Southeast False Creek project has been exempted from the city’s noise bylaw
William Boei
Sun
VANCOUVER – People who live near the Olympic Village development site on southeast False Creek can look forward to peaceful Sundays. The rest of the week, not so much.
The project has been exempted from the City of Vancouver’s noise bylaw, and that means construction can go on 24 hours a day, from midnight Sunday until midnight Saturday.
That comes as no surprise to Brenda McNeil, who lives in the CityGate condo complex on Quebec Street, a few hundred metres away.
Noise from the construction site has startled her from sleep nearly every night for more than a week.
“Eight days ago, it woke me up at about 20 after four in the morning,” McNeil said Monday. “There was a huge crash that startled me awake, and it just carried on the rest of the night.”
The crash sounded like a truckload of large rocks being dumped, and it probably was. The next morning, driving her son to school, she noticed a big pile of rocks dumped on one corner of the site.
The noise hasn’t stopped. During the day, it often blends into the sounds of the city, but at night, when the city falls silent, it skips and bounces off the water of False Creek and keeps her awake.
“It’s continual,” McNeil said. “Last night, I didn’t sleep from 10 past two on.
“I’m accustomed to noise. I’ve lived here a lot of years. Buildings have gone up and I don’t complain. We had the Indy and don’t complain. But in the middle of the night? My family has to sleep, you know?”
McNeil said she went to city hall Monday morning to complain. Someone took her name, but she was told Mayor Sam Sullivan had allowed the bylaw exemption.
A city representative couldn’t immediately supply details of the exemption.
“There’s a fair bit of work going on there,” said public affairs director Paul Heraty. “I understand there is a noise bylaw exemption, but I don’t know the details of it.”
However, a notice to residents from JJM Construction of Delta said the bylaw exemption covers 24 hours a day except Sundays and statutory holidays.
City council documents reveal JJM Construction has a contract for about $265,000 to remove collapsed pilings and old wharf decking from the site, and another for $5.5 million for foreshore construction.
The notice says some of the work, such as excavation and material placement, has to be done at low tide, which this fall means mostly late at night and early in the morning. Unloading of aggregate barges can be done only at high tide, which varies from week to week.
Another CityGate resident, Patsy McMillan, said her condo is partly sheltered from the noise, but dust from the site is a problem.
“I tend to sleep with my windows closed now, since they’re pile driving at 2:30 in the morning or dredging or whatever they’re doing,” McMillan said. “Depending on what side of the building they’re on, the noise has been difficult for some people.
“And there is a dust cloud over that area all the time.”
She said most residents are not complaining because they realize nothing can be done about it.
“They can do whatever they want at whatever time they want. Some work has to be done at low tide or at high tide. So it depends on the moon, I guess.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2006