Noise Complaints Pit Point St-Charles Residents Against to Taxi

Car alarms that go off at 3 a.m., hammering noises loud enough to rouse people in the dead of night and the constant, dull whir of floodlights.

It isnt easy living next to a garage that services taxi cabs 24 hours a day.Donna Lewzey has been in Point St-Charles for 22 years, and she cant remember a time when the noise was this constant. Her apartment is wedged against To Taxis St-Patrick St.

repair shop.The workers screaming, the compressors, the loud music it makes my dogs go crazy, said Lewzey, who lives on Ropery St. Then they flick their cigarette butts in my yard.

Sometimes I think I should leave my dog poo in theirs and see how they feel.Lewzey filed a complaint with the Sud-Ouest borough last summer, but hasnt heard back.One neighbour said the racket has become so bad this summer that she no longer sleeps in her bedroom.

Instead, she blows up the inflatable mattress and camps out across the hall.She lives across St-Patrick St. from the garage, which services a fleet of over 100 green and white electric cabs.

The noise is especially bad in the summer, when mechanics leave the garage door open to let the heat out.When it gets so that you cant sleep at night, its pretty bad, said Erica, who did not want her real name published. There has to be a compromise.

Earlier this summer, she approached the shops manager, who promised to mitigate the noise. But things persisted. So a group of neighbours filed another complaint with the borough and eventually started calling police.

Dominique Lemay, who runs the cab company, says he empathizes with residents concerns. since it was launched in 2015.The companys fleet of 200 electric cars has captured a huge chunk of the local market, and most of those vehicles are serviced in Point St-Charles.

Its parent company, Taxelco, owns about 40 per cent of the citys taxi permits.Youll notice the parking lot is full, so weve had to park our cars in lots all along St-Patrick St., said Lemay, the CEO of Taxelco.

I understand how that could be bothersome. But were about to undergo some pretty dramatic changes on that front.Lemay says the majority of Tos fleet will be moved to an underground docking facility in another part of town next month.

Well be underground, so noise shouldnt be a problem, said Lemay, who cannot yet disclose the location of the new garage.And he suspects the lots owner wont renew the lease on St-Patrick St. when it expires next year.

About 25 people work at the garage full time, and one of Tos managers says the company is recruiting new drivers, mechanics and programmers to shore up its smartphone application.The manager, Kevin Gagn, says hes investigating the complaints.In theory, there shouldnt be repairs at night, he said.

But (the complaint) is definitely something we take seriously. We want to be good neighbours.Two other neighbours contacted by the Montreal Gazette echoed Lewzeys concerns.

Borough councillor Alain Vaillancourt said the tensions at the centre of this conflict are fairly common.In a neighbourhood like Point St-Charles, where you have new condo developments rubbing up against light industry, youre going to experience growing pains, said Vaillancourt, deputy mayor of the Sud-Ouest. Well talk to To Taxi, talk to the neighbours and figure something out.

The borough could use sound measuring equipment to determine if the shop violates zoning and noise bylaws, according to Vaillancourt.But he also cautions that some degree of activity should be expected, since St-Patrick St. is a trucking hub and has housed factories and mills for most of its history.

Throughout the last decades of the 20th century, Point St-Charles saw a series of factory closings that tore the neighbourhoods social fabric apart.Losing the Northern Electric plant, Stelco steel foundry and Redpath Sugar refinery cost the area thousands of jobs. It also triggered an exodus of families.

And while an influx of development projects and new residents has breathed life into the neighbourhood, it has created tensions and forced some working-class residents to move away.Lewzey, the parish secretary at St. Gabriels church, says shes being evicted next year to make way for yet another development.

I guess thats just how it goes, but its sad to say goodbye to this place, she said. These days you cant even sit outside, theres so much noise. But when things are good, its a great place to be.