A New Westminster city councillor believes the city needs to take a more holistic look at the way it deals with noise variances.
At its Sept. 23 meeting, council received a staff report about an exemption to the city’s construction noise bylaw. The request relates to nighttime inspections of sewers in the downtown.
While dealing with the request, Coun. Jaimie McEvoy told his council colleagues that he would be coming forward with a notice of motion about exemptions to the construction noise bylaw.
“I think we need to take a more holistic approach to this,” he said.
McEvoy said every builder and developer assumes they will get the city’s approval for an exemption to the construction noise bylaw, so they schedule their works knowing the exemption is likely to be approved.
“But what doesn't happen is all of those exemptions don't get added up and watched by the city for how it impacts on livability, particularly in the downtown,” he said. “So, what I want … is for the city to be more aware of that sort of entire impact for the resident.”
Monday’s meeting marked McEvoy’s return to council duties, after a seven-month medical leave following a heart attack and surgery.
“In my hiatus and going to coffee shops on my walks, I hear from people about the noise issues. So, I know it's something that's on people's minds,” he said. “I also think that maybe it's one of those things that we could actually do something about.”
McEvoy said he will bring forward a motion for council’s consideration at a future meeting.
“I’m hoping we can sort of move away from this automatic and piecemeal sort of approach to one that takes into consideration more health and livability,” he said.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said some exemptions to the construction noise bylaw relate to work that’s relatively low impact, such as sewer maintenance, while others, such as building construction, can have more of an impact on community members.
Coun. Daniel Fontaine said he is looking forward to seeing McEvoy’s motion, noting that some community members are experiencing “construction fatigue.”
“I think the issue that councillor McEvoy brings up is a good one around noise, particularly in places like the downtown core, where there is lots of noise,” he said. “If we can find a way to mitigating that and being a bit more coordinated, I think that would be good.”
Sewer work gets green light
Inspections of sewers are expected to have “low noise impacts” on residents, said a report to council.
At its Sept. 23 meeting, council approved an exemption to the construction noise bylaw so a contractor working for Metro Vancouver can perform a preventative inspection of the sewer line in the 100 to 800 blocks of Columbia St. The work will be done from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. for three consecutive nights between Tuesday, Oct. 1 and Thursday, Oct. 10, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and statutory holidays.
“The proposed work includes crews temporarily lifting maintenance hole lids along Columbia Street to facilitate access to inspect recently completed sewer upgrades,” said a staff report, “A camera will then be inserted and remotely operated and record the current state of the sewer line.”
Wastewater from New West and Burnaby flows through the New Westminster interceptor sewer to the Annacis Island wastewater treatment plant.
Because the sewer carries “extremely high sewage flows” during the daytime hours, staff said this maintenance work must be done during times of low-flow levels – between midnight and 6 a.m. It also has to be done during dry weather because rain will cause high-flow levels.
While this work is being done, some lanes on nearby streets may be closed.
“In addition to the lane closures, there will be Columbia Street crosswalk closures at Begbie Street, McKenzie Street, Sixth Street and Fourth Street with pedestrians being detoured to the opposite crosswalk,” said the staff report. “It should be noted that most vehicle, cyclist, transit and pedestrian movement will be maintained during this project.”
