By Communications Staff 

In response to community feedback, the university has again amended its application for a temporary exemption to the city noise bylaw for two West Campus fields and Richardson Stadium.

“We have met several times with local residents to discuss this issue, and we have made significant changes to our application based on their concerns about the level of noise they can hear when the field is being used for athletic and recreational activities,” says Ann Tierney, Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs. “We believe our revised application reflects a reasonable balance between these concerns and our ability to continue offering our students opportunities to play varsity and intramural sports including soccer and football at our West Campus athletics facilities.”

Queen’s recently revised its application to ask to: blow game whistles; make brief, intermittent PA announcements; sing or play the national anthem; and (for Richardson Stadium only) play music during timeouts and other breaks in play.

The additional amendments involve quantifying the maximum number of games that would take place on the fields in a calendar year. To that end, Queen’s has asked for an exemption for a maximum of 15 games at Richardson Stadium, and up to 93 games at the north fields (that number being the highest possible estimate, based on the best case scenario of all Queen’s teams hosting the maximum number of playoff games and some community use).

The revised application also quantifies the approximate duration of the intermittent PA announcements for the average two-hour soccer game: 90 seconds for the national anthem; two to three minutes for opening player and game introductions; and 15-20 seconds each for game-related announcements, for a total of approximately five minutes per game of intermittent amplified sound.

“Some neighbouring residents wanted to know how often they could expect us to use the fields and how much they could expect to hear.  We believe these amendments respond as best as we are able considering our league hosting requirements and the variability of our competition schedules,” says Leslie Dal Cin, Director, Athletics and Recreation.

City council is scheduled to consider the application at its July 15 meeting.