Here from last week’s Wellington Times in Prince Edward County, is Rick Conroy’s account of the presentation to Council by Warren Howard, member of the Wainfleet group of municipalities (who started the Not A Willing Host campaign). The goal is to take what powers municipalities have left after the democracy-destroying Green Energy Act, and still take steps to protect citizens from the environmental noise produced by wind turbines.*
Quiet nights
Industrial wind turbines on Wolfe Island.
PHOTO: HENRI GARAND
Coalition of municipalities seek to protect health and safety of residents near industrial wind turbines
It’s a simple plan. But it may be just the thing to slow down the epidemic of industrial wind turbines spreading across rural Ontario. Warren Howard is a councillor in the municipality of North Perth and lives in Listowel. He is a retired banker and understands bureaucratic processes better than most. He thinks he has come up with a way to thwart the provinces heavy handed Green Energy Act (GEA).
Howard’s plan is to create a bulletproof municipal bylaw that prohibits industrial noise in a rural area at night. That’s it. It sounds simple—and it is—but Howard has done his homework.
He has been working with municipal lawyer Kristi Ross. Together they have discovered that while the Green Energy Act took away virtually all the municipality’s tools to manage, control and oversee the construction of these massive structures in its community—it left intact provisions municipalities use to govern nuisance noise.
Howard believes any municipality may be able use these provisions to stop industrial wind development in its jurisdiction. He is looking to form a coalition of like-minded municipalities to jointly fund the crafting of a noise bylaw that will be enforceable and effective in discouraging industrial wind energy development, but won’t capture and impede other activities that may generate noise—such as agricultural operations.
It’s a fine line. Howard knows it. But he believes it can work.
Municipal bylaws can’t overtly defy or block provincial initiatives. So the Quiet Nights plan doesn’t seek to prevent turbines from making noise—it wouldn’t withstand a legal challenge. Instead the bylaw would only prohibit the machines from making noise at night. Further, the Municipal Act states that such a bylaw, if enacted in good faith by council, is not subject to a review by a court.
Warren Howard Municipal councillor in North Perth in Southwest Ontario
Howard points to a decision in Wainfleet in the Niagara region. There, the municipality was seeking two kilometre setbacks rather than the 500-metre setbacks prescribed in the GEA.
The wind energy developer had argued that the municipality’s efforts to protect the health and safety of residents should have no force because they frustrate the purpose of the province’s GEA. But while the Superior Court justice disallowed Wainfleet’s desired setbacks, it confirmed that municipalities retain the right to regulate noise nuisance in the Municipal Act.
It is through this narrow opening that Howard is hoping to lead municipalities seeking to control or limit the industrialization of their rural communities.
*NOTE: Back in 2010, journalist Mark Sutcliffe asked Prowind sales representative Bart Geleynse on his Ottawa Rogers TV talk show whether the wind turbines make noise. “Of course they do,” Geleynse replied. “They’re power plants.”
Ottawa Wind Concerns 
Reblogged this on Northgowerwindactiongroup's Blog.
Hi,
I like your idea of nuisance noise bylaw. However, we have one in Ottawa and the City of Ottawa for certain projects have made exeptions to the noise bylaw to the detriment of the people living in the area of construction. See 2 examples below. I apologize for the long copy. Not sure how else to do it.
Regards,
Colette Berthiaume
Ottawa Citizen
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Lansdowne construction making Holmwood Avenue a “living hell” for residents (with video)
By Laura Armstrong, OTTAWA CITIZEN August 5, 2013
Comment
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Story Photos ( 2 )
Dennis Brock, who owns a home on Holmwood Avenue alongside Lansdowne Park, laments the loss of the quiet neighbourhood it once was due to the construction and in future the influx of vehicles and customers to the new retail, residential and sports facilities. Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington , Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Holmwood Avenue resident Dennis Brock says he and his neighbours are experiencing a sensory torture chamber as near constant construction across the street at Lansdowne Park enters a second year of an estimated four-year project.
“It’s horrible, but there’s not much we can do. It’s noisy, it’s dusty, it’s intrusive. It’s your worst nightmare in terms of living in a neighbourhood,” said Brock, who has lived on Holmwood with his wife, Darlene, for 10 years,
About 30 houses are located a street-width away from Lansdowne Park on the stretch of Holmwood east of Bank Street. An approximately three-metre construction hoarding covered in paintings and graffiti has been the only barrier for residents facing the construction site since work began in early June last year.
The hoarding provides no relief for Holmwood residents from a “living hell” of unrelenting noise, dust, vibrations and smells, said Brock’s neighbour, Robert Martin. He said he and his partner, Danica Robertson, have been notifying Marco Manconi, the City if Ottawa’s manager, design and construction — Lansdowne, about work continuing outside of bylaw-approved hours once or twice a week for six or eight months, but receive only “patronizing, paternalistic pats on the head” in response.
“There are many cases where what the city says and what the contractor does are completely divergent and, it seems at times, the contractors are going ahead with what they need to regardless of noise bylaws,” said Martin.
In March, an amendment to the bylaw that deals with the rezoning of Lansdowne Park allowed contractors to continue work on concrete-related activities until 1 a.m. during the week until the project is complete. A limited amount of 24-hour continuous concrete pours during the week were also exempted, left to the discretion of the general manager of infrastructure services Wayne Newell. All other work must be done during regular construction hours, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. If bylaw hours are not obeyed, contractors could face a daily fine of up to $10,000.
Martin said contractors are using the bylaw exemption to deviate from construction hours. The noise, he said, is worse before 7 a.m. than at night, with power tools, the beeping of reversing trucks and leaf blowers having started as early as 5 a.m. In an email response after Martin complained about noise beginning at 6:10 a.m. in January, Manconi admitted the contractors had crews and equipment starting early on the parking garage construction but said he had “asked that all crews respect the noise bylaws and not start work before 7 a.m. I will continue to monitor the compliance to the bylaw requirements in order to reduce the disruption to neighbours.”
In an email to the Citizen, Manconi said Bylaw and Regulatory Services has received four complaints related to alleged construction noise at Lansdowne Park since January. One of the complaints was lodged outside service hours; the contractor was notified and ceased activity immediately, Manconi said.
The city, he said, is trying to improve construction activity and minimize disruption by bringing in quieter equipment, placing louder equipment away from residential areas, restricting deliveries outside of normal construction hours and staging work to reduce truck traffic.
“The City project team is working closely with the contractor on the issue of disruptions to residents at Lansdowne. The City is committed to being a good construction neighbour. Full time city staff works on-location every day to ensure construction is being actively monitored and that communication with the local community remains open, constant and predictable,” Manconi wrote.
Despite the city’s assurances, Martin said the noise continues. Notifications about upcoming work aren’t much better, he said; a flyer from the city telling residents about the first of three continuous concrete pours on April 19 vaguely read, “Set up and concrete pouring activities will begin in the early morning hours on Friday with work continuing throughout the day and wrapping up at approximately 11:30 p.m. that night.”
Martin said he was surprised to be woken up by the pour at 2 a.m., only to return from work that evening to an empty site.
“We were woken up at two in the morning and the contractor was done by 3 p.m. so it begs the question why couldn’t they have just started at regular work hours and worked until nine or 10 at night? It just goes on and on. It’s one of those don’t ask for permission, ask for forgiveness situations,” said Martin.
Capital Ward Coun. David Chernushenko, who cast the lone vote against the bylaw exemption in solidarity with the Glebe’s residents, said he has received complaints about noise since the construction began, and is pushing managers from the city and contractors to take steps to minimize the noise and respect the bylaws. Chernushenko said he is not aware of work being done after bylaw hours but wouldn’t contradict a report from someone who observed it.
“If there’s any sense that the main contractor or a subcontractor is repeatedly doing that and seems to be flouting the bylaw then I would certainly want to know and I would want the city to be fining them.”
Whether or not the city is listening, said a third Holmwood Avenue resident, Larry Gauthier, nothing is changing. Gauthier said people on the street have resigned themselves to the development, but a lack of response to ongoing complaints about the invasive, in-your-face construction is making residents feel invisible.
“We do have a right to some sort of decent quality of life and we can’t have this for up to four years. I just don’t see the fairness there. I know life is full of compromises, but this is way beyond it.”
larmstrong@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/lauraarmy
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> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:38:31 +0000 > To: madamcleo@sympatico.ca >
Hi Again,
Here is the second example of nuisance noise bylaw exemptions in Ottawa.
Regards,
Colette Berthiaume
CBC News Canada
Major StoriesIn The News
LRT tunnel noise a nightmare for apartment residents
Residents at apartment at Bronson and Queen say overnight digging keeping them awake
CBC News Posted: Dec 16, 2013 8:07 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 17, 2013 7:54 AM ET
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Overnight tunnel digging noisy for residents 2:24
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Concerns about Rideau Centre construction noise
Light rail tunnel dig ramps up in Ottawa
Some residents living at an apartment building on Bronson Avenue say overnight excavation of the light rail tunnel near their home is creating noise and vibration that’s impossible to sleep through.
Contractors digging the tunnel underneath Ottawa’s downtown are using large excavators called roadheaders to chew through shale and limestone underground.
The city has granted the LRT excavation work an exemption from the overnight noise bylaw as long as the work is being performed three metres below the surface.
They began the work on the west end of the tunnel south of Commissioner Street but are now close to Bronson and Queen.
‘It’s like sleeping beside a jet plane, basically.’- Valentin Chiraca
Valentin Chiraca, who lives at the Juliana building at 100 Bronson Ave., says the vibrations and noise are travelling up into his second-floor apartment.
“It’s like sleeping beside a jet plane, basically. It’s like you’re sleeping in an airplane beside the tarmac,” said Chiraca.
He said he’s bought ear plugs and a noise cancellation headset since the noise began two weeks ago but said they haven’t helped.
“We are getting three to four hours of sleep… we can’t live in these conditions,” he said.
Mariano Velasco, who lives on the third floor of the Juliana, said he’s also getting about three hours of sleep a night.
Coun. Holmes to meet with residents
Some residents at the Juliana say LRT tunnel digging is keeping them up at night. (CBC)
​
“It’s almost like that feeling in an airport. Like the shaking, it starts at about 8 p.m. and goes until about 8 a.m.,” said Velasco.
Chiraca, Velasco and other residents of the building’s west side say they hear and feel the vibrations more than residents on the building’s east side.
Some residents have taken crude noise readings and say the nighttime vibration can reach up to 85 decibels, or about as loud as city traffic as heard from inside a car.
The city did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
Area Coun. Diane Holmes said she has had difficulty getting answers from the crews doing the work. She said she wants to know how many metres they have dug down and how much longer it will be until they’re out from under the Juliana. She said she also plans to meet with residents and wants to get accurate readings of just how loud the noise is.
In the meantime, Chiraca is periodically spending a night in a hotel to recharge and get some sleep.
> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:38:31 +0000
> To: madamcleo@sympatico.ca
>