Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: NOISE ORDINANCE REVIEW
Date: May 14, 2024
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council review and provide feedback to staff on potential changes to the City’s existing noise ordinance. No action will be taken.
Background
During the current fiscal year, City Councl directed staff to add an update of the noise ordinance to a future agenda item, specifically to discuss noise generated by leaf blowers. This was reflected in the FY 24-25 Strategic Planning work plan and indicated as complete by the end of FY 23-24. Therefore, this item is being brought forward for an initial discussion with the City Council to get further direction.
Analysis/Discussion
Currently, the City’s noise ordinance does not specifically prohibit leaf blowers, but generally prohibits loud and unusual noises, based on noise standards in Chapter 17.30.050 Noise Standards, in the City’s municipal code. The significance criteria are ultimately supported by the noise analyses completed with the General Plan.
Leaf blowers are transitory, and like any transitory noise, they would be difficult to regulate.
Presumably, most nuisance noise issues would come up outside of normal working hours, which adds an additional complication for regulation. Therefore, staff reviewed other ordinances that regulate leaf blowers (Santa Rosa and City of Sonoma, attached for reference). City staff also spoke with staff in the City of Sonoma to understand how they are regulated. Sonoma is also a smaller community and now has the benefit of hindsight after implementing a very contentious leaf blower ordinance. Of particular concern was the potential issues that could arise if police were required to ticket and potentially fine landscapers, as they are the only staff available outside normal business hours.
In discussions with City of Sonoma staff, the recommended approach to implement a leaf blower restriction is to initially reach out to landscape contractors that work in the area (in addition to the City’s own landscape contractor) and inform them of the change to put them on notice. For enforcement, the recommended practice is to rely on residents to report violations. For transitory or after-hours violations, it’s common practice for residents to document the issue and provide that the City for follow-up. In this case, the recommended process would be the same, with code enforcement following up with a warning letter followed by potential enforcement letters if violations do not cease. The resident would provide photos and times of the equipment in use, the address where the use is occurring, and photos of the door decals, etc. to identify the landscape contracting company. Both the landscape company and the owner of the address where the violation occurred would receive the city letters, and they would ultimately both be mutually liable for any fines and penalties if the parties were unresponsive and continued to violate the ordinance. In practice, City of Sonoma staff reported that the intial warning letter almost always resolves the issue.
Attached to this staff report is the City’s current noise ordinance section, with blue and red text indicating proposed additions. Primarily, this is to update the references to the latest General Plan as well as adding more robust standards for determining violations, expanding the emergency exemptions, adding definitions and specifically prohibiting gas powered leaf blowers in residential zones between the hours of 8 pm – 8 am during weekdays and 8 pm – 9 am on weekends. This is modeled after the Santa Rosa restriction, which sets hour limitations rather than trying to measure the noise of a transitory and moving source, which would not be feasible.
On January 1, 2024, California Assembly Bill 1346 also took effect, which prohibited the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small off-road engines in California. This prohibition only applies to new purchases; homeowners and businesses can continue to use their gas-powered equipment until the end of the equipment's life. The text of the bill is attached for reference.
City staff are looking for feedback on the following questions:
1. Does the City Council want to restrict leaf blowers, regulate residential power equipment more broadly, or not specifically regulate either? If the City Council wishes to impose regulations on specific equipment or categories of equipment, Staff recommends regulating as narrowly as possible to avoid potential unintended consequences with other equipment or uses, like Santa Rosa which narrowly crafts each restriction under ”Special Noise Sources”.
2. If yes, does the City Council want to want to only restrict gas powered models or all equipment categorically? Staff recommends limiting the regulation to gas powered models, as these generally are louder than electric models. Santa Rosa only restricts gas powered models, but City of Sonoma restricts all leaf blowers, regardless of power source.
3. If yes, does the City Council want to modify the hours of the restriction? Staff doesn’t have a particular recommendation on this item. The draft is based on the hours in Santa Rosa’s ordinance.
4. Feedback on any other elements of the ordinance for inclusion in a draft. Regardless of the feedback on items above, staff still intends to bring forward an update to the ordinance to update and clarify sections.
Next steps will be to incorporate City Council feedback in this initial draft, incorporate any remaining comments from code enforcement and complete legal review on the changes.
Financial Considerations
If a leaf blower restriction were included in the updated ordinance, it would result in some additional code enforcement and Community Development time to send warning letters. If any issues escalated to the point of an administrative hearing, it could result in significant costs and staff time.
Environmental Issues
Not applicable, as no action is being taken at this time.