Leaf blowers

Overall Goals

The City is proposing a number of initiatives in response to the City Council hearing of June 21st 2016. The goals of these initiatives are to 1- Achieve greater compliance with the existing leaf blower ordinance and 2- Investigate the possibility of further reducing the impact of back pack leaf blowers and landscaping equipment on neighborhoods, public health and the broader environment through pilot programs by various City departments.

Current Initiatives

Several initiatives will have been completed by the end of September 2016 to improve compliance with the existing ordinance. The License Commission together with DPW will hold a training event on September 14th 2016 to further educate municipal employees and municipal contractors on the restrictions required by the ordinance and the best practices associated with back pack leaf blowers.

The City will also be following up with large property owners and operators through the fall and through the license renewal process to emphasize compliance with the ordinance. A new Commonwealth Connect complaint category has also been created so that members of the community can more easily request enforcement from the License Commission.

Battery powered landscaping equipment options remain relatively limited for large operations such as the City’s. However, efforts to initiate pilot programs with new equipment have also begun. During September 2016, City Departments will switch to using battery powered back pack leaf blowers whose maximum noise levels will be 60 decibels or below. In spring 2017 the City will pilot two “Green Zone” parks in the City, where battery powered landscaping equipment will be used exclusively in the maintenance of these facilities. An additional appropriation of approximately $130,000 will be requested of City Council in order to proceed with these two pilots.

The effectiveness of this equipment will be reviewed, and depending upon the results the City may require municipal contractors to use similar equipment in forthcoming years. The City’s pilot programs involve back pack leaf blowers manufactured by three different companies and a broader range of landscape equipment from one company. While we are hopeful that we will be able to expand the use of this landscaping equipment across all municipal operations it is still unclear as to whether, in the short term, such will be commercially viable for our contractors or for other operations that continue to work across the City.

Planning Process

On June 21st 2016, a City Council hearing took place where members of the community together with a number of City Councilors expressed concerns about the adverse effects of leaf blower operations. Specifically, people expressed concern about the level of compliance with the existing ordinance, the noise level permitted presently, the adverse public health impacts on operators and the various environmental impacts, to include air pollution, noise pollution and soil stripping.

The Committee meeting also included a presentation by Dr. Jamie Banks from Quiet Communities who advocated for more consideration of non-gas powered equipment in various parks and open spaces in the City and further proposed that the City look at piloting a number of “green zones” in the City.

In response to the concerns raised at that hearing, the Human Services Department (Golf Course and Danehy Park), Water Department, Traffic Department and Public Works Department (Parks, Forestry, Cemetery and Sanitation Department) met throughout the summer of 2016 to review various options to modify leaf blowing operations across the City. The City has also met with private contractors operating in the City and with a number of larger property owners to talk about alternatives to existing equipment and practices.

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Research on Alternative Equipment

City staff have met with manufacturers who specialize in producing electrical/battery landscaping products, most particularly back pack leaf blowing equipment. Mean Green Mowers is an Ohio based company that specializes in electrical/battery products and at this time has a range of landscaping equipment (though extra-large lawnmowers with 12 foot blades used for large field mowing are not yet available).

GreenWorks Commercial from North Carolina also offer a similar range of battery operated back pack leaf blowing products, though much of their larger mowing equipment is not yet available in the market place. Finally we have also experimented with STIHL’s range of battery operated back pack leaf blowers to determine whether such may be suitable for municipal operations moving forward.

Existing Practices and the Role of Leaf Blowers

It is the intention of all of City departments to further reduce the public health and environmental impacts associated with leaf blower operations while continuing to maintain facilities and parks in a clean, safe and reasonably presentable condition. As was expressed at the City Council hearing back pack leaf blowing machines are an important tool for various City departments as they seek to remove debris from playing fields and parks golf course greens, particularly during the spring and fall.

Leaf blowers are also used on tennis and basketball courts to keep them free of sand and dirt so as to stop slips and falls, and on rubber surfaces in our playgrounds where sand filled micro-pockets can lead to accidents for children.

This summer and indeed summers previous to this, we have had numerous complaints from tennis and basketball players about the dangerous conditions that prevail on their playing courts and similarly we are in receipt of complaints from parents in our various playgrounds where rubber surfaces become slippery due to sand build up during the course of the week. (Kemp playground is particularly difficult).

Because leaf blowers are banned during the summer months, DPW and its contractors have used brushes of various types in attempting to better clean these surfaces but all have been found to be significantly inferior in adequately cleaning these surfaces to leaf blowing equipment. We believe that a variance from the existing ordinance is merited specific to some of the rubber playing surfaces so as to be able to properly clean them during the summer months.

The Department of Public Works is under considerable pressure each spring as clean-up begins so as to make various parks and play areas playable, presentable and safe for users. Leaf blowers are an important and highly efficient tool in this effort. If winter storms continue through March into April DPW crews are frequently employed late into the evenings and over weekends to ensure parks are ready for neighborhood activities once the weather is better. This same circumstance also applies in the fall where our crews operate within a small window to complete fall cleanup on the 80+ parks throughout the City.