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Okotoks residents are being asked for input on whether parks should be open late at night.
Currently, the Town’s bylaw states parks close at midnight, but there have been a number of complaints in the last two months from residents about noise in parks and open spaces at night. Some are calling for the bylaw to be amended to have parks close at 10 p.m.
Okotoks Municipal Enforcement manager Peter Stapley said the reason is sometimes when a park is being used for its intended purpose, it can still get noisy at night.
“If you take a basketball court, if somebody’s in there playing and that’s all they’re doing, they’re using the park for the intended purpose and if it’s disturbing neighbourhood residents there’s really nothing we can do about it,” said Stapley. “That wouldn’t qualify under the noise bylaw.”
The Town’s noise bylaw stipulates residents cannot be causing a disturbance, and in an urban setting he said that will be determined by the courts based on the volume of noise, how long it goes on and what the intended use for the area is.
In the case of a basketball court, he said if the park is open until midnight and somebody is there at 10:30 p.m. shooting hoops, though the noise of the ball may be disturbing to a nearby resident it wouldn’t qualify as a noise issue for an urban area.
“If that person were in there listening to loud music, screaming and swearing, then we could approach it under the noise bylaw because then it would be more reasonable,” said Stapley.
The Town has an online survey to gauge its residents and find out whether people use the parks later at night and determine when the community feels parks should close, he said.
It does not pertain to pathways, the Sheep River Park and Campground and to those who have a rental agreement for a facility located in a park. These three exceptions would remain exempt to any change to the Town’s open spaces bylaw, he said.
Stapley said responses will be welcomed from all residents, including youth who are most likely to be the ones using park facilities in the evening.
“This is a very young community and with that we know a lot of youth use these facilities, so I think it’s important we get not only responses from residents living near them and older people using the parks, but the youth as well,” he said.
The survey is available at www.okotoks.ca until Aug. 9.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
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