Construction on a major remodel to a Carmel Mountain Ralphs grocery store is happening overnight, and some neighbors say it's robbing an otherwise quiet neighborhood of peace and quiet.
Now, questions are being raised over how the grocer was able to build at night when the city forbids construction after 7 p.m.
"It just sucks because I've got a 7-year-old that goes to bed at 8 p.m. at night and comes back out at 10:30 [p.m.] and says, 'There's construction noise, I can't sleep,'" said Jared Shirk, who lives across the street from the grocery store.
Shirk can't sleep either, so instead he goes into the parking lot and takes video of the work.
"Every single night I've been calling the police, and every single day I've been leaving an online complaint at code compliance," he said. "It doesn't seem that anything is happening."
Now, something is happening. The city is investigating whether Ralphs has the proper noise permits to be building overnight. City code says construction between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. is illegal without one.
The only exception is if the disturbance would be worse during the day than at night. That could be the case of the grocery store, where people shop during the day.
"It's clearly obvious that they want to keep the store open during the day, so they can make their own money," Shirk said.
In a statement to 10News, Ralphs said it would stop working at night:
"We have contacted all of our construction teams to help them understand this is unacceptable and outside of the direction we have given them repeatedly in the past. They have assured us that they will not operate outside during the night for the remainder of the construction. We are set to re-grand open the store the first week of August."
Shirk said he no longer shops at the Ralphs and is planning to move when his lease ends in August.
