At the July 5 Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) council meeting, council voted to adopt a new noise bylaw which will increase the allowable hours that construction can occur in the municipality, along with increased fines for bylaw infractions.
The fines for making too much noise have increased from $250 to $500 per offence. The quiet hours in the municipality have remained the same, from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. for residential properties.
Overall hours of allowable construction time have increased, with construction allowed to start at 7:30 a.m. every day except Sunday and statutory holidays, which have changed to a 9 a.m. start time.
Previously, construction was allowed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. The new bylaw will increase the total allowable construction hours from 4,407 to 4,472 hours per year, an increase of 65 hours.
Changes to the noise bylaw were brought forward to council a whole year ago, with the original proposal to increase residential fines for noise to the same levels as construction noise fines, $500 per infraction.
After council received a letter from the Sea to Sky branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) requesting earlier construction start times, council decided to undertake consultation on the proposed changes.
In October, a survey was initiated and garnered 387 responses, with most saying they wished to limit the allowable construction hours, especially on weekends and statutory holidays.
Council and the construction industry felt cutting the number of construction hours might hamper efforts to build more housing in the municipality, so they decided to go forward with a slight increase to the allowable hours.
The new bylaw also adds new definitions for noise and noise-related construction and industrial activities, and removes a section on watercraft operation on lakes due to the federal government having control over these regulations.
There are also a variety of exemptions in the bylaw, including restaurant noise during quiet hours, sounds made by children playing, snowplows, golf course maintenance, trucks loading and unloading goods, noise from public worship services and construction noise from RMOW emergency repairs.
