Leaf blowers: Gone with the wind?

Divided City Council leans toward banning gas, electric blowers|

To some they’re the gentle whir of efficient landscaping; to others they’re a daily belch of dust, fumes and noise pollution.

But after the Sonoma City Council meeting on July 20 everyone will have to agree on one thing: Leaf blowers’ days in Sonoma may be numbered.

That’s the direction the City Council was headed at the end of a marathon meeting on Monday, when nearly two dozen residents and landscapers took a stand on an issue that has grappled the community for nearly five years – whether to put a cork in leaf blowers once and for all.

In the end, council members weighed in via an unofficial straw poll intended to give direction to city staff to return at a later date – possibly Sept. 9 – with a more detailed proposal. And the results were 3–2 in favor of banning both gas-powered and electric motors. Council members Rachel Hundley, Laurie Gallian and Madolyn Agrimonti came out in favor of the ban, with Hundley suggesting merely a restricted use of the foliage-corralling machines for non-residential use; councilmember Gary Edwards and Mayor David Cook voted in the minority.

The Community Meeting Room was standing-room only for the evening’s foliage-flushing forum with the landscapers in attendance just about equaling folks donning bright green SNALB T-shirts – the uniform of the Sonoma Neighbors Against Leaf Blowers group, formed as a collective front against the snarl of such machines as the appropriately named “Echo 756 CFM,” which can move leaves at speeds of up to 234 mph.

While some neighbors, such as Sonoma resident Joel Bickford, suggested a ban on leaf blowers was overkill for a relatively minor inconvenience, others framed it as a defining moment for the city.

“I think we’re going to look back on this era and wonder why we ever put up with these obnoxious machines as long as we did,” said Sonoma resident Sarah Ford.

The regulation of leaf blowers has been a topic whirling through Sonoma since 2010, as an increasing demand for landscaping in the city has been accompanied by an increasing use of blowers, which are typically loud at close range and stir up dust when in use. An ordinance banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers came before the City Council in 2013, but suffered a narrow defeat. The issue came back earlier this year before the council – which has three new members – and it seems the leaf blower winds may have changed once again.

Commenters at the meeting offered various pros and cons about leaf blowers. Noise, air pollution and the inability of enforcing regulations on decibel level and hours of operation were the primary battle cries of those calling for a ban. (“What time of day do you want to annoy me?” asked blower critic Bob Edwards, in a mocking commentary about the ineffectiveness of regulations.)

Those opposed to a ban cited the dearth of complaints to city officials – 16 so far this year – and the financial hit it would be on landscapers, many of whom at the meeting expressed concern they’d lose work opportunities if they had to downgrade to a rake.

“How many citations have been issued?” Conny Gustafsson, owner of Scandia Landscaping, asked rhetorically. “None of us like blowers, but (they) are a help to us.”

If nothing else, this latest round of debate has proven among the most creative in leaf-blower-banning history.

Blower critic David Eicher, for instance, offered his environmental argument in the form of an advanced-math equation.

“Two hundred leaf blowers blowing for 15 minutes (uses gas equal to) 104,000 pickup trucks driving from Napa Road to Agua Caliente,” said Eicher. “Get rid of leaf blowers and you’ll take 1 million pickup trucks off the road.”

Commenter Tom Wright put a more personal face on the leaf-blower debate – he described being wakened at night by the noise of the machines, which startle him with their similarities to sounds he’d heard while serving in the Vietnam War. “How many of us have been on the receiving end of a mini Gatling gun?” Wright asked the council. “They sound just like leaf blowers.”

Leaf blower proponents challenged the ban with an array of slippery slope examples.

“You can’t ban everything that somebody doesn’t like,” said Joel Bickford. “When is it going to end?”

Cautioned Bickford: “Some people don’t like the sound of children.”

Joyce Parsons livened up the proceedings with a visual aid. To demonstrate the efficiency of the oft-disparaged broom, the Sonoma resident passed around a mason jar filled choc-a-bloc with debris she’d collected that day after sweeping her driveway.

Also standing out among the memorable moments of the meeting was Carolyn Wampol’s recitation of “One Day in Sonoma,” an anti-leaf-blower poem she’d written to the beat of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Moore, which rhymed “brilliance” with “resilience” and “gasses” with “passes.”

Despite the various appeals to city officials, the council members were largely unmoved from their previous stances on blowers. And after some initial discussion about ways to tighten already existing leaf-blower regulations, Councilmember Hundley downplayed any slippery slope arguments and spearheaded the push for a general ban.

“There have been a lot of metaphors about banning children and fire trucks – and those things can be annoying,” conceded Hundley. “But we have a higher threshold when it comes to things that are beneficial.”

City staff expects to present a first reading of an ordinance banning the use of leaf blowers at the council’s meeting Sept. 9.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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