Dig below the surface of the southern tip of Vancouver Island and it’s rock. When a construction project starts, blasting, drilling and crushing are common activities.
In Langford, one of B.C.’s fastest growing communities, there has been a barrage of building, including everything from sports facilities and hotels to big box stores and subdivisions.
In 2011, Langford’s population was 29,200; in 2021 it was roughly 45,000, a 50 per cent population growth.
The sounds associated with the work to forge Langford are relentless, and for some residents, torturous.
“People are mad. It’s brutal,” said Matt Sahlstrom, a Langford city councillor. “I know families that have moved out because of the noise.”
Sahlstrom has lived in Langford since 1969 and because city council has prioritized infill construction, subdivisions are springing up in established neighbourhoods like his, he says. In the summer, it’s not unknown to hear construction racket at 10 p.m., Sahlstrom claimed.
When Langford was incorporated as a city in 1992, it inherited a noise bylaw from the Capital Regional District that was enacted in 1981. In 2017, an amendment addressed blasting and related activity on Sundays and stat holidays, yet the current Noise Suppression By-law appears to need a toning down.
“Langford has been approving developments left and right without due consideration or consultation,” said Jacqueline Gintaut, a Langford resident for more than two decades. “Right now, all you hear is construction noise. It’s a constant drone. When it stops, you go, ‘Wow, what a difference.’”
The existing noise bylaw allows construction noise between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or sunset, whichever is later, seven days a week, including all statutory holidays.
The 2017 amendment prohibits blasting, rock coring and drilling on Sundays and stat holidays.
Proposed amendments have yet to pass, but they include:
- Building construction: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays (same hours, but work limited to inside a closed building).
- Blasting: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday: No blasting on Saturday.
- Rock breaking, drilling and crushing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
- In nearby Saanich, noise from construction activity is allowed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday. Noise related to blasting, drilling and land preparation is allowed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
- In Victoria, construction noise is allowed between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday. Construction noise is not allowed on Sundays.
- In Nanaimo, construction noise is allowed from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays or stat holidays.
- And in Vancouver, street construction must happen between 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Saturday and between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Sundays and holidays.
Like Sahlstrom, Lillian Szpak has been a Langford councillor since 2002. She’s fully aware of how infill growth can create much noise right next to someone’s home.
“For the last 25 years, Langford has been densifying. It’s very challenging to do in existing neighbourhoods,” she said. “Constant noise is an attention getter.”
She is pushing for amendments that will address noise-related pain for residents in a community that touts itself as family-oriented.
But on the flip side, Szpak is also aware that construction work should be expedited so that projects, and the accompanying racket, don’t drag on.
Szpak is also concerned about how a revamped noise bylaw would be enforced.
“You want to have teeth in it. If there isn’t compliance, you have to look at other measures,” she said. When enforcement is called for, there has to be available staff, which means a financial impact. Securing compliance is often preferable to punitive measures, Szpak said.
Gintaut is looking towards summer and hoping she and her neighbours will be able to sit outside and enjoy a no-drilling, no-blasting barbecue.
“Construction is happening across the city and based on council’s development approvals over the past year, it will continue well into the future. The current environment of, what feels like non-stop noise pollution, significantly impacts residents’ lifestyle and depending on where you live, some residents’ health/well-being,” she says.
Further amendments to the noise bylaw are being drafted and will come before council no earlier than the end of March. Szpak said the roughly two-month timeline is to ensure community input is fully considered.
It was actually Councilor Matt Sahlstrom who put forward the motion for the amendment to the noise bylaw. This was done after years of requests to the Chair of Protective Services fell on very deaf ears.
Having worked in construction all my life I’m ashamed of construction industry behaviour in Langford. Lack of consideration for the public by the very people who construct our homes does not reflect well on an industry in Langford that behaves above common civil practice. I our public image worth anything?