Council OKs Ban, Fines on Gas Leaf Blowers

Gardeners and their employers will soon be fined up to $1,000 each for operating gasoline-powered leaf blowers in residential areas, the Los Angeles City Council decided Tuesday.

To the cheers of dozens of homeowners--including television actresses Meredith Baxter and Julie Newmar--the council voted 10 to 3 to ban leaf blowers within 500 feet of residences starting in March.

The action brought the city in line with more than 40 other California municipalities that have restricted blowers due to concerns about noise and the health hazards of dust and exhaust.

The vote formally ratifies a measure that the council endorsed in May. But the council also added a provision to the new law that penalizes homeowners and others for hiring gardeners who illegally use the blowers.

The ban came despite the appeals of about 60 gardeners who attended the meeting. They warned that the ban will mean they will charge higher rates to use brooms and water hoses instead of powerful blowers to clear away leaves and grass clippings.

“If blowers are banned, it’s going to make our work that much more difficult,” said Roy Imazu, a San Fernando Valley gardener and a member of the Southern California Gardeners Assn.

The vote was a victory for Councilman Marvin Braude, a retiring 31-year City Hall veteran who has backed such a ban for several years. He has argued that gardeners have the option of using electric blowers, which do not generate the exhaust or noise of gasoline-powered devices.

The city is not immune to the ban. The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks owns 150 gasoline-powered leaf blowers for gardening. The department is requesting funding next year from the council to replace most of them because they are more than 2 years old.

Dick Ginevan, a parks manager for the department, said city workers routinely use blowers to clear off leaves and grass clippings around city parks and libraries.

But he said that over the past few years--as the blower ban has made its way through the city’s legislative process--park workers have turned to using brooms, rakes and water hoses in residential areas.

“It does cause additional costs for us to use different means to clear away leaves and other debris,” Ginevan said.

An earlier version of the ban imposed fines only on the gardeners, but, at the request of Councilman Mike Hernandez, the council voted to also fine those who hire the gardeners, saying they should be held responsible as well.

Under the amendment, an existing “noise abatement team” within the Police Department will have the option of imposing a fine on either the gardeners or the homeowners or both, said Keith Pritzker, an assistant city attorney who helped write the ban.

Despite strong emotions on both side of the issue, he predicted that the ordinance will not be a high priority with police.

Councilwoman Rita Walters, who joined Councilmen Joel Wachs and Richard Alatorre in opposing the ban, was cheered by gardeners when she called the ban an elitist measure that would benefit rich homeowners at the expense of low-income gardeners.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District also joined the fray Tuesday by issuing a report that blamed leaf blowers for spewing 5.6 tons of hydrocarbon emissions per day into the region.

But the AQMD report said leaf blowers don’t generate as many hydrocarbon emissions as lawn mowers, which emit 7.4 tons per day, or edge trimmers, which spew 7.6 tons.