HUMBOLDT — The City of Humboldt has drafted a new noise bylaw, which is planned to be brought forward during council’s August meeting and sets a noise limit of 96 decibels on light vehicles.
The new bylaw, which uses decibels to determine noise, replaces the current one, drafted in 1985, which primarily relies on individual perceptions of noise. According to the University of Michigan, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels, a power lawn mower is between 80 to 89, a shouted conversation is between 90 to 95 and a rock concert is between 120 to 129.
Mike Kwasnica, Humboldt’s director of protective services, said focusing on individual perception has caused problems with enforcement.
“Our old bylaw was out of date, it was 1985. So it has been a while since we looked at it, it’s been amended a couple of times but for the most part it’s been the same bylaw for a number of years,” Kwasnica said.
“What we found is that it’s not very specific to what a loud noise was, what are the hours of operation that you’re allowed to make little loud noises in other times.”
The new draft is a result of a review of bylaws throughout Western Canada.
Under the document, residential, land use and construction noises must not be excessively loud from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
In residential zones during daytime hours from 7 a.m to 11 p.m., the decibel limit is set at 60 decibels. During the nighttime hours from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., it’s lowered to 55 decibels.
For all other zones within 30 metres of a residential zone, it’s set at 70 decibels during daytime hours and 65 decibels during nighttime hours.
Commercial and industrial not in 30 metres of a residential zone is set at 85 decibels during the daytime hours, and 75 decibels during the nighttime hours.
Advertisement noises are restricted to the hours between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The noise levels are judged by a time weighted average at the property line over 15 minutes.
Kwasnica said they had the policy under review when SGI and the Saskatoon police partnered on a pilot project in July, where they began issuing notices to light vehicles in the city above 96 decibels. Individuals were given notices and were required to contact SGI and attend a vehicle noise testing clinic.
“What we’re looking at doing, once this bylaw is approved, is setting up some free clinics,” he said. “So if somebody is interested in seeing their vehicle at their current rate there’s going to be no charge.”
The current 1985 bylaw has had its complaints, most recently from Shirley Groff, a resident of the Harry Ford Centre, who spoke to council at their July meeting about the elderly residents of her building being woken up by revving motors.
“At 11 o’clock at night we have speeders and they rev their motors and the seniors in there go to bed at 6:30- 7 o’clock,” Groff said.
“They scare the heck out of everybody. Then the motors go, the diesel motors come barreling through making all the noise they can. We’re elderly people, we would like peace and quiet.”
While Groff asked for speed bumps, Kwasnica believes the drafted bylaw should handle the problem for her and others in her situation.
“We’ve also been in contact with the RCMP with our new bylaw and they like the fact we’re setting a limit, so they can also use our bylaw to address vehicles and it gives us something to go back with.”
The drafted policy maintains the same penalties for breaking the bylaw, which is set at $150 for first offense, $250 for the second, and third is minimum $500 up to $2,000.
Kwasnica said exceptions will continue to be given to municipally approved events, such as car shows or concerts, as well as sudden, necessary infrastructure work.
“We went from a bylaw of five pages to a bylaw of 15 pages,” he said.
“I think it’s a pretty comprehensive bylaw we’re bringing in.”
