Noisy developer served with abatement notice
(CNS): Months after residents in the area began complaining about the frequent, noisy, early morning construction work going on at a luxury condo development site in North West Point in West Bay, the Department of Environmental Health has finally issued the developer with an abatement notice. There had been some confusion about who can address the round-the-clock work that goes on at many construction sites in residential areas, especially around the coastline, where every piece of land is disappearing under concrete, but it appears the DEH does have the power to tackle the growing problem.
Following a release from the DEH last month about noise levels that breach the law, a resident in North West Point persisted with her complaints and the department has now confirmed it has issued the notice. Although officials at the department had originally dismissed the residents’ ongoing complaints, things changed last week.
The developer sent a notification to some homeowners in the area that they would once again be working in the early morning hours of 18 April using noisy equipment and large floodlights. But this time, officials from the DEH attended the site at 5:00am that day and “conducted an early morning operation to gather empirical evidence regarding the noise nuisance derived from construction activities”.
The DEH notified one of the residents who had written to complain about the issue, as reported on CNS last month, that the department had served the developers an abatement notice. “One stipulation in the notice is that operations which produce noise should not commence before 7:00am. The developers have communicated that they will comply with the notice.”
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Category: Business, Construction, development, Local News
I live right nearby this construction site and I can tell you first hand the noise level in the middle of the night is insane! The cement trucks arrive around 1-3am and line up outside the construction site with their cement barrels running and turning constantly. It has taken all the fun out of living in such a beautiful area on such a beautiful island…really. Because you really cannot sleep. Thank you to the lady who remained persistent.
Can you believe my neighbour came knocking on my door at 3:00am this morning? Luckily I was still up playing my bagpipes.
Hoots Mon! Och aye the noo! Haggis, neeps and tatties!
Happy I purchased in Little Cayman because the noise and development is just too much nevermind the mass shooting that we don’t speak about or the increase in crime, the decrease in beaches (both access and literally) and lawlessness this is all descending into lord help us and have mercy.
Little Cayman is lawless.
and next the chickens!!!
Just one of the reasons i love tranquil Cayman Brac, so peaceful there, Hope it remains the same for decades to come.
It won’t.
What about the leaf blowers!
Quit already!
Noise and light pollution disrupt circadian rhythm. Uninterrupted 8 hr sp
Light and noise pollutions are carcinogens. Uninterrupted 8hr sleep is The Most important factor in maintaining health and disease prevention.
The leaf blower salesperson has entered the chat.
Now please….Leaf Blowers. for the love of all sanity, ban leaf blowers OR at least limit them to weekdays, and only between 9am and 5pm.
please. they are an absolute scourge on society and mental health and peaceful enjoyment of life.
if a storm comes, of course waive the ban until a few weeks after clearup or whatever. But please. restrict them at least
I completely agree leaf blowers are a massive public noise nuisance in cayman , banned now in many places , at least buy updated models with silencers . Better still not every leaf needs to be blown across yards , parking lots use rakes to collect bulk and leave some leaves for natural fertilizer. I have seen seven mile beach guests sitting relaxing on loungers with leaf blowers going on around them blowing sand and a few leaves around them . Total insanity from hotel and condo managers allowing this. It’s time to ban them , horrible noise polluters , lazy gardening and destructive to your soil and plants just blowing dirt all over your house screens and windows .
I have Monday and Tuesday off and I work over night so I would prefer no leaf blowers on those days and no leaf blowers while I sleep until 3 pm as well. Just because you work Monday to Friday 9 to 5, doesnt mean everyone else does.
So is the law that noisy construction can’t start before 7am? Because I lived behind a construction site and every time I complained there was no such law. They started at 5/5:30 every morning, every day, didn’t matter if it was Sunday or a public holiday. every day. I find it hard to believe we can’t have live music on Sunday but they can use noisy leaf blowers and construction equipment before 7am.
I think you can always call the Police to file a complaint under the Towns and Communities Act.
Just make sure to keep chasing for weeks to get the abatement notice issued by DEH. And only then will you get to sleep past sunrise.
As ridiculous as it sounds, this is now a ‘proven’ approach that member’s of the public should push hard for constantly until CIG gets fed up and puts in place a rule to cover this without them or us needing to play whack-a-noise.
Yes, and file a written complaint. Verbal complaints are an entry in a daily log. Written complaints have to be addressed in some fashion. This is true for all ongoing noise nuisances. It’s not the fault of the police. It is the system. Write letters. Copy the DEH and any other entity that might have applicable legislation.
And your MLA. Eventually one of them might get enough to go ‘thats a lot of voters’.
If they could do something with the big trucks and their jake brake on their exhaust.
Those are to impress the ladies
Easy to tell fresh of the boat driver’s happily showing off their ignorance with the use in the engine break.
I wish something could be done about leaf blowers. Everyday my neighbourhood is polluted with the sound of idiots with these machines blowing leaves and dust from one end to the other and on the next visit they simply reverse direction. They also are in the roadways stirring up dust and debris into traffic and into the faces of pedestrians and cyclists, they simply do not care.
We have purchased electric leave blowers at our condo complex and require that our landscapers use them – ONLY.
Why not get leaf vacs? Come in electric models & instead of moving leaves & dust back & forth between properties it actually cleans it up. You know, like we used to do with a rake, broom and trash can.
Are they quiet or still very noisy ?
I too have a lovely quiet electric blower, I use it to pile my leaves and then scoop up for composting. For other areas I use a rake. Landscaping companies just want to get done and move to the next job.
Agree and if you look closely at the “manicured” properties there are a bunch of dead leaves and trash hidden in the bushes. They just blow from here to there! Hilarious watching when they are blowing against the wind direction ir 3 guys competing for a leaf. Don’t even start on the car dust/damage they do blowing dust into components and sandblast your paintwork as they go. The fumes are probably as toxic as the black exhaust fumes that come out from the cruise ships and those noisy trucks. Hardly environmentally friendly but then this island doesn’t seem to care. They miss out on many opportunities to be forward thinking. Just my humble opinion. Ban the blowers petition soon come please.
DEH is welcome to continue to do their job when it comes to cracking down on all the other disturbances of the peace. We have regular pre-dawn leaf blowing in residential zones; dump trucks jack braking, locomotive horns, tin-bucket amplified exhaust systems, and much much more!
And cars with muffler exhausts that they actually bought and installed. What’s the point other than noise pollution
Clue: gets results with the opposite sex
At last the DEH did their job. Well done to the lady who kept on pushing until she got some action.
Fair enough. But just remember it takes a given number of man-hours to do this project. So you can restrict the hours per day it will just add days to the overall project. So now you can sleep in 30 minutes but you’ll be stuck dealing with it for another few months longer. Oh well.
If you were woken up at 2am/3am/4am every few weeks due to this construction site and the developers and projects managers who couldn’t give a shit about the humans residing in the area – you wouldn’t take issue with the project itself going a little longer. Maybe if more people generally managed even an ounce of consideration for others, we’d all live with a little less stress
Thank you civil service. You make me proud every day. If only private sector developers would get their act together.
Read the first sentence again.
Those who can read have a clear advantage.
DEH has been getting some cojones now that Richard Simms is getting into things properly. I welcome this.
Let’s see those Cohones in action against a born Caymanian developer.