said the bylaw department often receives noise-based complaints about everyday activities like grass cutting, routine home maintenance and yard work and said an update would clarify the noise definitions in the bylaw.
In the report, staff recommended moving forward with an update and revised bylaw over the decibel system. The staff report estimated that a switch to the decibel system would require enormous new costs of $364,000 for additional enforcement officers, more training, and specialized equipment to measure noise levels, and would preclude OPP officers from enforcing the noise rules as they would not have the right equipment.
However, council chose to reject the recommendation and instead requested a follow-up report with more information about the two options for the town to consider.
“I don’t think we have clarity on option one or two,” said Coun. June Porter. “I don’t think there is enough information.”
Coun. Paula Hope said she needed more information to make an informed decision.
“We want to make data-driven decisions as much as possible. It’s hard to vote on anything that is this murky,” she said.
Some municipalities do use the decibel system and members of council wanted more information about the impact the change had in those communities, the costs and the potential for more revenue coming in from noise bylaw fines.
CAO Shawn Everitt promised that a subsequent staff report would include more in-depth information on the matter.
“There is a lot of orientation that needs to take place here,” said Everitt. “We need to come back to ground zero.”
