Anti-noise group cranks up complaints after latest Rogers Stadium concert
· Toronto Sun
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Noise from concerts continues to affect area residents around Rogers Stadium at North York’s Downsview Park, says Ingrid Buday, the Toronto-based founder of the four-year-old anti-noise advocacy group, No More Noise.
Buday said she heard from residents as far away as Vaughan who said that they could hear Bruno Mars’ first of five shows at the outdoor venue this past Sunday night.
“You have people seven and nine kilometres away that could hear the concert in Vaughan,” Buday told the Toronto Sun on Tuesday morning. “So it really depends on wind. It depends on the weather, if it’s rainy, if it’s cloudy, a whole bunch of atmospheric conditions that influence how sound travels. So the really high frequency, the trills and the sharp noises, those actually drop off very quickly but the bass and the low frequencies can travel a long, long, long, long, long way.”
Bad weather marred Mars’ original opening date at Rogers Stadium this past Saturday, so he postponed that show until this coming Sunday.
His other remaining Toronto dates are Wednesday and Saturday.
For its part, Live Nation Canada says it continues to work on any sound issues that area residents may have.
Community feedback is expected, says venue operator
“As with any large-scale outdoor concert venue, community feedback is expected,” a Live Nation Canada spokesperson said on Tuesday. “We continue to work proactively to balance the fan experience with being a responsible neighbour while operating within all compliance requirements.”
For her part, Buday encourages better communication between the venue operators and the residents.
“There were road closures that weren’t communicated,” she said. “They don’t know when fireworks are going to happen after a show so they don’t know if they need to prep their dogs. They want a hotline. They want better traffic mitigation. All of all those things around sound, a lot of those are solvable. That would be really great place to start.”
The Live Nation Canada spokesperson re-iterated what they previously stated in a media briefing last Thursday.
Vinyl cladding added
“We continuously monitor sound levels and have independent Municipal Licensing Officers onsite and in surrounding communities to ensure we remain within permitted limits. We’ve also implemented additional mitigation measures, including new vinyl cladding behind the grandstands designed to further reduce off-site sound transmission,” the spokesperson said.
But Buday said of the vinyl cladding: “Residents tell me it’s useless. It is really hard to contain something that’s meant to be loud and amplify music. ”
As for the presence of those Municipal Licencing Officers?
They’re not actually controlling the sound,” Buday said. “They want to make sure that they’re in compliance with the noise exemption bylaw, but that doesn’t mean that the noise levels are acceptable. It’s in a residential area.”
Buday said the allowable levels for amplified sound from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. is 55 dBA (what we can hear) and 70 dBC (what we can feel vibrationally, like the bass), but that Live Nation Canada applies for a noise exemption permit on the nights of Rogers Stadium’s concerts to increase it to 85 dBA and 105 dBC.
When asked to respond to those levels and the noise exemption permit specifically, the Live Nation Canada spokesperson said: “Rogers Stadium operates under sound regulations and permitted limits established and approved by the City for concert activity at the venue. As noted, we continuously monitor sound levels throughout events and have independent Municipal Licensing Officers onsite and in surrounding communities to ensure compliance with the permitted requirements in place for each show. ”
Councillor suggests hard-noise barrier
As for York Centre – Downsview City Councillor James Pasternak’s suggestion of building a hard-noise barrier of soil and rocks around Rogers Stadium, Buday doesn’t like that idea either.
“I haven’t heard of rocks before,” she said. “So last summer the biggest and most common complaint from the residents was vibration. You can put earplugs in for decibels. You can’t do anything regarding vibration. So those low-frequency waves will travel through rock, will travel through ground. So it’s really not going to do much.”