Community and Protective Services Committee

WHEREAS staff is recommending no changes to permitted construction times; and WHEREAS the current by-law provides for general construction to occur between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., daily Monday to Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays and statutory holidays; and WHEREAS additional provisions for infill construction, demolition and construction on small lots in residential communities, limit construction to the period from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends and statutory holidays recognizing the adverse impact of early morning Saturday construction noise in residential communities; WHEREAS a majority of respondents to the City’s on-line survey indicated a preference that construction hours be curtailed; WHEREAS should any construction project require for operational reasons additional construction hours beyond what is permitted by the noise by-laws, including an earlier start time on Saturday mornings, an exemption can be sought; WHEREAS the exemption process provides an opportunity to address mitigation measures or approaches specific to the individual project; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that staff Recommendation 1 be amended to add an (f) to read as follows: (f) That the by-law provides for general construction to occur between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., daily Monday to Friday, and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sundays and statutory holidays.

WHEREAS currently the City of Ottawa Noise By-law provides a complete exemption for snow clearing and removal and; WHEREAS the Noise By-law review identified that 59% of residents indicated that snow clearing and removal are too important to restrict and that any changes to the by-law would have adverse effects on their lives and; WHEREAS even with understanding the importance of snow clearing and removal, many residents find that these operations can be disruptive to nearby homes and difficult to mitigate and; WHEREAS staff has stated that they will continue to look at ways to limit the noise impact of snow clearing and removal operations through discussions with the industry, reviewing best practices, and researching the use of broadband back-up alarms; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Fleet Services review the feasibility of installing broadband back-up alarms on appropriate City vehicles and report back to Council with options and the associated costs for consideration in 2018 Budget Deliberations; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Road Services and Facilities staff or others as identified, in consultation with Supply, review the feasibility of incorporating requirements for broadband back-up alarms into purchasing documents for external snow-clearing service providers using vehicles where such alarms are appropriate; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that By-law & Regulatory Services staff review the feasibility of adding to the licensing regulations related to snow plow contractors