Loud noises keeping you up at night? Here's how proposed bylaw changes could affect you
Concerts with the volume turned lower. A limit on how loud a car can be. New way to complain about noisy waste collectors could be headed your way.
Thestar.com
Jan. 5, 2024
Alyshah Hasham
Concerts with the volume turned lower. A limit on how loud a car can be. A new way to complain about noisy waste collectors.
These are among the changes proposed to the city's sweeping 2019 noise bylaw, a set of rules that seeks to balance the damage of excessive loud sounds and vibrations with realities and pleasures of city life. But some say the changes will have little practical effect, and lack adequate enforcement measures.
Barnali Choudhury hoped the new bylaw would ban overnight waste collection, not just create a better way to complain.
She lives in a residential neighbourhood near Lawrence Avenue West and Avenue Road which she says has been plagued for years by deliveries and waste collection at a nearby 24-hour fast food chain restaurant at all hours of the night.
"For Pete's sake, just let the people sleep through the night," she said. She's even chased a garbage truck down the street at 2 a.m. in her daughter's Uggs trying to get a license plate to report, she said. Without a law in place, they have had to resort to begging the restaurant's head office to intervene.
"There is a sense of rage that overcomes you," she said of the disturbances, which can happen multiple times a week and have left her sleep-deprived and increasingly irritable.
Despite complaints like hers, the city is recommending waste collection continue to be allowed overnight, as it has been since 2022.
"This ensures that critical municipal and private services can operate as needed and in a way that minimizes potential health and safety impacts," the report states, noting that there was support for overnight collection for majority of residents surveyed, the businesses who use overnight waste collection and the industry. However, the city said they will be introducing a new complaint service through 311 and working with the waste collection companies to address complaints as they arise.
The noise bylaw amendments, which will be discussed at the Economic and Community Development Committee next week, come after a pandemic-delayed review mandated by the 2019 bylaw.
The city is also proposing increasing noise exemption permit fees, particularly for "high-impact" events, which will fund the creation of a co-ordinator position on the noise enforcement team at the city. No new enforcement officers are being requested at this time, as there are still vacant positions to be filled, the report said.
While he says clear noise bylaws help make entertainment venues better neighbours, higher permit fees are an extra burden on businesses, including street festivals, trying to survive after the difficult pandemic years, says Shaun Bowring, who owns live music venues The Garrison and The Baby G, and is a co-founder of the Dundas West Fest street festival.
He also questions the city's decision to lower the indoor amplified sound limit by three decibels. "It's such a minute measurement, it seems like lip service to me," he said, adding that the limits set in the 2019 bylaw were already extensively studied and discussed.
There are some welcome parts of the bylaw to advocates from No More Noise Toronto and Toronto Noise Coalition. The inclusion of sound-induced vibration into the prohibition on “unreasonable and persistent” noise is one. The city has also renewed its request to the province for the ability to use noise-activated cameras, like those in use in New York, which could help enforcement on not just noisy bar patios but deafening cars and motorcycles.
But there doesn't appear to be much improvement for responding to noise complaints, says Cathie MacDonald, of Toronto Noise Coalition. Someone making a complaint will need to have a bylaw officer come into their home up to five days later, which is intrusive and does nothing to capture the problem noise level from days before, she said. She'd also hoped to see a way to manage noise from party boats.
"A noise complaint isn't a service request, it's a call for help," said Ingrid Buday of No More Noise Toronto, who says there should be a more proactive approach including spot checks on places that have been complained about.
She also wonders how the motor vehicle noise limit will be enforced. She already struggles with how to report loud motor vehicle noise when it is coming from a moving location further away from her condo than she is allowed to report on the form. And in order to make a police report, she is asked for details such as the license plate number which are impossible to provide, she said.
The city has found that automated noise radar is not yet reliable enough to be used as evidence in enforcing the bylaw, but has done targeted enforcement of high-complaint areas for motorcyclists along with Toronto police, something that would be expanded to include cars this summer.
The city cannot set higher fines for noise bylaw violations but is seeking permission from the province to do so, per the report. Current fines range from $500 to $700.
According to the report, amplified sound garnered by far the most noise complaints to 311 -- more than half -- followed by construction noise. Spadina--Fort York, University Rosedale and Toronto Centre consistently made the top three wards with the most noise complaints.
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