Orange Village Council has once again tightened the rules on when construction crews can start making noise, voting unanimously to push the weekday start time back to 8 a.m. — the second such crackdown in just over a month. The change comes as neighbors near Pulte Homes' Canyons development on Jackson Drive continue to complain about early-morning racket, tree removal, and construction that they say doesn't match what was promised.
Second Vote In Five Weeks
Council first amended the village's construction-hours ordinance on July 8, cutting evening work down to 6 p.m. on weekdays and setting Saturday hours at 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Cleveland.com. That replaced a previous ordinance that had allowed audible construction from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends, per the same report. Just over a month later, council decided the evening cutback wasn't enough and voted to also delay the weekday morning start time from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Council member Kim Ullner suggested the 8 a.m. start time in response to resident feedback, saying an earlier start was no longer appropriate given the scale of the Canyons project, the report states. Ullner said resident mental health and welfare should be a priority, and added that houses will still get built despite the later start. Council member Staci Adelman Vincent echoed that view, saying residents should be able to begin their day peacefully without construction noise, and she urged residents to make sure landscapers and other workers know the new start time is 8 a.m.
Contractor Pushback Over Lost Hours
Not everyone welcomed the change. Council member Brian Mader had advocated, per a letter cited in the report, for keeping the construction start time at 7 a.m., arguing that starting an hour later compromises contractors' ability to finish tasks. Mader also reported that the restricted hours could force projects to shift from four 10-hour workdays to five eight-hour days, and he said he preferred Saturday hours run until 7 p.m. rather than 6 p.m.
Mayor Judson Kline, who supported the amended ordinance, said contractors may respond by platooning work teams to take advantage of longer summer daylight hours, according to the same account. Council member Jim Boyle noted that the mayor retains authority to grant temporary permits allowing construction during otherwise prohibited times for special, unusual, or emergency conditions. Village clerk Lisa Perry said contractors will be notified of the new rules when they obtain their permits.
Under the village's codified ordinances, any contractor or subcontractor who violates the allowable audible construction hours faces a fourth-degree misdemeanor, a classification that lets local authorities issue criminal citations and fines to noncompliant site contractors. Both this month's amendment and the July 8 ordinance were passed as emergency legislation, bypassing the standard 30-day waiting period so the tighter hours took effect immediately rather than during peak summer building season. Under the new rules, audible construction is permitted from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, and remains prohibited entirely on Sundays and on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Neighbors Cite Lost Tree Buffers
The dispute traces back to The Canyons, an upscale, 45.6-acre townhome community built by Pulte Homes primarily for adults 55 and older, located directly off Orange Place, north of Jackson Drive and south of Harvard Road, across from Pinecrest, according to Cleveland.com. Homes.com lists units starting around $489,990 and reaching over $660,000, placing the project near the Pinecrest shopping district and UH Ahuja Medical Center. Jackson Drive residents raised complaints during summer public hearings that Pulte Homes removed mature trees that had served as visual and acoustic buffers between their homes and the development, as reported by Citizen Portal. Neighbors requested a 10-foot earthen mound after site work began in June, earlier than they said they had anticipated.
A Small Village Wrestling With Growth
Orange Village is a small Cuyahoga County suburb of roughly 3,421 residents about 18 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland, according to Homes.com, and that low-density, quiet character has made large residential projects like The Canyons a prominent local flashpoint. The village previously created Canyons Incentive Districts using tax-increment financing and passed Ordinance 2024-32 to enable sanitary sewer connections through neighboring Bedford Heights and Warrensville Heights, underscoring how much municipal support went into getting the project built in the first place. Pulte Homes also went before the village's Planning & Zoning Commission in July 2025 over exterior material standards for the model units, eventually settling on a premium vinyl siding option after commissioners questioned whether it would meet the architectural standards expected in the village's higher-end subdivisions.
The construction-hours fight isn't happening in isolation. Council also enacted Ordinance 2026-10 banning street parking in residential cul-de-sacs to keep roadways clear for emergency and municipal vehicles, part of a broader tightening of rules around residential building activity. And as Hoodline previously reported, the village is separately weighing six zoning variances for a proposed five-story, 132-room Hilton Tempo hotel on Orange Place that has drawn its own share of neighborhood objections over noise, traffic and parking.
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