Proposed Leaf Blower Ban Takes Center Stage

Editor's note: The bill's sponsor withdrew the proposed legilsation after the Severna Park Voice went to print. The Anne Arundel County Council may debate the issue again in the future.

Fall is just around the corner. Leaves are already changing colors before they begin their great descent to the ground, your deck or gutter, or anywhere else they may land. How you clean them up may drastically change if a proposed bill before the Anne Arundel County Council passes. I want to be sure you are aware, and I want to hear your feedback.

Bill 67-24, proposed by the councilwoman for District 6, bans the sale, use, or permit of sale or use of any leaf blower or leaf vacuum that has an A-weighted decibel (dBA) rating of 70 or more at a distance of 50 feet. dBA refers to the level of sound based on how humans hear a variety of frequencies. The bill is proposed to become part of the county’s noise ordinance law, which is a section of the county’s criminal code that is enforced by our county police.

For reference, the existing county noise ordinance states that “a person may not: (1) at any time use, operate, or permit the use or operation of a radio or other music producing device, a television, an amplified musical instrument, or any other audio producing device at an unreasonably loud volume that can be heard in a residential district; or (2) between the hours of 10:00pm and 7:00am, use, operate, or permit the use or operation of a musical instrument or a machine, tool, or similar device at an unreasonably loud volume that can be heard in a residential district.”

What is a 70 dBA? It’s the sound of a washing machine or being in an active room where you don’t need to raise your voice, but it is moderately loud. It isn’t silence, but it is a noise level that would be heard if you were sitting in relative silence and it suddenly became an active sound.

I understand why some residents become frustrated with the sound of leaf blowers. It isn’t a pleasant sound. They are loud – but in most cases, they are quick jobs with seasonal ebbs and flows of activity. Lawn equipment, by nature, is loud: leaf blowers, lawn mowers, chainsaws, weed whackers, snow blowers, woodchippers. Most are machines we can carry and push that are redistributing a large volume of material from heavy snow to days’ worth of wet, settled leaves. Regardless of the material being moved, the quicker the job is done, the more efficient it is for our wallets, and our backs. This is why individual residents, community homeowners associations, and commercial property owners either use or hire a company that uses a machine that gets the job done fast. These are primarily gas-powered machines. But this isn’t a bill to ban gas-powered equipment, though it would likely have the most impact on gas-powered models.

Gas- and battery-powered equipment both make noise, speaking from experience as a homeowner who uses a battery-powered, handheld leaf blower for small yard maintenance projects. Our small battery-operated machine hits a particular octave that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I checked from 50 feet. It has a dBA of 72-75 depending on where the reading is taken. It would be illegal to continue to use this leaf blower under this proposed bill.

Opponents and supporters are weighing in. Supporters have expressed frustration over interrupted work-from-home days, children napping and the disruption of the tranquility in their yards. Environmental concerns have also been raised.

The opposition has come from a variety of fields, from one-person lawn maintenance workers who do yard work as a side job to support their families, to local small businesses started by people in our community and employing people in our community, to mosquito treatment companies, gutter cleaning companies and lawn machine rental businesses. The concern is consistent and clear. The cost to replace one piece of equipment is at least two to three times the cost of the original unit, and that is before the purchase of backup batteries may be calculated. A company could go so far in the red to replace their fleet of tools, that any future savings would be irrelevant.

Businesses are concerned about the financial impacts of this bill, and they are worried about what those impacts mean for their staff and their ability to keep them employed. Batteries don’t run on endless power. They die. They take time to charge fully. They need to be recharged. They need to be in ideal circumstances for recharging, per manufacturer recommendations, to avoid overheating and fires – fires that we know are an incredible challenge to extinguish, unless you are able to submerge the source (battery).

Businesses have shared that they would need to have the ability to purchase and charge enough batteries to get through a day without returning to a “home base” or be able to charge on-the-go, using an energy source like a gas-powered generator that would run regularly throughout the 10-hour day for just one truck carrying one crew of workers. Each crew would need their own gas-powered generator to charge throughout the workday.

Private property owners have expressed concerns over the ability to use the investments they have made in their lawn equipment and the added financial burden of replacing those investments. What other tools may be banned next? For those using a lawn maintenance company, how much will their service fees increase? A lot of households use these services because they are no longer able to maintain the yard on their own and are on a fixed retirement income.

I have concerns about this bill, not only for small businesses but also for private homeowners, as well as enforcement responsibilities that would fall to our police.

Bill 67-24 is scheduled for its first public hearing and a potential vote on September 16. The council will likely discuss this legislation during a work session on September 10.

You can reach out to me on this legislation, and any other county matter, at amanda.fiedler@aacounty.org.