County residents will be banned from letting their dogs howl at the midnight moon, should a proposed community standards bylaw pass later this year.
Sturgeon County council voted 7-0 June 16 in favour of second reading of the proposed community standards bylaw.
Sturgeon does not currently have a law to address issues such as noise, animals and unsightly properties, a report to council showed. This bylaw, which has been in the works since 2018, would set rules and fines for noise, lights, firearms, unsightly properties, derelict vehicles and other common complaints.
“This bylaw does not include land zoned agricultural,” county protective services manager Pat Mahoney told council, and, with the exception of its noise provisions, would only apply to residential areas. The noise rules would apply everywhere but would exempt agricultural activities.
The bylaw was largely unchanged from first reading. The section on nuisances was tweaked to exempt water that drains through an engineered draining right-of-way, and the noise rules were expanded to ban dog barking or howling between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Coun. Neal Comeau raised concerns about the bylaw’s ban on idling vehicles for more than 20 minutes in a residential zone unless temperatures fell to -15 C or below, saying some diesel vehicles need longer than that to warm up. He also questioned the ban on snowblowers between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., saying people might need to clear snow then for emergency vehicles.
Mahoney said officers would have discretion in implementing this bylaw and would likely not issue tickets in such situations.
The bylaw returns for third reading this September.
