Dear Selectmen,
I have some concerns for the town over the "construction noise" warrant
article.
Please consider changing this proposal back to your original idea to allow
for construction work from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The current warrant language is too
restrictive and actually discriminatory against a specific industry. It also
places unnecessary financial and emotional stress on residents who are
looking to improve their properties as well as contractors who live and work
in this town (there are many).
1. Discriminatory nature. Normally, towns have bylaws that regulate
noise. All noise. You can't let the dog bark, the lawn mower roar or the
contractor work before and after certain hours. Our bylaw is proposed, for
some reason, only against construction noise. How logical is that? What if
someone is blowing leaves at 6:30 in the morning, or is working on their own
house with a radio blasting at 9:00 p.m, or is mowing grass for 3 hours on a
Saturday starting at 7:00 a.m.? Why they are not regulated, but someone who
is trying to cover the roof before a rainstorm or repair a septic system on
a Saturday is being hand-cuffed? I consider this a form of discrimination.
Noise is noise. Ironically, construction noise is temporary, while grass
mowers and leaf blowers are forever.
2. Prolonged, more expensive construction process for homeowners and
neighbors. The other problem is that the less you allow people to do in one
week, the longer the entire process will be (the longer the neighbors will
have to live with it) and the more expensive each job will be to the
homeowner.
3. Hidden consequences. The best contractors can choose where to
work. They stay successful by working hard, keeping themselves very busy,
and staying focused on getting the job done on time and on budget. If they
are having difficulties with over-regulation and restrictions, they will go
and work elsewhere leaving our residents with a less than qualified pool of
contractors to fill the holes. This is already happening in our town as
evidenced by projects on Glen house way and Beaver road.
4. Unnecessary expense and emotional burden. Scenario: It has been
raining for 4 days since Sunday. You are adding a room to part of your
house. Your contractor needs to open a side and part of the roof and connect
the old and the new. It should take about 3 solid days to make it weather
tight, assuming that there is no traffic and delivery issues and everyone
can be at the site on time... It is Wednesday. Finally there is a break
for 3 days and then another storm front is coming. Your contractor works as
fast as he can, but since he can't work after 5:00 p.m. or Saturday - your
project is still open to weather for Sunday's rain storm.
Is this what we want? Until now, these over-restrictive work hours have only
been applied to new Planning Board construction for very large, expensive
projects. Applying this restriction to the entire town might sound
attractive to most residents at first, but it will eventually be felt as a
cost to them in the long run. Most of the complaints regarding construction
noise have been about the noise before 7:00 a.m. rather than noise at 5:30
p.m. or at 11:00 a.m. on a Saturday. That is the main problem to be
addressed by this bylaw, which is why I urge you to consider going back to
your original proposal for the town vote.
Sincerely,
Olga Shulman