OLDS — Should backyard ice rinks be specifically covered in a town bylaw and if so, what should the rules be?
Councillors wrestled with those questions during their June 7 policies and priorities meeting as they looked at proposed changes to the town’s community standards bylaw.
After a lengthy discussion on the matter, chief administrative officer Michael Merritt said staff will examine the matter and look at bringing some proposals back before council, perhaps in July.
Four changes to the bylaw specifically in regard to backyard ice rinks were proposed:
• No person shall build ice rink with walls greater than 12 inches from the ground.
• No person shall install solid backstops to stop pucks. Nets to be installed and must follow the land use bylaw.
• No person shall install lighting as to affect the neighbouring properties.
• No person shall allow excessive noise from the rink" as per other sections of the bylaw.
"So the ice rinks, there was a situation, at least one or two, where people were listening to loud noises throughout the day and sometimes into the late, early evening,” said chief administrative officer Michael Merritt.
“This ice rink situation was put in place to basically deaden the sound and to hopefully eliminate any situations like this occurring in the future, because these are situations that I can understand that,” he said, adding that senior peace officer Eric Christensen dealt with that issue with “quite often” this past winter.
“So that’s why it was put in place. It wasn’t to basically prohibit people from doing things, but if we are to react to complaints and we have no authority or teeth to do so, then it’s basically we’ll just leave it absent and we’ll have the same situation possibly occur in the next winter season."
Coun. Mary Anne Overwater raised the issue of sound from ice rinks disturbing neighbours earlier this year.
Several times during the discussion, she said she’s not against people having backyard rinks, but that they should be constructed in a way that they don’t disturb their neighbours.
She indicated the sound of slap shots can be especially disturbing as pucks hit boards or fences repeatedly, sometimes for many hours.
“I am against the noise that would be my next door neighbour pounding a hundred-mile-an-hour puck 24 hours a day,” Overwater said.
“It affects me having my own little piece of the world property that I have bought, the noise problem. And I think that would be a mental issue eventually, if I had to listen to that for six months out of the year, somebody shooting a puck next door to me.”
She said anyone who wants to fire slap shots is free to do so at one of the town’s publicly created ice rinks.
Deputy mayor Debbie Bennett Coun. Mary Jane Harper and Coun. Heather Ryan sympathized with Overwater’s concerns.
“With much talk about mental health and the restrictions that COVID provided for us, I agree that any continual noise that prevents you from enjoying your own property must be addressed,” Bennett said.
Harper said, "Nobody is against backyard rinks – nobody. I grew up on a backyard rink, too. But it did not include sheets of 4x8 plywood all around the rink, with somebody hitting against it all the time. Not only is it very unsightly, it’s very dangerous at the end of the day.”
Ryan said she encountered a similar problem while living in Calgary. It was resolved when the neighbours agreed to modify their rink.
However, Coun. Mitch Thomson and mayor Mike Muzychka questioned the need for specific reference to ice rinks in the bylaw and warned against over-regulation.
They said concerns arising from them are covered elsewhere in the community standards bylaw or other town bylaws.
"All the time that I’ve been on council – three and plus years – I believe we’ve had one complaint. I haven’t seen any of it. I’m not particularly in favour of any restrictions,” Muzcyhka said.
“Backyard rinks are part of Canadian culture and it’s something that we all grew up with and I’m really not in favour of any restrictions.”
Muzychka added later: “Sadly there’s always going to be noise, there’s always going to be what have you. If you live close to the fire department, you may be woken up by sirens in the middle of the night.”
Coun. Wanda Blatz said she sympathized with those concerned about the noise and disturbance backyard rinks can create, but on the other hand, she too did not want to see the town becoming “too restrictive.”
She predicted that if the Town of Olds imposes such restrictions, those who want to build backyard rinks will say “well, I pay taxes; I can do whatever I want in my back yard.”
In the end, Overwater said ice rink provisions could be taken out of the bylaw, but she warned that the town had better make sure there’s some kind of authority in town bylaws that peace officers can rely on if complaints about back yard rinks resurface next season.
This past season may have been an exceptional one in that people likely created more ice rinks in order to provide recreation for their kids in compliance with pandemic restrictions, she said.
