San Marino May Limit Power Lawn Tools

Amid San Marino’s grandiose homes and manicured lawns, city leaders this week will ponder the all-important issue of how to ensure life, liberty and the pursuit of a quiet weekend.

The City Council in this wealthy, conservative enclave Wednesday will consider a ban on the use of motorized landscape equipment on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and public holidays.

Simply put: Use a power lawn mower, chain saw or weed whacker, you’ll be cited and may even go to jail.

Locals like to joke that almost everything is illegal in this community of 13,000, where the median home price is $695,000. Laws prohibit leaving a vehicle in a driveway for more than 48 hours, washing down the sidewalk and minors from selling bicycles.

So when the din of motors echoing through stately neighborhoods spoiled a few residents’ Saturday afternoons, naturally they turned to City Hall to outlaw the noise.

“I’d be out in my garden or by the swimming pool and you’d hear the chain saws ratcheting up and then gardeners would start their power blowers or mowers,” said Al Talt, a 46-year resident. “It really ruins Saturday afternoons when many people are reading or trying to relax.”

Talt, a 72-year-old attorney, and his wife, Marjorie, proposed the ordinance and he drafted an early version with his son, Steve, who also is a lawyer.

City Manager Deborah Bell said current law forbids the use of tree-trimming equipment and leaf blowers only on Sundays. The proposed ordinance would prohibit the use of motorized power tools on weekends except between 9 a.m. and noon Saturdays. Their use would also be forbidden on public holidays.

City officials say the measure needs refining. One provision would allow the use of motorized garden tools from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every second Saturday of the month. That, they agree, is simply confusing.

Mayor Emile Bayle sees plenty of merit in enacting the proposed ordinance and said there has been many a weekend when he wished it was already in place. “Power tools are abused all the time,” he said.

He said the proposed ordinance probably will be amended to allow residents who do their own gardening to use such tools at any time.

That change won’t make much difference to the noise level because most homeowners rely on professional gardeners, Bayle said. That’s no surprise given that the average lot is three times the size of an NBA basketball court.

Good thing there are plenty of gardeners to go around. The city’s 4,400 single-family homes are served by about 2,000 gardeners licensed to display the required city tag on their vehicles.

Bayle said the proposed ordinance is in keeping with the values the city was founded on in 1913: a community of well-kept homes. “It’s this kind of ordinance that maintains the character of the city,” he said.

Strict regulation to maintain appearances is the tradition. “There is an ordinance for everything. I have the book of the ordinances and use it as a doorstop sometimes,” Bayle said.

Citations are issued for dead lawns, chain-link fences or having a trash bin or air conditioner in public view. First-time violators get warnings. Repeat offenders, however, can be fined $50 to $500 for infractions.

Forget about a basketball hoop. The last resident with the nerve to have one was taken to court by the city. There’s no hoop.

It also is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to be a head of household in San Marino. Under these guidelines, 18-year-old NBA rookie Tyson Chandler could not own a house there, even with his potentially huge salary. It’s probably just as well given the basketball hoop law.

Why the law against young heads of households? It combats the phenomenon of “parachute kids,” teenagers from Asia sent to America to live and study alone in the city’s highly regarded school district.

“What isn’t illegal here?” jokes Paul Crowley, a former mayor who supports the proposed weed whacker law and is the man behind many of the city’s codes.

Crowley, a lifelong resident, said the council years ago considered banning all motorized gardening tools on weekends but backed off when gardeners warned they would have to work longer and the cost to residents would increase.

It was a rare retreat.

But in June the issue resurfaced and the council agreed to discuss it this month to gather comments from potential opponents.

City Manager Bell, however, said she hardly heard a whimper. That should be no surprise in a town where even candidates shun lawn signs as harmful to the aesthetics.

Talt said it is time to enact the law and get some peace and quiet because not everyone is as fortunate as he.

“The passage of time has provided me with my own defense,” he said. “I just turn off my hearing aid.”