There’s a chance construction noise in Whistler could soon start half-an-hour earlier in the day—but if that change pans out, locals could also be in store for more quiet hours overall.
During the March 22 meeting, Whistler’s mayor and council discussed the pros and cons of implementing a new noise regulation bylaw that would allow construction in residentially-zoned areas to begin from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday year-round, and ban construction noise on Sundays and statutory holidays.
Currently, construction noise in Whistler is permitted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days per week. That adds up to 4,508 total annual hours during which construction noise is permitted.
The issue was first brought to council’s attention in July 2021, when a bylaw seeking to raise noise infraction fines in the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) received its first three readings. But rather than adopting the bylaw last September, council opted to defer the decision after receiving a letter from the Sea to Sky branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) advocating for earlier start times for Whistler construction crews, in line with other B.C. municipalities that allow work to start at 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. on weekdays. The change would also account for periods of high or extreme fire danger during the summer, when the RMOW’s current fire regulations state that any high-risk construction activity taking place within 10 metres of the forest must cease at 1 p.m. each day.
At the time, council directed staff to consider seasonal changes to the start time for construction noise and seek additional input from the community.
A construction noise survey shared with Whistler residents last October garnered 387 responses, 81 per cent of which were from people outside of the construction industry. The survey found 55 per cent of respondents were not satisfied with the current permitted construction noise times. However, 55 per cent of respondents also named 8 a.m. as their preferred start time for construction noise on weekdays. Fifty-nine per cent supported banning construction noise on Sundays, while 66 per cent supported no construction on public holidays.
RMOW staff reviewed this feedback, as well as the different approaches taken in other municipalities throughout the Lower Mainland, and presented council with a report outlining three potential options for regulating construction noise in Whistler’s residential areas.
Staff recommended the first option, which would allow construction noise between 7:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. from Monday to Saturday throughout the year, with no construction noise permitted on Sundays or statutory holidays. The changes would result in a total of 3,895 permitted annual construction noise hours.
Councillor Cathy Jewett pointed out that the shift proposed in Option 1 would see the number of allowable construction noise hours drop significantly.
“I’m not in the construction industry, but I imagine losing 600 hours per year might affect some projects,” she said. (RMOW planner Kevin Creery pointed out that many of the lost hours would cover evenings, Sundays and holidays when many construction sites choose to close.)
Coun. Duane Jackson agreed. “I think what the industry was looking for was to be able to start earlier at different times of the year … but I’m not sure that they wanted to reduce the total hours,” he said.
As RMOW chief administrative officer Ginny Cullen noted, the survey itself did receive some input from construction industry stakeholders.
“The options that you have in front of you are a compromise between the community input and what we understood to be the construction industry’s request to have earlier start times,” Cullen told council. “If we go back and get more input, I don’t think [the options] you have in front of you are going to change much.”
The idea of implementing a 7:30 start time, added RMOW general manager of corporate and community services Ted Battiston, “was to try to meet the construction industry with hours that were valuable to them, and the moving away from statutory holidays and Sundays was to meet the community with the additional quiet time hours that they were seeking.”
After a lengthy discussion, council ultimately voted to direct RMOW staff to solicit further input from the construction industry before drafting an amendment to the noise regulation bylaw—featuring a new approach, if needed—to bring forward at a future council meeting.
