A Westport resident is both confused and disturbed by Westport’s new gas-powered leaf blower ban. It went into effect May 15.
Requesting anonymity (his wife does not want him to be “that guy”), he writes:
We and many of our neighbors forced our landscapers to make the investment in electric blowers if they wished to continue working with us.
However, it is apparent that many other homeowners have either ignored the new initiative or are willing to look the other way, causing a pretty serious negative externality for those of us who insist the workers follow the law but are still subjected to a sound that I find nearly unbearable.
Do you know if I am the only one annoyed by people ignoring the ruling?
“06880” has been inundated with photos of people still using gas-powered leaf blowers. Most photographers request anonymity, like this one. It shows a landscaper at the Westport Woman’s Club.
I am pretty sure I read that the police do not wish to become involved, which essentially turns the law into a suggestion. [EDITOR’S NOTE: The ordinance as written does not involve police. The only enforcement comes from a complaint to the Conservation Department.]
The decibels grow here inside my house, due to a landscaper on an adjacent block.
Do you happen to know if the powers that be have any suggestions? I have approached everyone on my small block (we have a group text), imploring them to do the right thing.
But in Westport, noise from adjoining blocks might as well be in one’s own backyard.
Sorry to belabor, just wondering if this topic has come up at all. If not, I’ll shut up and put on some headphones.
It sure has come up.
A lot.
“06880 wonders: How are you handling your landscapers? Are your neighbors doing the same? Have you tried to organize, cajole, plead, threaten — either them, a work crew, or both? What’s next? The Comments section is open to all. Please be as civil as possible.
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The law is not seriously intended to work at..it’s just silly and ineffective to have “enforcement” left up to the homeowner just as, it would be for a passenger to be responsible for the driver’s obeying the speed limit…1-the landscaper should be responsible for obeying the town’s ordinances and 2-police enforcement is vital or the whole effort tanks…my neighbor told his landscaper, who stopped the day he was told but his men were back at it the next week. The ordinance is an embarrassing sham.
We decided to buy a commercial level backpack blower (battery powered) for our landscaping company to use when they service our home. According to the owner we are the only client who brought up the ordinance. The one other client that did bring it up stopped mentioning it when told that prices of services will have to be raised if landscapers had to buy all this new equipment.
I also am outraged. I told my landscaper not to use it. The cuttings disappear in a day or so.
Commented on this worthless ordinance several times now. Even the larger landscapers like Oliver’s continue to use gas blowers. The noise and pollution level has not decreased one bit. why can’t code enforcement drive around and ticket these scofflaws. Enforcing this ordinance makes a lot more sense than having town officers giving out tickets to cars parked in the Longshore lot without a beach pass. Think about it!
Facts!
The ordinance has nothing to do with noise. The town has no noise ordinance. If it did, the likes of chain saws, lawnmowers, Harley-Davidsons, barking dogs,The Levitt Pavillion and the bleating of diesel powered 18-wheelers downshifting down the Post Road would be under scrutiny.
Rather, the leafblower ordinance ONLY addresses polluting emissions from the gas-powered two-stroke devices.
For those interested in noise, the RTM Environment Committee will be discussing the possibility of a noise ordinance at its July 8 meeting. Good luck with that.
Toni, a clarification to your point. Leaf blowers are the only two-stroke devices mentioned. Chain saws, string trimmers, hedge trimmers and other equipment are typically two-stroke devices, but were not included in the legislation.
Um, facts: Chapter 42 Article III Sections 42-101 through 42-106 (Leaf Blowers) make absolutely no mention of either pollution or emissions, nor does the word “noise” or any synonym appear anywhere therein.
If this Ordinance were only about emissions, why does 42-103(d) impose daytime operating hours on non-summer use?
Pollution never sleeps.
Finally, the Town does in fact already has a Noise ordinance, Chapter 42, Article II, Sections 42-21 through 42-23.
I stand corrected, sort of.
1). The ordinance language does not cite any reason for it. At the leaf blower hearings, the discussion focused on emissions from two-strike leaf blowers, the health of landscapers, air quality and climate change (I do not know why other two stroke devices were not included). I still believe noise is NOT the rationale for the ordinance.
2) The noise ordinance you cite addresses “hours of operation” only for noise from “construction or repair work.” As a noise ordinance it lacks specificity regarding decibel levels, and does not regulate any other sources of noise such as from landscapers, music, festivals, crowds, motor vehicles, gas powered leaf blowers, etc.
I would love to have the decibels reduced; however, it is untenable for the lawn workers to afford new, quieter blowers. The law didn’t allow funding to change over. So, it’s NOT the landscapers who are at fault. Ours said he would be forced to go out of business if forced to switch. So, I suggest a more empathetic ear.
It could never work; it’s another ill thought out plan
How can we expect especially smaller companies to afford the switch to electric blowers unless they put up costs or reduce staff?
As a former landscaper in Westport for several years. I knew that this was going to be a tough one. Yards need to be tended. workers need equipment to tend them. If the town wants this ruling, then the town should provide some sort of muffle system or quite eg when working in Westport. Otherwise, workers should not have to deal with this directly. It’s hard enough working the land in this heat, while owners sip their star buck’s coffee from their post covid home offices, complaining as to the horror of it all. Whilst enveloped in air-conditioned comfort while gazing out to the land hands.
the blower is Not the only issue. The entire lawn and landscape profession needs to be recalculated.
I wonder how serious Mr. Lewi and his fellow appointed Conservation commissioners are in actually “enforcing” their ordinance, at least to the extent Section 42-104, “Education” mandates them to do so. A start would be to make public stats on how many such “educational materials” have actually been sent to offending homeowners, much like the Police publish stats on the busted. Perhaps even publish a nicely done bilingual color .pdf leaflet that could be given to landscapers or left under their wipers…
The RTM collectively consumed thousands of hours discussing and drafting this feel good, do nothing, “pretty please” legislation. No one, including the RTM, should be surprised that it is ineffective, because it was drafted to be such.
By passing the legislation, the RTM was able to declare victory that Westport has a leaf blower ordinance. The fact that it would have been as effective as an RTM Sense of the Meeting resolution is immaterial.
If the RTM is serious about what they want to accomplish, they should rework this legislation into something that is meaningful and effective. I support those who have suggested incentives rather than sending out flyers when a neighbor turns in their neighbor.
Finally, this is a problem that will solve itself WITHOUT ANY ordinance. Over the next few years, gas powered yard equipment will be all but impossible to purchase. Already, electric yard equipment is readily available and quite popular. So, as gas powered equipment is replaced by homeowners and landscapers alike, electric equipment will be the norm.
a voice of reason . . .
I think it is hard to take seriously when the town is excluded from the ordinance. How can you create something with such an exclusion?
This is, perhaps, the only reply worthy comment from us all.
It was my hope that the RTM had thought of the leaf blower ordinance as the initial step in a process of education and regulation that would lead to a cleaner, healthier environment.
There are many possible next steps: selling permits to allow the use of two stroke engines and using the income to purchase carbon offsets, rewarding landscaping companies that shift technologies with publicity and tax relief, incentivizing a change in landscaping practices with a view to reducing land and water pollution as well as controlling noise and alleviating conditions that jeopardize respiratory health.
Maybe the next step is municipal, RTMers? There are many exemplary golf courses to study (and visit?) from Martha’s Vineyard to Pebble Beach
Law? what law? Laws have consequences. My neighbors landscapers use a riding jet engine to blow….2″grass cutting. He had to stop the deafening machine just to hear me tell him about the peter pan ordinance for just enough time to laugh out loud. Imagine yourself in the center of a tic-tak toe grid. 9 squares. each day one neighbor has his lawn mowed, that makes it 8 days a week I listen and breathe air and noise pollution and so do you. The RTM should be ashamed of this so called ordinance. On average a person spends 2,000 hours every year at work, to think how many thousands of hours, YEARS were wasted by the constituents and RTM members on this without any meaningful result reminds me of our congress in the past decade. Do something that means something!
The idea that landscapers have to buy a lot of new, expensive equipment is a canard. Once again, the landscapers are spreading lies. This is a SUMMER ordinance–there’s no need to blow grass clippings. Period. If they need to clear a patio they can use a broom or a cheap battery blower. And BTW: the ordinance would have more teeth (read, fines) if a group of RTM members (led by Jay Keenan and aided by our Police Chief who clearly didn’t want the added work) hadn’t bought into this BS. That said, the noise and fumes in many neighborhoods (including most notably, the Compo area) have been reduced significantly. I suggest that you continue to report violators (along with the name of the landscaper) so that the Town can track compliance. Here’s the email address to report violations: ckelly@westportct.gov If there are enough complaints, perhaps the RTM will impose fines. Alternatively, we can always petition the DEEP (who licenses many of them), to revoke their licenses.
It’s a great example of this totally ineffectual administration and the useless town government it enables. See a problem with a groundswell of support to solve (whether pollution, noise, traffic, downtown, whatever). Publicly announce a “solution” that does nothing (a $500k study, more money for police officers to sit in their cars texting, pass an ordinance with no enforcement mechanism). Celebrate yourself with a press release, social media post, and glowing coverage here. Attend a few random ribbon cuttings. Call it a day.
That said, Tooker/Moore was elected on a platform that basically boiled down to changing nothing in Westport, so I guess they are delivering on that.
Declare August a NO LANDSCAPING MONTH‼️
Enjoy the silence and see what nature does. 🙏🇺🇸
Honestly, I think there are more important issues in the world than this. I don’t notice and am not bothered by this noise. I also don’t think we should require these hardworking landscapers to shell out extra money to purchase battery powered equipment, especially since most battery powered equipment does not work as well as gas powered. We can encourage movement toward this over time… just as we are doing with gas vs electric cars… which we have all heard, E cars have the negatives as well. (Where to all the batteries go?!)
Just because you are not bothered by the noise doesn’t mean many others aren’t. The noise is deafening.
Isn’t it wonderful that this is such a big problem? I think there are many more important issues that that should be addressed. This is just part of owning a home and life in the suburbs. Take a breath there are worst things going on than landscaping noise.
the Supreme Court blocked EPA downwind initiatives that would reduce air pollution. Governments are not protecting citizens. Vote
The leaf blower ordinance, including the absence of a fine or other sanction, was discussed fully over the past several years. In my neighborhood the use of gas powered leaf blowers during the warm weather months has been reduced. I have spoken to neighbors and several lawn care people. The responses have been cooperative. This is a modest and sensible ordinance which some people choose to characterize its nature and wording in aggressively contrary words. Let us all see how it works out. I think it is useful and benefits many, with the only downside being a cost to the lawn care people, that may or may not exist and is likely to become irrelevant as equipment is replaced.
Don Bergmann
Four engineering students from John’s Hopkins
Are working on a leaf blower silencer. Maybe all quite
On the westport front.
I believe you may be referring to this article. As I read it, the students are reducing certain frequencies, but not decibels. An admirable advancement, but a stretch to call it a “silencer.” See: https://click.convertkit-mail.com/d0u5vmzp73t0h49wo93h3tmx96444hl/reh8h9u047233dh6/aHR0cHM6Ly9odWIuamh1LmVkdS8yMDI0LzA1LzE0L3F1aWV0ZXItbGVhZi1ibG93ZXIv
Helen Ranholm is thinking simple and smart.
This country and our little town of Westport like it is constipated with too much ill thought out solutions to problems and the associated laws, ordinances and restrictions that do a almost continuing failure to properly solve the problems and become ineffective and unmanageable.
It seems as though a lot of wealthy, intelligent Westport residents and townspeople so quickly become NIMBY’s when they settle here. They allow a smaller group of Westporters to control their lives thru our small complicated form of town government. A small vocal all good intentioned locals call a small problem a huge problem and with quick, poorly studied consequences or other burdens they might produce just “LET’S JUST PASS AN ORIDINANCE WITH NO REAL CONSEQUENCE TO ALL OTHERS OR A METHOD OF ENFORCEMENT CUT THE HEAD OFF THIS DRAGON!!”
This solves everything does it not?
We need to stop as a Towns people and Americans thinking that you can legislate all problems and WHOOLA, ALL PROBLEMS SOLVED!
We now know that electric vehicles are energy savers and quieter than gas powered vehicles and the industry and users have had quite a few years to work out some of the major issues and we know a lot of wealthy Westporters own and use them effectively.
This opportunity and situation does not yet exist for larger LEAF BLOWERS!
The major manufacturers and suppliers have been offering and selling small residential leaf blowers which are absolutely no replacement for the larger more powerful back pack commercial leaf blowers that all commercial gardeners and landscapers need for all their properties.
I own and reside in a nice nearly 1 acre home and property here in Westport. I have two medium size lawn areas, a decent number of beautiful mature older trees, nicely landscaped planters, walk ways and a decent sized driveway and parking area.
My landscaping annual maintenance costs run about $6000 a year for mowing, mulching, weeding, plant pruning and blower and leaf and twig cleanup and haul off.
I met with my landscaper in April and informed him of the new electric leaf blower ordinance. he was very understanding of the noise problems as all his workers wear full ear headsets when blowing. he went out and purchased two new $850 electric large battery operated leaf blowers. Well in the first week one unit took a dump and the his supplier told him it would be two to three months lead time before they could return to him a repaired blower. Also in the first few days of use with the second blower he learned very quickly that the blower would only last about 1/2 hour on fully charged battery! he has two extra batteries but that only gives him about1.5 hours of use per day and they take a few hours each to fully charge!
So where does tat leave us with literally hundreds of properties and dozens of commercial landscape companies with an ordinance they can’t operate efficiently under and a leaf blower industry that cannot or WILL NOT YET supply a technology and product that can fill the bill!!
Come this fall when the leaves fall in massive volumes the sh*t
will hit the fan when home and property owners get either massively higher bills or sorry, you as a homeowner need to handle those piles of leaves!
Considering there are now 2 or three Towns in Fairfield county who have instituted rush leaf blower ordinances being in the forefront of such progress is troubling, almost impossible to implement and does not yet have a scale that makes industry and new technology or products available to really make this issue a non-issue!
Westporters who believe this ordinance and the problems it creates better get off their butts, shut their pie hole mouths complaining and come up with real fair, viable solutions on all fronts!
Wow, people may have to rake! Good exercise though.
We need Colonel ‘Scooter’ Jessup, Wrecker ’66 on these lawns! We want him on these lawns!