Calgary Arts Academy Knobhill Nightly Leaf Blower Noise Nuisance – Seriously Unneighbourly!

The Calgary Arts Academy (CAA) needs to clear >400 m of walkways and sidewalks after every snow flurry for public safety. This is done with the help of noisy and dirty gas-powered leaf blowers – and typically in the middle of the night, for 20-50 mins…resulting in neighbours’ sleep disturbance.

This unreasonable practice is backed by a revised interpretation of the old Calgary Community Standards bylaw – but outlawed elsewhere for obvious reasons. CAA is advised to deploy professional equipment (dedicated snow blowers) as relief to the neighbourhood – and the city should ban dirty 2-stroke gardening tools altogether consistent with their climate emergency declaration.

This page is being continuously updated. Stay tuned.

Introduction

I usually write about sound. Sound is pleasant. But there is also unwanted sound which is referred to as noise. And noise can be harmful to people’s health. The health effect is exacerbated by noise at night, as it disturbs people’s sleep: wakes them up, keeps them up for the time of the noise pollution, and may cause difficulties in falling asleep again. In the long run, it may alter people’s sleep rhythm.

In the short run, nightly sleep disturbance results in headaches, fatigue, irritability, and it affects someone’s professional performance and productivity. Apart from that night noise causes annoyance and displeasure.

Do I make this up? No, it comes from the World Health Organization, reflects my own experience – and simply summarizes common sense.

But noise is not just noise.  There is a certain kind of noise I needed to avoid. Food blenders in the kitchen, hair dryers in the bathroom, a vacuum cleaner whooshing around—all produced an intense whining sound that, given the specific wiring connections between my ears and my brain, kept me from thinking about anything but the sound itself while it was going on. 

If you don’t want to to start your day aggravated and sleep deprived…well…then you better don’t live close to Calgary Arts Academy.

The Issue

The Calgary Arts Academy, located in the established residential community of Calgary Richmond Knobhill, has to service over 200 m of internal walkways and over 200 m of public sidewalk, totalling over 400 m, which includes snow clearing, performed by various contractors over time.

Whilst this has never been an issue since we moved here in 2004, the new contractor elects to clear snow between 3 am and 5 am on weekdays, and at around 7 am on weekends. The company does not exclusively deploy dedicated professional snow clearing equipment (“snow blowers”) but high-revving, 2-stroke leaf blowers which are aggressively noisy (hence banned even at daytime, elsewhere) and extremely dirty.

>400 m of leaf blower! Night after night at times.

It sounds like this and runs from 15 mins to over an hour, depending on snow conditions:

When the above incident happened in May 2022, it sparked the interest of CTV – and they sent a TV team [here’s their video]. Strangely enough, nobody bothers about constant repeats of this in the winter.

Now repeat this nuisance night after night…again and again.

While common sense alone suggests that noise will disturb sleep, either by waking the sleeper or by changing the level of sleep, actual measurement of the problem is not a simple matter (M.J. Epstein, 2020). Buy the book of this UofC researcher here.

Legal Situation vs. Common Sense

Although it sounds counterintuitive, the City of Calgary allows anything that could be considered snow-clearing devices to be deployed day and night within 48 h following a snowfall (though site licences can be revoked on an individual basis).

Leaf blowers were explicitly banned at night a few years ago – and the bylaw’s wording has not changed since.

What has changed is the interpretation of the bylaw text when somebody found a loophole in the wording: an ambiguous text passage is interpreted in favour of the offender – out of fear the city could loose the battle in court. Suddenly the banned leaf blowers were allowed again – out of the blue. A true paradox!

The Arguments Pro and Contra

Some people who are either invested in the snow-clearing business or school safety argue snow clearing has to be done at night AND with leaf blowers. Both these arguments are individually flawed – and even more so in combination. None of these holds up to critical thinking (“logic”).

• Snow has been removed with shovels and dedicated snow blowers up to ca. 2015. Leaf blowers have appeared on a large scale in the winter since ca. 2015 in Calgary. Safety was given before.
• The vast majority of Calgary property owners don’t operate leaf blowers for snow removal. Their sidewalks are also safe.
• In the past, CAA cleared snow after 7 am in order to be considerate.
• CAA has over 450 metres of sidewalks and walkways to service. That’s a task for a dedicated snow blower.
• Dedicated snow blowers are quiet, fast, and effective, they operate with a rotating brush and pile the snow up on by the side of a walkway; leaf blower just superficially blow snow around.
• Publice safety also relates to the school’s neighbours. Sleep-deprived drivers bear a risk to CAA’s students and others.

It is not about safety, it really all about a quick buck. The solution: if company’s scheduling benefits from nightly work, please use quieter tools….like their own snow blowers…on this 400+ m stretch.

Possible Solutions

• Everything stays the same until the city adjusts their bylaw.
• Bylaw Director revokes CAA’s site licence.
• Calgary Arts Academy changes contractor.
• Current contractor changes nightly habits – and also sticks to agreements with school and their public statements.
• CAA purchases a snow blower, or the contractor uses theirs (they do have them).

The simplest solution would be to use a quieter tool such as a snowblower, which does not affect the contractor’s scheduling or jeopardize safety.

Leaf Blowers and the Environment

Apart from emitting noise, leaf blowers are fossil technology and an environmental disaster – they should be banned on that argument alone. This is discussed extensively in the following online article:

Concluding Remarks

In summary, Calgary Arts Academy have started imposing themselves on the neighbourhood through their impervious contractor – and sadly are protected by a botched city bylaw.

The Academy finds it convenient having found a reliable contractor – but holds the ultimate responsibility for the contractor’s impact on the public. They close their eyes whilst hiding behind the “safety for students” argument, which is flawed as safety does not rely on noisy shortcuts for the contractor’s convenience. Both are unrelated. It was safe before.

This is an unbalanced situation that results in sleep deprivation and health issues for some affected. But there is no compromise for endangerment of health out of convenience and profiteering.

City Council is advised to revise their bylaws to the standards of common sense (and to their climate emergency) and phase out this fossil two-stroke technology. Right now, they come across as not credible.

Until next time…keep on listening – but to real music!