Councilman Tony Avella introduced a bill this week to curtail construction work on weekends. God bless him for that.
Basically, he's worried that too many developers can get waivers for after hours construction in the city's new noise code.
He called the exemptions: "a loophole large enough to drive a fleet of buses through – it completely negates the general prohibition concerning after hours and weekend construction."
Let's see if this gets any traction and see if it has any potential for screwing up the MTA's expansion plan projects, like the soon to be very messy Second Avenue.
-- Chuck Bennett
Read his release after the jump
Avella Introduces Legislation To Prevent Weekend Construction
Council Member Tony Avella will introduce legislation at tomorrow’s City
Council Stated Meeting to close a loophole created by the recent changes to
the city’s Noise Code aimed at preventing unwanted and unnecessary weekend
construction.
Local Law 113 of 2005, which is set to be implemented on July 1, 2007, is a
broad overhaul of the city’s Noise Code, which amongst other changes enacted
significant changes to the prohibitions concerning after hours and weekend
construction.
Avella stated however, “that although the Noise Code modifications were
welcome and necessary, a significant loophole was created to allow after
hours and weekend construction under the guise of an exception to the
prohibition entitled ‘Undue hardship’. This section creates a substantial
category of exceptions which can easily be manipulated by developers seeking
to conduct unwanted after hours and weekend construction that would otherwise
be prohibited.”
“This new section in essence creates a loophole large enough to drive a fleet
of buses through – it completely negates the general prohibition concerning
after hours and weekend construction. Given the already huge amounts of
after hours and weekend construction which continues to proliferate in this
city, these positive changes to the noise control code should not be rendered
useless by such a broad category of exceptions as created in this ‘Undue
hardship’ category.”
Avella had previously introduced legislation to ban weekend construction
except for homeowners during their own renovations.
