COVID Construction: Richmond Hill resident irritated by all-day noise at ‘monster home’ site

“It is downright mentally draining,” says a resident who is questioning Ontario’s extended construction work hours

Yorkregion.com
May 29, 2020

Nika Rolczewski just wanted “one day of peace” at home, but she says Ontario’s recent mandate to extend residential construction hours has taken it away from her.

The Oak Ridges resident said construction noises at a work site in her quiet neighbourhood has made her stay-at-home life harder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The crews have been working on a large property on Country Heights Drive behind her house 16 hours a day every day, and there is no way to stop them, Rolczewski told The Liberal.

“It is downright mentally draining,” she wrote in an email, noting it’s “not the best for families that are already on the threshold of anxiety and fear.”

The province has extended the hours of work at residential construction sites from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, after earlier keeping residential construction on the shortened list of essential workplaces.

The decision was announced on April 8 as part of the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with extending construction hours for critical health care facilities to 24 hours a day.

Rolczewski said she recognized the need to build an essential infrastructure like a medical centre, but erecting a “personal monster home” should not be necessary in times of a crisis.

“My problem is this new amendment was brought in without any consultation or thought. There is a reason that noise bylaws are in place,” Rolczewski wrote in an email on May 20.

This new mandate overrides Richmond Hill’s noise bylaw which only allows construction work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Saturday.

The province not only permits four extra hours of construction work at the neighbouring property every day, but also allows operation on Sundays -- a day of quietness that Rolczewski said she used to have under the city’s noise bylaw.

The resident said she and her 9-year-old daughter usually hang out in the backyard while feeding the chickadees and listening to the chirps of the frogs on Sundays.

Now, they can’t even hear themselves think, she said.

It’s only going to get worse, Rolczewski said, as days get dark later.

“The concrete pour will start the rest, frame build, stonework. Noise and dust, diesel smell, garbage …” said Rolczewski who is no stranger to a construction scene.

She said she cannot make a noise complaint to the city unless the operation goes beyond the 16 hours that are permitted by the province.

The Richmond Hill resident wasn't the first one who challenged the provincial measure.

Earlier last month, a Toronto councillor demanded the province provide the public health rationale for allowing residential construction to continue, or suspend it for the safety of workers and their communities -- or provide the public health rationale for allowing it to continue.

A spokesperson for Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton said residential projects are “critical to the thousands of families who need a roof over their heads."