NOISE STUDY CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK TOWN OF CALEDON

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1 NOISE STUDY CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK TOWN OF CALEDON August 2016

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION BASIS OF ANALYSIS TOWN OF CALEDON NOISE BY-LAW PROVISIONS NOISE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA IN LAND USE PLANNING SOUND SOURCES AND OPERATIONS SOURCES OF NOISE Internal Traffic Noise Public Announcement (PA) System OPERATIONS DURING EVENTS SOUND LEVEL ANALYSIS NOISE MONITORING OBSERVATIONS DURING MONITORING Location Location Location Location Location Location NOISE MONITORING DATA ANALYSIS MEASUREMENT RESULTS CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS... 9 APPENDIX A MEASUREMENT DATA

3 1.0 INTRODUCTION MMM Group Limited, a WSP Global company, was retained by the Town of Caledon to undertake a Noise Assessment in support of the rezoning application for the Caledon Equestrian Park (the Park). The subject site is owned by the Toronto Region Conservation authority (TRCA) and the Equestrian Management Group (EMG). The westerly portion of the site is owned by TRCA and is approximately 41.2 acres. Currently, all permanent buildings and facilities related to the Park are situated on the TRCA owned lands. The easterly portion of the site is owned by EMG which is approximately 55.6 acres. Vehicular parking, trailers and temporary stalls are situated on EMG lands. The objective of this Noise Assessment is to evaluate any noise concerns due to existing sound levels related to the Public Announcement (PA) system of the Park, and to provide noise control recommendations to attenuate any excess noise impacting the neighbouring properties. This report contains a description of the sound sources of concern and outlines the methods of analysis and recommendations to control excess PA system noise for six representative points of reception near the site s property line. 2 AUGUST 2016 CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK

4 2.0 BASIS OF ANALYSIS 2.1 TOWN OF CALEDON NOISE BY-LAW PROVISIONS According to the Town of Caledon By-law No , the operation of any electronic device or group of connected electronic devices incorporating one or more loud speakers or other electro-mechanical transducers, and intended for the production, reproduction or amplification of sound is prohibited between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. if the sound is clearly audible at a point of reception located in a residential area. Based on our discussions with the staff at the Park, it is understood that the equine events typically start at around 8:00 a.m. in the morning and finish at around 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Thus, the operations of the Park comply with the current noise control by-law. 2.2 NOISE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA IN LAND USE PLANNING The criteria used in this study are based on the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) publication NPC-300 Environmental Noise Guideline for Stationary and Transportation Sources Approval and Planning. Since the Park is located in a relatively rural area, it is considered to be in a Class 3 area according to NPC-300. The critical noise level for a stationary sound source (non-impulsive sound only), is the lower of the one hour equivalent sound level (Leq1h) caused by adjacent road traffic for that point of reception or the onehour equivalent sound level specified in Table 2.1 below. Table 2.1 summarizes the sound level measurement results Table 2.1: Minimum Values Of One Hour Leq For Stationary Sound Sources For Class 3 Area Time of Day Point of Reception One Hour L eq (dba) 07:00 to 23:00 Outdoors / Plane of Window 45 (Day and Evening) * Or minimum hourly background sound level Leq (1 hour), whichever is higher. AUGUST 2016 TOWN OF CALEDON 3

5 3.0 SOUND SOURCES AND OPERATIONS 3.1 SOURCES OF NOISE There are multiple sources of noise stemming from the operation of the park, as follows Internal Traffic Noise Noise from the park s internal traffic includes cars, horses, water trucks, mopeds, motorcycles, maintenance equipment, and golf carts. These noise sources tend to be dominant within the park. However, these sources are infrequently audible outside the Park, and blend with vehicular ambient sound levels originating from public roads near the Park Public Announcement (PA) System The Public Announcement (PA) system is a sophisticated layout of over 100 speakers surrounding equestrian rings, buildings, stables, and pathways around the property. The speaker system consists of both large and small speakers. The large speakers are used to introduce the horses, athletes, and events to the audience by means of beeping tones and announcements. Announcements were found to be on average approximately six seconds in length. The beeping tones indicate that an event is beginning, and lasted for approximately two seconds. The large Yorkville speakers are generally located around the rings at a height of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 metres above grade. Based on information provided by the Park staff and confirmed by our observations, these large speakers typically face the rings and are orientated away from the residential areas surrounding the Park. These large speakers are also installed at an angle towards the ground to mitigate any sound escaping the Park. The small speakers are located throughout the Park, with a higher concentration installed in the southeast area of the Park where most of the horses are kept and where the athletes prepare for the events. All the speakers within the Park are assigned an individual channel and can be individually controlled from a single control room. Based on our observations, the speaker volumes are kept at a relatively low volume level. We observed that the volume is kept at approximately 1/3 of the maximum, and we understand that this reflects typical operations. However, the speaker sound levels will vary depending on the announcer s voice volume, the announcers distance to the microphone, and the intonation used during the announcement. 4 AUGUST 2016 CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK

6 3.2 OPERATIONS DURING EVENTS The Park holds equine events starting in May for 26 straight weeks, typically from Wednesday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Events rarely go beyond 5:00 p.m., unless the equine events need to be interrupted due to lightning or other extreme weather events. During the events, the Public Address (PA) system is used for localized announcements for the athletes and for announcements to the attendees during the events. The system is also occasionally used to play background music at a low volume as entertainment between events. The athletes are called to the rings using the smaller speakers at the stables, where they are staged prior to their event. The large speakers are then utilized to announce and introduce the athletes to the attendees at the rings, who then complete their event. The PA system is then used again to announce the results. These announcements are highly localized and are intended to be only heard in the area surrounding the corresponding event ring. AUGUST 2016 TOWN OF CALEDON 5

7 4.0 SOUND LEVEL ANALYSIS 4.1 NOISE MONITORING MMM staff undertook noise monitoring at the Park on May 18, 2016, at the six locations shown in Figure 4.1. Type 1 Larson Davis 831 and LXT sound level meters were used for the noise monitoring. The acoustic calibrator CAL200 was used to calibrate the instruments before and after measurements. As per NPC-103 publication, twenty minutes of recording were completed at each location, noting when PA announcements were made. Continuous measurements lasting twenty minutes or more are considered representative of one hour of measurements. If any intrusive noise (e.g. construction noise, airplane flyovers, etc) was heard at the time of the recordings, the time of occurrence was noted for our analysis purposes. 4.2 OBSERVATIONS DURING MONITORING Based on our observations, the acoustic environment significantly differed across the six monitoring locations as follows Location 1 The PA system was audible at location 1. Besides sound emanating from the nearby PA speakers, significant noise emanating from construction at the residential lands directly north of Location 1 was audible. Other intrusive noise included aircraft flyovers Location 2 The PA system was not audible at location 2. At this location, the soundscape was mostly composed of sound from birds and from the occasional truck passbys on Highway Location 3 The PA system was not audible at location 3. At this location, the soundscape was mostly composed of sound from birds, from the occasional truck passbys on Highway 50 and from people playing tennis on the nearby court Location 4 The PA system was not audible at location 4. At this location, the soundscape was mostly composed of truck passbys, aircraft flyovers and dogs barking Location 5 The PA system was faintly audible at location 5, and consisted of noise emanating from the small speakers described in Section 3.0. At this location, the soundscape was mostly composed of truck 6 AUGUST 2016 CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK

6 1 Study Area 5 2 3 4 Source: Town of Caledon Legend

8 6 1 Study Area Source: Town of Caledon Legend Measurement Location FIGURE 4.1 Measurement Locations

9 passbys, golf cart noise, moped noise, dogs barking, people speaking, airplane flyovers and construction noise. All of these noise sources emanated from within the site with the exception of aircraft flyovers and construction noise Location 6 The PA system was faintly audible at location 6. At this location, the soundscape was dominated by noise emanating from traffic on Buckstown Trail. 4.3 NOISE MONITORING DATA ANALYSIS In order to obtain sound pressure levels representative of the PA system impacts on the nearby residential land uses, the following corrections were applied to the measured data: 1. Deletion of intrusive noise that is not considered part of the ambient noise environment but may still originate from the site (e.g. aircraft flyovers, truck pass-bys, construction noise, etc.). 2. Deletion of the ambient noise from the corrected data obtained above to isolate PA system noise only. The sound level measurements at Locations 2, 3 and 4 were deemed representative of ambient conditions since the PA system and other site activities were not audible. Locations 2 and 3 are representative of the ambient at Location 1 (i.e. far from road traffic), whereas Location 4 is representative of ambient at Location 5 (i.e. closer to road traffic). In order to be conservative, the quietest ambient sound level was deleted from the data in Locations 1 and 5, as shown in the following section. Figures A1 through A6 in Appendix A show the measured sound level variation through time at each location after the abovementioned corrections were applied. AUGUST 2016 TOWN OF CALEDON 7

10 5.0 MEASUREMENT RESULTS Table 5.1 summarizes the sound level measurement results. Table 5.1: Location Comparison of PA System Noise to Applicable MOECC Criteria Ambient + PA System Noise (dba) Ambient Noise (dba) PA System Noise (dba) MOECC Criteria (dba) * 42 Inaudible * 46 Inaudible * 45 Inaudible *Representative of ambient noise only as the PA system was not audible. As mentioned in Section 2.2, ambient sound levels can be used as the MOECC criteria if they exceed the 45 dba criterion documented in Table 2.1. Accordingly, the MOECC 45 dba criterion was used for Locations 1, 2, 4 and 5 since the corresponding ambient sound levels were measured to be at 45 dba or lower. Ambient sound levels were used as the criteria for Locations 3 and 6 since the corresponding ambient sound levels were measured to be higher than 45 dba. As can be seen in Table 5.1, the PA system noise experienced at Locations 2, 3 and 4 was inaudible and the PA system noise experienced at Locations 1, 5 and 6 is at or below the applicable MOECC criteria. Therefore, the PA system noise emanating from the Park is deemed acceptable from a sound pressure perspective. We note that although the PA system noise can be considered as insignificant from a sound pressure perspective, the human ear is finely tuned to the frequencies and tonality of the human voice. In addition, the PA system noise is sudden and short in duration. Consequently, PA system noise may be heard over long distances, and can be more easily distinguished from the ambient sound than other noise sources (e.g. engine noise). As a result, PA noise may be audible at times at some nearby residential land uses. 8 AUGUST 2016 CALEDON EQUESTRIAN PARK

11 6.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 CONCLUSIONS The Park operates equine events from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. Thus, the park operations comply with the Town of Caledon By-law No , which prohibits the reproduction or amplification of sound between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. The PA system noise was found to be either at or below the applicable MOECC criteria at all locations is thus not significant from a sound pressure level standpoint. The human ear is finely tuned to the frequencies and tonality of the human voice. Therefore, the discrete PA system noise may be heard over long distances, and can be more easily distinguished from the ambient sound than other noise sources. As a result, PA noise may be audible at times at some nearby residential land uses. 6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS While no physical noise control measures are required on the basis of our measurements and the relevant criteria for noise sources of a stationary nature, the following recommendations could prove useful in further mitigating PA system noise: Breaking the line of sight from adjacent homes to the Park property will have a psychological effect that may result in a perception of less or no noise. This could be achieved by planting more trees along the property line. Using mobile applications to alert the athletes of upcoming events rather than the use of small speakers. An increase of prominence of visual announcements over announcements made through speakers. We thank you for the opportunity of undertaking this study. Should you have any comments or questions, or require clarification, please contact us at your convenience. Respectfully submitted, Bill Hoogeveen, P.Eng. Senior Project Manager Noise and Vibration Section Transportation Planning Tony Chiu, M.A.Sc., P.Eng. Project Manager Noise and Vibration Section Transportation Planning Felipe Vernaza, P.Eng. Project Engineer Noise and Vibration Section Transportation Planning AUGUST 2016 TOWN OF CALEDON 9

12 APPENDIX A Measurement Data

13 LAeq 00:19:00 00:18:00 00:17:00 00:16:00 Figure A1 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 1 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:15:00 00:14:00 00:13:00 00:12:00 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

14 LAeq 00:20:00 00:19:00 00:18:00 00:17:00 Figure A2 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 2 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:16:00 00:15:00 00:14:00 00:13:00 00:12:00 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

15 LAeq 00:20:00 00:19:00 00:18:00 00:17:00 Figure A3 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 3 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:16:00 00:15:00 00:14:00 00:13:00 00:12:00 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

16 LAeq 00:23:00 00:22:00 00:21:00 00:20:00 00:19:00 Figure A4 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 4 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:18:00 00:17:00 00:16:00 00:15:00 00:14:00 00:13:00 00:12:00 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

17 LAeq 00:13:00 00:12:00 Figure A5 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 5 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

18 LAeq 00:17:00 00:16:00 00:15:00 Figure A6 -- Sound Level Change Over Time Location 6 (Intrusive Noise Deleted) 00:14:00 00:13:00 00:12:00 00:11:00 00:10:00 00:09:00 00:08:00 00:07:00 00:06:00 00:05:00 00:04:00 00:03:00 00:02:00 00:01:00 00:00: LAeq (1 second) dba

Queen St E & Leslie St Noise Analysis Toronto, Ontario. Toronto Transit Commission Streetcar Department 1900 Yonge Street Toronto, ON M4S 1Z2

ASSESSMENT REPORT - Project: 151.08 Queen St E & Leslie St Noise Analysis Toronto, Ontario Prepared for: Toronto Transit Commission Streetcar Department 1900 Yonge Street Toronto, ON M4S 1Z2 Prepared by: