{"id":20656,"date":"2018-05-16T14:41:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T18:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20656"},"modified":"2018-05-16T14:41:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T18:41:37","slug":"retirement-home-construction-clatter-roots-out-problem-in-noise-bylaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/retirement-home-construction-clatter-roots-out-problem-in-noise-bylaw\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement home construction clatter roots out problem in noise bylaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nSundays mornings are usually quiet on Aurora streets \u2013 and this was the case in southwest Aurora until fairly recently when the Aurora Retirement Centre decided to grow.
\nBut complaints over construction and on-street parking from that construction has found a shortcoming in local noise bylaws \u2013 there is nothing the Town can do, right now, to mitigate noise for area residents, even on weekends.
\nThis could change, however, after these concerns were raised around the Council table once again last week.
\n\u201cThis is the second, or possibly third Sunday where construction has been occurring,\u201d said Councillor Tom Mrakas. \u201cIt is my understanding that construction was not allowed without an exemption. We allow construction Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We hear that all the time at Public Planning. I am just wondering how it is and why it is they keep working on Sunday?\u201d
\nMunicipal staff, however, sent mixed messages on just why this work is continuing.
\nPlanning Director Marco Ramunno, for instance, said he has asked the owner of the Retirement Centre, which is also known as Kingsway Arms, to notify their subcontractors that they shouldn\u2019t be working on Sundays.
\n\u201cWe have had some success with the developer down south of Ridge Road and we put the same call into the owner and developer of the seniors\u2019 addition at Seaton and Murray, so I am sure they will respond accordingly.\u201d
\nBut, if they did respond accordingly, they wouldn\u2019t necessarily be required to, added Techa Van Leeuwen, Aurora\u2019s Director of Corporate Services \u2013 at least as things stand.
\n\u201cOur noise bylaw does regulate construction noise,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, our noise bylaw only regulates construction noise in a residential zone and commercial zones. This is an institutional zone and our noise bylaw is silent on institutional zones as well as other zones such as rural zones and open space zones. We don\u2019t have any enforcement tools in this space. Unless there are other provisions and an agreement elsewhere, our noise bylaw does not apply in this situation.\u201d
\nFrom the perspective of Council, this was, in the words of Councillor Mrakas, \u201ca big loophole that we need to have fixed immediately.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t understand how construction could be happening on a Sunday, especially since we sit here at Public Planning all the time and we constantly hear, when residents [ask] when construction will be happening, we always say \u2018Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.\u2019 …That, to me, is a big loophole and something we need to correct, and I think it is urgent.\u201d
\nTo bring about this change, a Councillor would need to put forward a notice of motion in that regard, and that almost took place last Tuesday until staff suggested some time to delve in to the matter further and bring forward more information for Council\u2019s review.
\n\u201cI am wondering specifically why institutional was left out,\u201d said CAO Doug Nadorozny about the noise bylaw. \u201cThere probably was some rationale behind that and I think it would be beneficial to bring that forward before Council makes a decision.\u201d
\nThere might be some hope for area residents, however, if there is a noise condition buried within the retirement centre\u2019s site plan agreement, and that too will be reviewed.
\n\u201cUnless there is a provision in some other agreement, like a site plan agreement or some other agreement I am not aware of, with respect to the noise bylaw, there is no violation so we are unable to take action.\u201d
\nThe fact the bylaw is silent on institutional zones and causing disruption to a neighbourhood is something Councillor Wendy Gaertner said was \u201cabsolutely an insult to the residents.
\n\u201cThis is a huge oversight and the sooner it can be corrected the better.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sundays mornings are usually quiet on Aurora streets \u2013 and this was the case in southwest Aurora until fairly recently when the Aurora Retirement Centre decided to grow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5na","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 13:18:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}