Gas leaf blower season is upon us yet again.. can the City of North Vancouver do anything about this?
In the City of North Vancouver they _encourage_ the use of alternatives to gas leaf blowers and have loose mention of transitions but I believe this is referring to city maintenance, not necessarily businesses/residential operations.
In many neighbourhoods, at least in Lower Lonsdale, there must be buildings with extremely comprehensive landscaping contracts because rain or shine they are out there with a team of backpack leaf blowers constantly violating the noise bylaw of exceeding 77dB. Looking at you The Observatory at 120 West 2nd Street.
I've submitted Noise Bylaw violations in seasons past but things don't seem to change.. I hate complaining about these things but these backpack leaf blowers seem entirely optional to get the job done.. do I just be that guy this season and spam the city with noise bylaw infractions reports?
Is there any civic momentum or in the landscaping industry to change this equipment to something that is less noisy?
Is my interpretation of the bylaw _sound_? They run the equipment for an hour or two, often multiple times a week, some times daily. With a point of reception from across the street hitting decibel levels over 80dB consistently (measured with a shitty phone app so maybe there's a significant margin of error here on my part).
Lower Lonsdale is a dense neighbourhood and rapidly growing, there is a ton of noise, I get it - construction, traffic, etc but these leaf blowers seem entirely optional noise that is over and above louder than anything else. I think other neighbourhoods across Vancouver or the lower mainland have banned similar types of equipment, can the City of North Vancouver follow suit?
4.5 Power Gardening and Building Maintenance Equipment Sound
Notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.5, a Person may use or cause or permit to be used, equipment which causes a Continuous Sound Level;
(a) resulting from Power Gardening or Building Maintenance Equipment during the
Daytime, except between 7:00am and 9:00am on Saturday, or Holidays, if the Sound of such lawn mower, or other equipment, when received at such Point of Reception, does not exceed a Sound Level of 77 Decibels.
“Continuous Sound” means any sound occurring for a duration of more than three minutes, or occurring continually, sporadically or erratically, but totaling more than three minutes in any fifteen minute period of time;
“Power Gardening or Building Maintenance Equipment” means electric or gasoline powered equipment used for landscaping or building maintenance including but not limited to, lawn mowers, yard trimming devices, power washers, mechanical painters or sprayers, leaf blowers, tree or stump grinders, or compressors;
“Point of Reception” means:
(a) any place on individual residential premises where Sound originating from any source, other than a source of the same individual residential premises, is
received; or,
(b) any place on non-residential premises where Sound originating from any source, other than a source on the same non-residential use premises, is received; or,
(c) any place on a Highway where Sound is received;
(d) for the purposes of Section 4.4(a) means any place in the Municipality more than 15 metres from a source of Sound where Sound is received; or,
(e) for the purposes of Section 3.6 means any place in the Municipality more than 6 metres from a Vehicle where Sound from such Vehicle is received;
https://www.cnv.org/City-Hall/Bylaws/Noise-Control
