City Drafting Rules on Leaf-Blower Use

With little of the upheaval and emotion that marked the recent implementation of a leaf-blower ban in Los Angeles, the city of Calabasas asked city staff to draft an ordinance that would restrict the hours of operation for the machines.

Rejecting a recommendation from the council’s environmental commission, the city chose to take a moderate step forward in regulating leaf blowers instead of an all-out ban.

“Why should we pass a law that nobody’s going to follow?” Mayor Lesley Devine asked. “There isn’t a solution yet. I don’t think we were ready to rush ahead with this until that alternative is available.”

Devine said residents and gardeners would likely find raking leaves and clippings too labor-intensive and might turn to washing the debris away with water, causing other environmental problems.

The council instructed the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would restrict usage of the blowers to certain hours of the day, likely 8 or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but prohibit their use on Sundays and holidays.

The law also might prohibit usage on days determined to have unhealthy air as defined by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The city’s environmental commission, which has been studying the issue for a year, had suggested in its report that the council ban the use of all blowers, gas and electric, within 250 feet of homes and restrict their use to certain hours in commercial zones.

The commission cited many of the same problems that others have raised when considering a total ban on the machines, including air quality concerns for residents and the operators and concerns about the amount of noise the blowers generate.

A ban might have proven difficult for at least one council member to follow.

Robert Sibilia told his colleagues at a meeting Wednesday night that he has an electric blower himself, and that he uses its vacuum function to collect leaves and clippings to add to his compost pile.