Construction, fireworks, traffic: Waterloo adding clarity to noise bylaws

Blaring car horns, booming fireworks, and cracking jackhammers are all just a few examples of loud noises that have brought headaches to many throughout the region, something Waterloo City Council is hoping to address with updates to its noise bylaws.

It’s approved some new updates, working to give better clarity for exemptions, enforcement, and provide more understanding to those throughout Waterloo.

Both councillors and city staff say the new updates will primarily help with enforcement, providing further details on exactly what constitutes loud noises and further setting the benchmark for penalties along with it.

As of now, even with the changes, the penalties remain the same for breaking the noise bylaw, sitting at a $400 fine for first-time offenders of up to $800 on the second offence.

“I’m encouraged by the clarification in this bylaw,” said Ward 7 Councillor Julie Wright. “Uptown is a very noisy place, and I think it does really provide a much more streamlined approach and a very reasonable approach to that level of noise.”

During a presentation, Manager of Compliance and Standards with the city, Christopher Mulhern, went into detail on the “bad actors” that have been seen in recent times.

It comes after city staff conducted a survey of almost 400 people, as well as consulted the Waterloo BIA, local universities, and neighbourhood departments, on some of the loud noises in the municipality. Of the respondents, 15 per cent identified loud vehicles as a concern, 11 per cent flagged fireworks in particular, and under 15 per cent listed residential noises and construction sounds as an ongoing issue.

The overall issue that Mulhern drew attention to was that many people across the city still felt the current noise bylaws remained unclear.

One issue that Ward 4 Councillor Diane Freeman felt was missed in the new changes was the distinction between noises and vibrations. She said during the meeting that vibrations can be just as frustrating for homeowners throughout Waterloo.

“It is a concern that I’m just gonna raise a flag on because we need some kind of tool. I’ve literally seen people’s china cabinets fall over within two blocks of a compactor operating,” Freeman mentioned.

That being said, the new changes haven’t gone so far as to add a 90 decibel limit, something that was introduced to councillors during the recent meeting on May 26.

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For reference, 30 decibels is equal to that of a whisper, 60 is closer to regular conversation, 80 is similar to a police siren, while 90 decibels is in line with blenders and even lawnmowers or power tools.

Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe went into detail on someone who had approached council in the past, venting frustrations over noises coming from construction. She hopes the new wording will be extensive enough to make similar issues less common.

“I’m just curious if this is going to be strong enough to address that, and maybe it was a one-off, but this had gone on for well over a year or two. I just want to make sure that if we’re updating this, that we capture things like that.”

The last time the city saw more developed changes to its noise bylaw was back in 2010, when councillors added wording to clarify some of the more vague language, introduced a tiered exemption system, and modernized some of the communication and enforcement details.

Mulhern also went into details on the main groups that have been acquiring noise exemptions over recent times as well, with 30 per cent coming from those local universities, 18 per cent coming from construction projects, and 17 per cent coming from private events.

The new changes have also worked to reduce those costs on obtaining a noise exemption for personal backyard barbeques and weddings, now sitting at $75 through the city.

Again, while the new updates don’t introduce any monumental, stark changes from what was already included in the noise bylaws, the clarified wording is meant as a better way to communicate noise exemptions, provides a better roadmap for enforcement, and, overall, makes it a bit easier for everyone in the city to understand.