One hour of leaf blowing is the equivalent to driving a car for 1,100 miles and the cumulative volume of small off-road engines pollution is greater than passenger vehicles.
Burlingame officials are exploring how to ban gas leaf blowers in the next few years, and are looking into incentive and rebate programs to help commercial landscapers adjust.
The city passed an ordinance regulating when leaf blowers can be used, after receiving noise complaints from residents in 2012. The ordinance outlined that leaf blowers needed to be certified by the city’s Public Works Department and are capped at 65 decibels. The city later determined certifying leaf blowers wasn’t feasible and it stopped enforcing it. A state law will be in effect January 2024 to ban the sale of new leaf blowers, according to a staff report.
However, Mayor Michael Brownrigg said the law doesn’t consider the use of previously owned leaf blowers.
“They are not only highly polluting but highly robust and easily repaired, so they aren’t going anywhere unless we make them go away,” Brownrigg said.
One hour of leaf blowing is the equivalent to driving a car for 1,100 miles and the cumulative volume of small off-road engines pollution is greater than passenger vehicles. The City Council voiced its support in banning gas leaf blowers during a public study session Monday, June 5.
An electric backpack leaf blower costs about $2,500 and a gas leaf blower costs around $600, according to the report.
Vice Mayor Donna Colson said she prefers the city finds a way to provide an incentive toward the financial burden of electric blowers. One option she mentioned could be property owners buying the electric blowers for hired landscapers rather than having them come up with the money. The rebate program could be used through Peninsula Clean Energy, which already created a rebate program for homeowners looking to switch from gas to electric appliances.
“I noticed in some of these incentive programs that they were incentivizing the gardeners, which is great and we should do that,” Colson said. “But I think we should also educate and incentivize the homeowners, the apartment owners and other commercial building owners to provide equipment for their gardeners.”
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The current ordinance divides the city into three zones. Commercial blowers are allowed to be used one day a week and each zone is assigned a specific day it is permitted. Multi-family buildings zoned R-3 and R-4 are allowed an extra day per week. Residents are allowed to use their own blowers on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., respectively. The ordinance also restricts blowers from being operated on Mondays and Wednesdays, according to the report.
Colson said another incentive could be allowing electric leaf blowers outside the current zone restricted time frame.
At the study session, former mayor Terry Nagel said she supports the citywide ban of gas leaf blowers, adding the concern is the environmental pollution and the noise it emits is difficult for people to deal with especially when many more of the city’s residents work from home. Multiple other residents echoed Nagel’s thoughts.
Councilmember Emily Beach said the city needs to figure out how the city can pay for the incentives.
“I hope there is a creative way to make this practical, because I think this is a really important thing from a public health perspective,” Beach said “But we have to figure out how to make this all work.”
The city’s staff will return to the council at a later date with different options on incentive programs and best ways to implement a ban for the leaf blowers. However, the consensus was even if a ban is implemented, the city wants to phase it out to give landscapers time to adjust.
Wouldn't it be easier to have the gardeners raise their rates to pay for these devices? It seems to me that all of my neighbors who can afford a gardener can pay a bit more. It still would not address the issue of dust storms that these blowers generate. What happened to the old fashioned rake?
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(1) comment
Wouldn't it be easier to have the gardeners raise their rates to pay for these devices? It seems to me that all of my neighbors who can afford a gardener can pay a bit more. It still would not address the issue of dust storms that these blowers generate. What happened to the old fashioned rake?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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