Council Update – May 08, 2018

This week at Council, I brought up the recent issue with construction development happening on a Sunday… We have always known that the Town only allows construction to occur from Mon to Sat 7am to 7pm. But it seems in the last couple of weeks we have had one development that keeps working on a Sunday. If the development was exempt for a specific reason that would be different. Several residents have called me on the last couple of Sundays about work that is continuing on a Sunday. I then reached out to staff, Bylaw went to pay them a visit and tell them that they need to shut down. Well, as it has happened more than once, I raised it under new business last night and what we found out at Council is that ByLaw will enforce compliance re this matter through the noise bylaw. But – and this is a big but – as the bylaw states, the noise bylaw includes residential, industrial, commercial and excludes the zoning of institutional. So this is a very frustrating issue as we have a policy in place that clearly states construction can only take place from Monday through Saturday and yet ByLaw cannot enforce this .. they enforce the noise bylaw and for the specific zoning. I am not sure if this is a misunderstanding of policy – and I will leave that to our Staff to resolve. However, if it is as our Director has stated, then this is a big gap in the Town policy. We need to ensure that Sunday is a day where residents are free from the noise of construction. We need to ensure that residents can expect, as our planning department states, a Construction free day.

So, I will be bringing a motion forward to close this loop hole and ensure that all construction projects adhere to the Town mandated work hours of Monday to Saturday between the hours of 7am to 7pm. I think the residents deserve that.

As I have said, throughout this term, our residents deserve more than just better, they deserve the best that our municipality can offer. And the majority of this Council has consistently worked together to do better; to ensure that residents receive the best services possible at the standards they expect.

Ongoing construction projects need to proceed in a way that adheres to our policies and the Town needs to make sure that they are following those policies. And there should be appropriate penalties when or if these policies are not followed.

Share this post
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
WhatsApp
Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe

If you’d like to keep in touch with the Mayor and receive updates, please add your e-mail.

Recent Posts

Council Update – Compensation Increase

As Residents may be aware, last night, Council engaged in a discussion regarding a motion that included a clause to once again include an increase in total Council compensation in the Town’s budget. The clause in the motion which speaks

Read More »