Good Neighbours
I live in a very busy part of Vancouver, and I’m glad to be there. There are restaurants, shops, street cafe’s and people all over. I am however discovering that with vibrancy comes a trade off in noise and quality of life. Across the street from me is the (wonderful) Coast Restaurant. As it’s popularity has increased so has the patio use. Recently I’ve been forced into asking the City of Vancouver to help out with a noise and lighting problem… here’s the copy of the email I sent:
Hi Darren, I live in 1230 Hamilton Street - the president of our strata council passed your details on to me.
I also have noise concerns with respect to Coast - I live directly across from them on the second floor and routinely hear significant noise well past 11:00. I hate to complain too much (and appreciate the vibrancy the city has created in Yaletown) but I know the rules are there to be followed. I have called Coast in the past and usually after my calls they wrap things up quickly - although it is often past midnight.
In addition to the noise however, I’m writing about a particularly odd problem with Coast. Recently they installed two sets of large floodlights on their patio. When the awnings are out they block the lights so I assume the lighting is intended to secure/protect the patio at night when the awnings are pulled back. However the lights are extremely bright, and are angled in such a way that they shine directly into my apartment - even though the angle out from the building. I have asked Coast to redirect them and they made a minor modification, but it does not help at all - the light exceeds the street light brightness significantly and has forced me to add a third curtain to my window - it also means that it is so bright that I can’t have my blinds open at all from dusk onwards without squinting my eyes looking out. Given the extensive street lighting I’m not sure what purpose the lights serve, but ideally they should angle back towards coast, not towards the street or our building. Is there anything I can do about this - does the city have any regulations regarding such external lighting?
I’m sorry to complain to you, but I’m unsure where to go - I will raise it with Coast again and will CC them in on this email via the web contact form on their site.
I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s particularly cool that the City of Vancouver can be emailed directly on this and that they have a ‘Large Sidewalk Patio Coordinator’.