This morning’s “Opinion” piece by one homeowner — detailing his frustration with Westport’s ban on gas-powered leaf blowers — elicited many responses.
Like blown leaves themselves, they were all over the place.
We also heard from Kristin Schneeman, a Representative Town Meeting member who helped sponsor the regulation. She writes:
We’ve been hearing loud and clear this summer the level of frustration people have with the use of gas blowers, which is why we passed an ordinance in the first place.
Unfortunately change always takes time. Passing an ordinance was never going to guarantee immediate 100% compliance, whether there were penalties associated with it or not. (Witness the single-use plastics ordinance.)
The responsible parties in Westport are property owners, not landscapers. There are probably hundreds of landscapers who work for clients in town, and most of them do not live in Westport; they serve clients in a number of towns (even states), and as such it can be hard for them to know what the local regulations are.
A gas-powered leaf blower …
Our Conservation Department made a significant effort to reach out to as many as it could find contact information for, but it was likely a fraction of those working in town.
Instead of speaking with and complaining to landscapers, I’ve been encouraging residents to speak with their neighbors directly. We are all responsible for our own behavior on our properties, and that of anyone we hire to work for us on it.
Landscapers will respond to what their clients ask of them (as was the case with the author of the “06880” piece). There will always be people who flout regulations, even when there are penalties for doing so. But I’m optimistic that over time, the more people become aware of the existence of the ordinance and why it’s in place, the more people will ask their landscapers to comply.
This has happened in my own neighborhood. After notifying my neighbor about the ordinance when their landscaper continued to use his gas blower, first he stopped blowing when he mows their lawn; then he showed up with an electric backpack blower.
There is actually little reason to blow in summer. Grass clipping are best left in the lawn. Other neighbors have banded together to purchase a commercial-grade electric blower for the person they all use to take care of their lawns.
I’ve heard of other folks who have purchased an electric blower themselves, and asked their landscaper to use it on their property.
… and an electric one.
I know this is not everyone’s experience in town, but things have actually been appreciably quieter where I am in downtown – not silent, but much better.
I’ve heard from friends in another neighborhood that has been taking a very collective, neighborly, civil approach to education in their area as well. Again, it’s not 100% perfect, but it’s positive change.
Westport’s RTM chose not to make its ordinance punitive. It aims for education about the negative health, environmental and quality of life effects of GLBs, and for compliance.
I will note that Greenwich and Norwalk passed ordinances after we passed ours, which go into effect this summer and fall respectively, and they do carry penalties. So any landscapers working in those towns will be subject to fines.
I’m asking everyone to have patience and reasonable expectations. This will take time. Next summer will be better than this summer, and more towns in Connecticut will likely come on board.
But we all need to play a role in speaking with our neighbors, explaining why gas blowers are bad and aren’t really needed during the summer months. Call me naive, but I actually believe most people comply with most laws not because they’re afraid of getting caught and penalized, but because they believe it’s the right thing to do or derive other personal benefit from them (personal safety, better quality of life, etc.).
I don’t stop at stop signs because I’m afraid of getting caught and fined. I do it to keep myself and others safe.
But it takes time for people to become aware of and accustomed to new laws and regulations, and to understand the reasons and benefits of them.
