Expect to hear music at Friday Harbour Resort this summer, just during fewer days of the week and perhaps not as loud.
Innisfil council voted to approve Friday Harbour’s noise exemption request at its May 8 meeting, following a lengthy debate on the matter, which included four people speaking during open forum, four formal delegations to council and a revived attempt from Coun. Robert Saunders to severely curtail Friday Harbour’s ability to have programming with amplified noise.
Friday Harbour’s request called for a noise exemption permit at the Beach Club, CIBC Pier, Lake Club and Promenade retail area between May 1, 2024, and Oct. 27, 2024, allowing them to host outdoor events, including live music, animation and other entertainment.
Under the request, amplification would be permitted on Fridays from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 11 p.m. and on Sundays and holidays from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday hours were later amended to be extended to 11 p.m. on holiday weekends.
The motion passed by council allows the noise at Friday Harbour, but gives the town the right to pull the exemption if any terms are breached or revoke it at any time. The resolution also sets up a protocol for the 2024 season that will establish a process to be followed when a noise complaint is lodged.
Susan Rosenthal, a partner at Davis Howes LLP, spoke for Friday Harbour during a delegation to council. She called approval of the exemption “absolutely critical.”
“All world-class resorts offer music and other entertainment to enhance the experience of residents, guests and visitors,” she said. “Further restrictions to the resort’s operations will undermine the resort’s competitiveness in the broader community, will make it less attractive in comparison to other resorts, and less competitive in future negotiations with artists.”
Rosenthal used the town’s Tourism Destination Management Plan to enhance her argument.
“The plan states that the town must explore and fully embrace opportunities associated with Friday Harbour to grow the popularity, attractiveness and appeal of features available at the resort,” she said. “That’s a town mandate. The town wants the resort to be successful and they want to expand it to ensure that there’s a critical mass of people coming and using the resort."
The noise exemption request was a topic of debate thanks to the change council enacted earlier in 2024. Previously, town staff were able to sign off on the kind of exemption Friday Harbour requested; now, that delegated authority is no more, and that responsibility is placed with council.
The item originally came before council for consideration at its March 27 meeting and was referred to staff for additional information. A decision was supposed to be made at the April 24 meeting of council, but was later delayed to May 8.
Town staff continued to support the request.
“Staff do recognize that Friday Harbour Resort is a four-season resort residential community that has approved planning permissions for a range of commercial and recreational uses including community and special events (and) are trying to balance these permissions with the broader community’s views noted above in considering the noise exemption application request,” the report to council stated.
“By granting the noise exemption request for Friday Harbour it provides the ability for the resort to deliver successful community events for both its residents and the broader community providing economic benefits within the town and aligns with the town’s strategic plan goals.”
However, staff’s enthusiasm wasn’t shared by many of the speakers at Wednesday's meeting, as six of the eight registered between open forum and delegations were in opposition to the exemption being passed as recommended.
A consensus among the opposed: the music is just too loud.
“First and foremost, we need and want Friday Harbour to succeed, but, secondly, we would like them to be a considerate neighbour,” said Megan Varga, a Big Bay Point area resident who presented a delegation to council.
“As their neighbour, I’m not asking to silence you. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care if they play music 24/7…. What I’m asking for is that it’s turned down so the surrounding neighbourhoods can’t hear it.”
Varga was joined by other neighbours, such as Bob and Sandy Dudley, who spoke to the noise concerns during open forum, and Robert Steiner, who shared his decibel level findings from a device he purchased and had in operation on his property.
Steiner told council that readings around 40 dB should be acceptable in a rural setting such as the one he lives in but were often spiking near 60 or 70 during peak Friday Harbour entertainment hours on weekends.
Joining Rosenthal to voice support for the exemption was Ann Hunt, a homeowner representative on the Friday Harbour board, who decried the “anti-permit campaign” started by a “handful” of residents in the Big Bay Point area and bolstered, she said, by Saunders and other residents from beyond Big Bay Point.
Just as Rosenthal did, Hunt stressed the exemption was necessary for Friday Harbour to do business.
“Onerous restrictions that limit our ability to operate as a resort will… curb our ability to draw new visitors and residents,” Hunt said.
Saunders wanted to set the record straight as he introduced a revised resolution on the matter.
“I have never, ever, said I’m opposed to (a noise exemption),” he said. “I have always tried to find a balance between Friday Harbour and the residents. As an elected council, it is our job to listen to everyone: to every resident of Innisfil, to every taxpayer of Innisfil.”
He was particularly dismayed by the vitriol shown his way in some of the emails he received on the matter, which he said accused him of being racist and homophobic.
“This is a noise exemption,” Saunders said. “We are not sending someone to the execution chamber.”
Saunder’s resolution was nearly identical to one he had looked to see approved at the March 27 meeting, limiting amplified noise at Friday Harbour to Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., between May 17 and Aug. 31.
Friday Harbour was doing nothing but “asking, asking, asking,” he said, without giving any concessions to the community, a notion representatives from the resort felt was as untoward as the accusations Saunders said had been levied against him.
When reminded the current noise exemption request before council featured fewer days and hours than the previous exemptions – which were essentially carte blanche, any day of the week – and that the music previously ended at 11:30 p.m. instead of 11 p.m., Saunders sarcastically thanked the resort for giving residents an extra half hour of sleep.
The motion put forward by Saunders and supported by Coun. Jennifer Richardson was to protect the interests of the permanent, legacy residents of the area who they felt weren’t being properly accommodated through the process.
“If we allow noise on Sundays, holidays, when do the residents of Big Bay Point – and even Friday Harbour – have the peace and quiet to enjoy their backyards, their front yards or just sit with their windows open,” Richardson said.
Their recommendation went too far for Coun. Kevin Eisses, who found common ground with Mayor Lynn Dollin and Deputy Mayor Kenneth Fowler in his comments.
“The procedure for this noise exemption is new to this council and my understanding is that this will occur every year,” Eisses said. “In my thinking, we’re going from one extreme to another and not giving those involved – being town staff and Friday Harbour – a chance to come up with a solution during this upcoming year.”
Coun. Alex Waters and Coun. Fred Drodge said they were on the fence during the debate, with Waters eventually being the deciding vote to defeat Saunders’ revised resolution and put the original staff recommendation on the floor.
Both councillors were concerned the proposal did little to solve the issue of the excess noise.
“We’re dealing strictly with hours here and not with the sound itself, so residents will still be inundated with sound levels,” Waters said. “I don’t see any part of this that tries to find a solution.”
Saunders’ revised resolution was defeated 5-4 in a recorded vote. Dollin, Fowler, Eisses, Waters and Coun. Grace Constantine voted in opposition.
When the original recommendation was put back on the floor, Waters said he was even unsure if he could support that as written, however, once the fourth clause was revised, that dictated “quantitated solutions” be included in the protocols to be established between the town and Friday Harbour, the councillor was on board.
The noise exemption resolution passed 6-3, with Saunders, Richardson and Drodge opposed.
