by Mark McDermott
The City Council on Tuesday night directed staff to use a carrot and stick approach to rid the city of leaf blowers, which have been illegal in Manhattan Beach since 1998 but have continued to be widely used by local gardeners and landscapers.
The carrot is the promotion of an Air Quality Management District rebate program that allows anyone to exchange a gas-powered leaf blower for an electric one. The stick is a more concerted effort at enforcement, which is already underway. The council urged staff to increase public outreach regarding both matters, including the fact that fines for using a leaf blower began at $250 and rise to $1,0000 with repeated infractions.
The problem with the exchange program, however, is that electric leaf blowers are also illegal.
“It is a bit confusing,” said Councilperson Amy Howorth. “And I struggle with that, because we already get slammed with our leaf blower policy because we don’t enforce it. Now we’re saying, ‘Hey, go ahead and turn it in, and you know, if you get electric, you’ll get a rebate.’”
The nuance in the City’s policy is that electric leaf blowers are allowed so long as they are used with a vacuum attachment.
“It was not obvious to me that we allow electric [leaf blowers] with a vacuum,” Howorth said.
Mayor Pro Tem Joe Franklin brought the AQMD program to the City staff’s attention. The idea was simply that the City could amplify its educational outreach and offer those who use leaf blowers a cost-efficient alternative. Franklin suggested a page on the City’s website specifically devoted to it, and the use of social media, newsletters, and possibly even town halls, in order to better educate residents and hired gardeners both about the City’s ban on leaf blowers and the AQMD alternative.
“It’s a simmering issue,” Franklin said. “Many of us maybe aren’t even aware of what our hired gardeners do and when they do it, and how they do it. It’s our responsibility. They’re working on your property. These are regulations that make sense. It maintains the health of our residents….[and] the noise is a nuisance. Hopefully, electric battery operated equipment would mitigate the noise issue.”
Britny Coker-Moen, Environmental Programs Administrator for the City, said that AQMD offers the rebates because gas powered lawn equipment are among the biggest air polluters.
“The reason for these programs is because gas and diesel powered lawn and garden equipment emit smog, producing pollutants contributing to local and regional air pollution,” she said. “Today, operating a commercial lawn mower for one hour emits as much pollution as driving a new light duty passenger vehicle almost 300 miles…As of 2021 emissions from these small off road engines already exceeded the emissions of light duty passenger vehicles in California. Emissions from these engines are projected to reach nearly double those produced by passenger vehicles by 2031, according to the California Air Resources Board.”
Franklin said that residents needed to be proactive to address the issue with people they hire to work their lawns.
“I would say, if you’re hiring a gardener or landscapers, help them transition. Talk to them,” Franklin said. “One of their concerns, because I talked to several of them, is that the batteries don’t last that long. They only last for two homes, perhaps, so they have to have a phalanx of batteries, extra batteries recharging in the van. So, for example, I offered to [my gardener] the use of our outlets so that if they’re going down the street or whatever, they can recharge batteries, come back and collect them so they can go ahead and continue their day. Help to make this easier for them to become compliant, and also to be a better neighbor.”
“The other thing I did just with my own gardener, talking with him in my not so great Spanish — it’s very expensive for them to do this transition, and it’s also very time consuming to use a leaf vacuum, so I asked him in the meanwhile to go ahead and use a broom, you know, the old fashioned way,” Franklin said. “And I said, ‘Please charge me more per month.’ So be sympathetic. Be helpful. Be caring. These people are doing that work because, at least in my case, I don’t want to do it. So help them out and make their job as easy as possible for them.”
Howorth suggested perhaps a series of neighborhood meetings could be set up to help educate the public on the issue, and asked if there were more effective ways to reach the people using leaf blowers than just social media and the City’s website.
“Because I don’t feel that that reaches people,” she said.
“With council direction, we could absolutely pursue that,” Coker-Moen said. “Gardeners and landscapers are required to have a business license to operate in the city, so we do have methods to reach them directly.”
Councilperson Steve Charelian said part of the education needed to be about the legality of leaf blower vacuums.
“I personally have seen a lot of gardeners in the city. I don’t think I’ve seen one ever with a vacuum,” he said. “I don’t know if anybody else has. This is an opportunity to educate.”
Ryan Hiese, the City’s Building Official who oversees code enforcement, said that the Council’s increased funding for enforcement enabled the hiring of two new code enforcement officers and has resulted in more citations for the use of lifeblowers.
“The current proactive patrol started basically at the beginning of this year,” he said. “We started with an educational campaign, mailing out pamphlets in the utility bills, and having flyers in both English and Spanish. And then this year…there were definitely three to six [citations issued] a month, starting about March on.”
Howorth said that the enforcement message needs to be amplified.
“It’s good to know that we do proactive enforcement in addition to reactive, which is really tough,” she said. “I want somehow to get the message out that we do get three to six citations a month. Because it is frustrating to residents. ‘Oh my God, my neighbors are using this and it’s so loud,’ or, ‘I have asthma, it’s blowing over to me.’ So we are trying to do the best we can in enforcement.”
Councilperson Nina Tarnay said the increased enforcement has made an impact.
“I’ve noticed a difference, at least in my neighborhood, especially now that I’m a lot more aware of the issue,” she said. “It has definitely been quieter…I think a few tickets, it’s an expensive ticket when you are a gardener. They don’t make a ton of money. So I think once that messaging gets out there, I do think that there would be room for improvement.” ER
Ban all leaf blowers – electric and gas. Electric violate any noise ordinance and are completely unnecessary. It takes longer to blow leaves than to sweep them. I tested this in a lab