Town votes to ban noisy leaf blowers

L andsc apers were in quiet mod e T u e s d ay a s t h e Tow n Council listened to public opinion before voting to ban noisy gas-powered leaf blowers on all properties smaller than an acre.

Less-noisy, cleaner electric and battery-powered blowers still will be allowed on all lots. Larger lots were exempted from the ban on gas-powered blowers because of the additional manpower and expense that landscapers and propert y managers have said would be required to maintain their properties without them.

Scott Lewis of Scott Lewis’ Gardening and Trimming, who has helped organize landscapers’ opposition to the ban, said he sent an email blast telling other companies they didn’t need to attend Tuesday’s meeting because he was told by Councilwoman Bobbie Lindsay that there would be no vote on the ban that day. Lewis said he attended the meeting but didn’t address the council for the same reason.

Lewis and other landscapers will have a chance to speak to the council before Tuesday’s action becomes final. The council has to approve it twice in ordinance form, over the next two months, before it is enacted.

In an interview Wednesday, Lindsay said Lewis contacted her Monday to seek a compromise. She said she told him she would ask the council to delay a decision on the ban and instead consider the leaf blower noise in a larger context that also would include construction noise.

Lindsay did that, but the council decided to discuss and act on the ban anyway.

Lindsay also asked the council to defer considering an ordinance to regulate lawn maintenance hours, which Lewis also has opposed. The council deferred the ordinance, which would make lawn maintenance hours in the summer consistent with those in the winter. Under that change, noisy equipment including blowers could be used from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays. Landscapers would lose an hour in the mornings and evenings, and five hours on Saturdays.

Lewis said he is opposed to the partial ban. Electric blowers aren’t safe on properties with swimming pools, which are common in Palm Beach, he said.