Saskatoon man in long battle over industrial noise questions study

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A man tied up in a 13-year fight over industrial noise near his home has concerns about how the City of Saskatoon engages with residents.

Adam Pollock said he’d hoped to finally have someone from the city record an official measurement of the noise emanating from a concrete facility near his property in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.

Instead, he said he’s been left feeling “misled” and “gaslit” after he wasn’t included in noise testing conducted on his block in mid-June, part of an ongoing city study on nuisances affecting residents near industrial businesses.

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Pollock said the only notification he received of testing coming up in his community was a paper slip left in his mailbox, with a four-day deadline to respond.

“It’s summertime, right? People aren’t around; it’s not a good time to be doing public consultation.”

Pollock said it feels “horribly insulting” not to have been included; he’s been a leading voice for over a decade calling for the city to resolve noise, dust and other issues affecting people in neighbourhoods near the West Industrial area.

“Not even a letter addressed to me, not an email, not a phone call … I just got a slip of paper,” he said, adding he was told measurements were taken at another property. Data obtained elsewhere may not reflect the issues he experiences on his property, he said.

Pollock noted he has purchased his own sound monitoring equipment in the course of his dispute over the noise levels near his home.

He said the nearby concrete plant has been quieter in recent months — but not enough to allow him to sleep undisturbed.

Pollock said he’s concerned the lull in the noise will only last as long as the study does, as the noisier businesses know monitoring is underway.

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“How do you get a fair reading if they know you’re checking?” he added.

While he expressed frustration at being stymied in past efforts to get city staff to apply Saskatoon’s noise bylaw to the West Industrial, Pollock said he still loves his historic home, built in 1886, and won’t let the noise drive him out of it.

He said he plans to continue his fight, including ongoing court action against the concrete company.

“It’s not over until I can sleep at night,” he said.

The friction between the West Industrial area and surrounding homes is a longstanding concern; the industrial zone was built starting in 1907 and documented complaints from nearby residents date back to at least 1978.

The city’s director of planning, Lesley Anderson, said the city finds itself with a “historical zoning condition” that is difficult to untangle: the businesses in West Industrial are zoned for heavy industrial use, which allows for noise, vibration and other nuisance conditions.

She noted provincial law prevents the city from using the noise bylaw to deny businesses the right to engage in a permitted use of their property.

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The city has incentive programs to encourage West Industrial businesses to relocate to the North Industrial area. Anderson said these have seen “some success,” but in the shorter term, the study is seeking other options for the city to legally address residents’ concerns.

She said the city has hired consultants to do sound monitoring work for the study, including the noise level reading in Pollock’s neighbourhood.

She noted the consultant assessed the city’s complaint data and recommended three potential properties in the area for monitoring. Anderson said mailouts were hand-delivered to the three addresses, and one household responded “right away” to the request to conduct the testing.

Anderson said the consultants have assured the city that any one of the three addresses would work for the assessment, and results are unlikely to be significantly different between them. She said going back to add more properties would represent increase the cost of the study, which is already budgeted at around $300,000.

Further monitoring is expected to occur this winter, Anderson said, adding that while West Industrial businesses were told months ago that monitoring would be taking place, they weren’t told exactly where or when it would occur.

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City staff expect to provide an update to council in early 2025, then return with another report at a later date outlining options the city can pursue to help address issues identified in the study.

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