A handful of residents in the southeast neighbourhood of Belvedere said they were frustrated with the excessive noise being made when the air-handling unit for a nearby condo complex was turned on in early April. According to Kent Henry, who lives near the development, the system was running 24 hours a day.
Kent Henry is frustrated by the excessive noise made by a nearby condo complex.
Drew Stremick / Global News
“A lot of us went out individually and talked to the builder,” explained Henry. “We all got the same message. The engineers knew of the sound, they looked at the sound, they determined it was operating at design, and that the city (of Calgary) passed it. So there’s nothing they could, or would do for us.”
Henry explained how traffic flowing through the nearby intersection of 84 Street and Belvedere Avenue SE pales in comparison to how loud the unit was.
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“We got some street noise here, we’re perfectly fine with that. We accept that it’s part of life,” Henry said. “If you’re going to build new high occupancy buildings like that, which I think the city needs them, they need to consider the communities they come into.”
Dimitra Gray describes the noise like planes constantly landing.
Drew Stremick / Global News
Dimitra Gray agrees. She told Global News that the noise made it hard to enjoy being outside at times.
“If I came outside to sit out here or talk on the phone, I had to yell on the phone,” said Gray. “It was just non-stop. It did sound like planes landing constantly.”
The City of Calgary confirmed in a statement to Global News that it is investigating the complaints, and provided information on noise bylaws.
“Normal Continuous sound in a residential Development the Sound levels are 65dBA during the daytime and 50dBA during the night time hours,” the statement read in part. “Daytime is defined as 7 a.m.-10 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-10 p.m. on a weekend or holiday. Nighttime is defined as 10 p.m.-7 a.m. weekdays and 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. weekends and holidays.”
Henry, who took noise measurements of his own, said the findings showed over 72 decibels after 9 p.m.
A screenshot from Kent Henry’s phone allegedly showing how loud it was at 9:12 p.m.
Kent Henry
Laebon Rental Communities, who operates the soon to be completed condo development called ‘Blu At Belvedere,’ did not respond to a request for an interview from Global News. But, according to Gray the air-handling unit was turned off on April 11 after the media began contacting the developer.
Both Henry and Gray say they hope the city investigation will result in the ambient noise created by the unit being addressed.
“Hopefully they can come up with something where it’s less noisy,” Gray said. “Maybe 15-minutes every hour … or even a sound barrier of some sort.”
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