Morinville council paved the way for the upcoming opening of the new cultural centre, but not everyone is convinced the town has done enough to prevent noise problems for neighbours of the facility.
Councillors voted 4-2 to approve an occupancy permit for the space, which will allow the town to open it on schedule at the end of the month.
Town staff usually sign off on such permits, but as part of a condition the subdivision development appeal board (SDAB) imposed last year, council was required to give the final OK and sign off on any sound mitigation measures.
The unusual condition was meant to address concerns several neighbours raised about the facility and potential noise.
Though the appeal board required town council to approve sound mitigation measures before the facility opens, it did not specify what those measures should be or what they should achieve.
The town doesn’t have any specific plans going forward, but Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi said he is confident they have taken steps to address the problem.
“It is really tough. We put different insulation in, the way we constructed it, the way we oriented it. I think we have satisfied the noise coming out of the facility pretty well.”
An engineering firm did complete an acoustic study of the building and determined that neither a wall nor a row of trees would reduce noise around the building. They also indicated some of the building materials used would help, as would the orientation, but a costly redesign of the roof would be necessary to completely eliminate noise.
Bertschi said the town is absolutely committed to being a good neighbour, but the facility might not even be a problem.
“We have made all these worst-case assumptions without even having played a single note in the building yet,” he said. “We have to see what is there, what is actually coming out of it and then we can decide.”
The two dissenting voices, Couns. Nicole Boutestein and Lisa Holmes said they were unsure council could reasonably say they had done enough.
Holmes noted ideas the acoustical firm had proposed like the roof upgrades were not followed.
“I am reading that we didn't do what was proposed to us in that letter.”
Council did approve a second motion committing the town to study the noise and provide a preliminary report to council in September.
Tim Stirling, who lives across the street from the centre and filed the initial appeal, said he believes council completely ignored what the SDAB asked for.
“Instead of voting on the methods like they were supposed to do under the SDAB they sidestepped it.”
He rejects Bertschi’s argument the centre might not be a problem and said the town was given opportunities to fix it.
“They haven’t put in any mitigation whatsoever and the mitigation that was suggested to them they said no, we don’t have the money, we don’t have the time.”
Stirling, who is scheduled to address town council on June 14, said if the town doesn’t address the problem it will face legal action.
“If you are going to destroy the quality of my life, with my real estate value possibly going down because of it, then I want to be compensated and if need be I will take that to court.”
