ORDNC-2026-2 : Amending Chapter 164-2(C)(6) of the Revised Ordinances of the City of Melrose to specify permitted hours and days for construction activities

Transcript (~11 min @ 12:35)

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▶ 12:26 Maya Jamaleddine: we have a motion to recommend made by Councilor Fero. Second. Seconded. Councilor Vandiver on discussion. Seeing none. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

▶ 12:43 Maya Jamaleddine: Next we have ID number 12 79 5 amending chapter six, uh, 164 dash two C six of the revised ordinances of the city of Merose to specify permitted hours and days for construction activities.

▶ 13:07 Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us.

▶ 13:09 Speaker 2: Uh, good evening everyone. Thank you, uh, for taking the time to review and, um, consider the proposal. Pretty simple proposal. Um, uh, we're requesting a change to section, uh, actually chapter 1 64, section six. It's, um, part where the noise ordinance, um, you know, there's a lot of moving, uh, a lot of different parts there. But Section six refers to the construction activities section of the noise ordinance. Um, over the past several years, my department has received like numerous complaints from, uh, people, uh, specifically either construction activities, starting either too early on, weekends on holidays. And, um, we wanted just to address those issues and kind of change the language in that, in that section. Um, found that that section was a little bit too broad. It allowed for construction activities to go on seven days a week basically. Um, so what we're proposing is, um, a good balance, I believe. Um, I believe the proposal strikes, uh, a good balance between, um, in it's flexible with, um, um, allowing the necessary construction and, and it'll minimize disturbances to the, uh, to the constituents. Um, so with that, I, if you have any questions on it, I mean, it's pretty, um, pretty easy to read. Um, Shannon and I have, uh, met and reviewed the language in there and, um, feel that it's, um, pretty good.

▶ 14:48 Speaker 5: Thank you. Um,

▶ 14:51 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, uh, we have consular ro and then consular. Gar.

▶ 14:56 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes. Thank you. Um, just a quick question. Is this for both residential and commercial?

▶ 15:00 Speaker 2: Yes. Okay. Yes. Now, uh, part of the language in there, it just to, uh, it kind of allows me a little more flexibility. And to give you an example, if there's a commercial building being constructed where it's really not disturbing anybody, they can request in writing to give me, um, to allow them to, uh, to, uh, work during, beyond those hours that we're, uh, set. So they're not really set in stone as long as they reach out and, um, uh, give city notice that they're gonna, they, they wanna work beyond those hours. Right. And as long as they're not interrupting anybody or making, you know, if they're doing some sort of activities inside the building when no one's even noticing or even knowing what's going on, there's really no objection on our side. What this is really tailored to is, um, neighborhood construction where you've got, you know, uh, homeowners or contractors that are starting on a weekend Sunday, early at six o'clock, hammering nails, uh, air guns going off, and any of that. So,

▶ 16:07 Cal Finocchiaro: Um, thank you. I just, one more question as well. Um, who will like, oversee the enforcement of? Is it just something like people would call in and say, Hey, they're, they're working on a Sunday, and then that's something that,

▶ 16:20 Speaker 2: So we would, we would, uh, enforce that. Mm-hmm. Um, but we, it would be complaint driven. Okay. So the next Monday or what, whatever they would call us up and, and, you know, we would go there and investigate. Typically what we would do is just call the contractor and ask them if, and we would give them a warning. Mm-hmm. And, uh, trust me, like after a warning, they, they, they would stop.

▶ 16:46 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Thank you. Councillor gpe.

▶ 16:48 Mark Garipay: Um, yes, Mike, that was a similar question that I had a, that I had was, uh, on, on the enforcement portion. I'm assuming that after hours, you know, like, um, like you said, you're not here 24 7. Yeah. Um, yeah. But after hours, they usually call the police. Is there any, is there anything, um, in the procedures that the police will notify the inspection services that they receive these complaints or, because, you know, we could always say call 'em on a Monday or whatever, but it's always, he said, she said, you know what I mean, it's better to maybe catch 'em in the act, so to speak. Right. So how are we gonna close loop that, uh, on the back end if the police go, go out, I guess, and,

▶ 17:29 Speaker 2: Well, I know we've adopted a new ticketing system and, um, it really, um, entails, um, multiple departments, not just mine. Uh, police, fire, um, board of health, um, inspection services, TPW. So we all have the ability to issue, uh, citations. Um, so a police officer could go there and reference that number. I wouldn't want him to do that. I'd rather get a report from him and, and then we would address it ourselves. Um, uh, and I wouldn't wanna come down too heavily. Like sometimes these things, it's just people just don't know. Um, you know, there's a contractor that hires some plumbers and sometimes, you know, they've got multiple jobs going on and contract, you know, the plumber just decides to go there and starts doing work and, you know, he just doesn't know. So I, I'd like to side on the, uh, on the side of allowing them some sort of flexibility when it comes to that. I mean, if it happens consistently, then we do have a ticketing system in place that we could find them. Yeah.

▶ 18:35 Mark Garipay: No, I'm not asking them to do tickets. I just know that they take the bulk of the phone calls after hours. I just wanna make sure that there's some communication from the station the next morning to inspection services. Yeah. Hey, we had to go, we had this issue.

▶ 18:48 Speaker 2: I mean, we could, yeah, we could, you know, we do have that kind of Okay. Um, uh, relationship between the p police department and our, and our people. So we would probably more than likely know that something happened there. Okay.

▶ 19:01 Speaker 5: Thank you. Awesome. Counselor Van Dever.

▶ 19:03 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Um, and thank you for coming before us with this improvement to the process. Um, that, uh, some of my questions were already answered. Uh, the two additional ones, um, you mentioned a fine. What would, what would the amount of the fine be if there was one? If it got to that?

▶ 19:20 Speaker 2: So if there was a fine, I believe I can issue it under our zoning, um, under the con uh, under, um, uh, not the construction hours, but under our zoning, uh, permitted work. Um, once I issue that building permit, I, this would kind of curtail into it. Um, the building permit itself is going to reflect that, those hours of operation or construction activity. So if they don't do that, I can find through, I believe it's 120, uh, per violation, per day. Um, so you know that I do have that, uh, ability.

▶ 19:59 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay. Wonderful. And thank you for that information. And, um, you somewhat addressed this as well, but, um, how to make the contractors aware of the change to the process? You said that it'll go into that building permit and that's where they would see it. Is there any other notification that there's a change happening?

▶ 20:17 Speaker 2: Um, typically every city in town, I, I, I mean, really has construction hours. We're one of the ones that needed this, you know, small change. So it's not like, you know, most contractors don't know that there's, uh, set hours of, uh, of construction activities. But the, the permit is pretty, uh, I mean, you, you, you stick it right on the window. It's right on the bottom. It's gonna say con construction activities between these times. So if they don't read it, I mean, there isn't anything else, we might be able to put it on the website also, um, just to let people know about it. Um, but yeah, that right now, I'm, I'm just, I, I think that the best, uh, place to put it is right on the building permit.

▶ 21:04 Kimberly Vandiver: Great. Thank you. Thank you for the, um, information and for making the change to help, uh, better manage what's going on and, and the noise complaints.

▶ 21:14 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Um, I have Counselor William and for the second time counselor gpe. Okay.

▶ 21:19 Speaker 3: Thank you. Um, so we're talking about

▶ 21:24 Ryan Williams: 1 64, 2 section C number six. Mm-hmm. Um, and I'm, I'm curious as to whether you think that there's any need to, um, address the question of whether a person without a building permit, maybe that didn't need a building permit would be allowed to do some kind of a light handyman's type construction activity. I, I mean, it could fall under the ordinance, um, with decibel limits at different times, you know, depending on what someone's doing, if they're operating a, you know, if they're, if they're hammering a few nails for five minutes versus operating a table saw for half an hour at 6:30 AM Um, but I guess my, my question was the, around your thoughts with the language around, um, that it's permitted construction activities related to a building permit as opposed to like somebody who just wants to build a climbing wall for their kids at a certain time. You think this is separate? It should be separate because this is really a message to the construction crews, erection of buildings, contractors.

▶ 22:26 Speaker 2: I mean, there's a fine line between going, you know, too much Yeah. Um, enforcement, uh, onto, um, and, and I, I just don't think we have the authority, at least the, not from my perspective, um, where I can just go out and, you know, that's more of a disturbance of the piece where the police department would be notified other than me.

▶ 22:49 Speaker 3: Got it. Yeah. Got it. Thank you.

▶ 22:53 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Anyone else for the first time? Mm.

▶ 22:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Awesome. Councilor Gpe.

▶ 22:59 Mark Garipay: Thank you. I'll make a motion to recommend, uh, to the board for passage second.

▶ 23:04 Maya Jamaleddine: Awesome. We have a motion made by Councilor Gpe to recommend and seconded by Councilor William. Mm-hmm. Uh, councilor Romanul. Sorry, you have the same voice. Um, so we have a second. Um, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Perfect. This. Thank you.