City proposes bylaw change to allow later evening noise from new downtown arena

Calgary is getting a new state-of-the-art downtown arena but it will not feature state-of-the-art soundproofing.

So the City of Calgary wants to change bylaws to allow loud concerts to run later in the evening a few times a year.

Currently, sounds above 50 decibels aren't allowed after 10 p.m.

However, that standard will not be met by the design for Scotia Place, the $926-million event centre complex that's to be built in Victoria Park.

A city official said the arena agreements specify the new building must meet all city bylaws.

To verify that, James McLaughlin with the city's event centre delivery team said they assessed what the building's design would require.

"In terms of complying with the existing bylaws in place, it's about a $7 to $8 million unbudgeted line item in the project that hasn't been carried through the original budgeting as approved by council," said McLaughlin.

"It wasn't identified when the project was developed as a project cost or a project requirement."

As a result, the city is proposing to change the bylaw to allow for sounds up to 64 decibels to be detected outside the arena up until midnight.

It said that level of noise would be noticeable to residents on nearby residential tower balconies as being like a busy restaurant.

McLaughlin estimated five to 10 concerts a year might exceed the noise bylaw unless the rules were changed.

The area's councillor, Ward 8 representative Courtney Walcott, said that number of events doesn't merit spending more money on the arena.

"Is an extra eight million dollars going to produce the value that you might be able to from just letting people know and keeping them aware that your balcony is going to be noisy five to 10 times a year?" said Walcott.

He added that the new entertainment district — of which Scotia Place will be a cornerstone piece — is not meant to be a quiet, suburban kind of place.

"Is the culture and entertainment district a quiet neighbourhood? Or is it going to be something different?" said Walcott.

"We're probably going to be doing this a lot over the next few years as a significant amount of construction is going to be going in to determine what that community is going to be."

The city's plan to change the noise bylaw caught residents of a nearby residential tower off guard.

The president of the Arriva Tower condo board, Serene Yew, said residents were surprised there was no real engagement with them on the proposed change.

She said residents are used to significantly more noise during the Stampede, which is exempt from the noise bylaw.

But this proposed change raises concerns.

"Stampede's only 10 days of the year," she said.

"With the event centre, we don't know what days those are going to be. We don't know even how many days that's going to be, and we don't know what 65 decibels sounds like. It's kind of an arbitrary number."

City council's community planning committee recommended sending the proposed bylaw change to next week's city council meeting for discussion.

Site preparations are underway in Victoria Park for the construction of Scotia Place to begin later this year.