City of San Mateo
City Council Meeting
POST PACKET
PUBLIC COMMENT
Catherine Kherian
rethinking
garden “clean-up” as it considers its communication on the gas leaf blower ban.
Park Gardeners Trial Alternative Methods for Managing Leaf Fall Since Parks serve many needs and purposes, there might need to be different strategies for different parts of the park. NYC Parks Dept says, “How our horticultural staff manages leaves depends a lot on location. In natural areas, leaves can be mostly left in place to enrich soil and control erosion. On lawns, leaves can be mulched in place with a mulching mower, making it easier for the lawn’s soil microbes to break down the leaves and recycle the organic matter. And in gardens, Parks gardeners carefully assess the conditions of each space, including the other plants and trees that are nearby, to make sure there is just the right amount of leaf litter to provide benefits like weed suppression, but not so many leaves that they smother the garden’s plants.”
Thank you so much for thinking about these things!
Best, Kristie
https://apnews.com/article/leave-leaves-gardening-fall-cleanup-7e007754b7a579347bf6bedcfed4ba1e https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves
https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/news/2022/11/stormwater-leaves https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/18/metro/clear-storm-drains-leave-leaves-your-yard/ https://wildseedproject.net/2020/12/leave-the-leaves/
https://www.nycgovparks.org/learn/trees-and-plants/leave-the-leaves-why-our-parks-gardeners-may- leave-fallen-autumn-leaves-on-the-ground
City of San Mateo
Gas Leaf Blower Ordinance Study Session
October 6, 2025
Ordinance Language
Include language and dates for banning other gas-powered tools Offer the submitted model ordinance to other San Mateo County cities Enforcement and Outreach
Maximize voluntary compliance, try to keep this off code enforcement’s desk.
Offer recognition to HOAs or neighborhoods that adopt electric or no leaf blowing (see San Carlos Let the Leaves Lie pledge)
Remind property owners that they are the boss. They decide not only what work is done on their property, but also how it is done.
Leverage SMUHA. It could ask HOAs to stop using gas leaf blowers in their common areas now, include this issue in its newsletters, make an announcement at meetings, etc.
Use the grace period to accept complaints and issue courtesy reminders.
Reduce friction for property owners adopting electric or no leaf blowing Show property owners how leaf blowing is not in a property owner’s interest (strips and desiccates soil, etc. See https://gardzenonline.com/blogs/gardzen/ leaf-blowers-damage-soil-so-do-this-instead.
Suggest alternatives such as using leaf blower only on hard surfaces, leaving leaves around bushes, mulching, etc both serve plant health and make the electric transition easier and it costs nothing.
Offer directory of electric or no leaf blowing services and/or list of San Mateo businesses that used the electric leaf blower rebate program Suggest ways property owners can ease the transition - allow battery charging while their landscaper works, paying in advance, buying their own electric leaf blower for landscaper to use, etc.
Enforcement
Keep it Simple
One set of rules for everyone, no exemptions
Hours of operation - commercial areas. Hours of operation should apply citywide.
The SIC argues that allowing early morning leaf blower operation is a safety concern for workers and if you live downtown, you’re accepting it will be noisy. The first point is speculative, the second is nonsense. Living downtown does not mean accepting unlimited noise at any hour.
Enforcement with fines to start July 1, 2026. Issue courtesy notices to both businesses and property owners immediately on approval of the ordinance.
Responsible party - property owners. SIC recommended the option to cite property owners. Quiet Clean San Mateo recommends property owner held responsible first because they control how the work is done. Keep things simple and clear! Property owner primary responsible party, business secondary, with only one party cited.
Identifying a landscaping business can be tricky, since some do not display their business name. Property owners are already held responsible for what happens on their property in San Mateo municipal code. See, for example, 7.16.040 PROPERTY NUISANCES (j) Clothes hanging in any visible portion of a front yard. & (k) Waste containers stored within public view or placed for collection along a street, roadway, or alley outside of the time limitations…If we hold property owners responsible for those things, surely we can hold them responsible for their contractor using hazardous tools on their property. We would not allow a property owner to blame a housekeeper for leaving clothes or trash bins out. We would likewise not allow them to avoid responsibility for a contractor they hired operating hazardous, prohibited equipment on their property.
Questions
These are our questions to the city council and city staff.
How exactly will Code Enforcement handle complaints?
Requiring CE to witness violations would be very problematic.
We don’t want multiple complaints about the same property landing on enforcement’s desk with no clear way to resolve the issue. Neither do we want the one or two rare cases of someone blatantly violating the ordinance and ignoring complaints to ruin things for everyone else. No one will be happy, and we will not reach our goal.
Citizen affidavits work. Can look at/discuss evidence standards and so forth.
May we ask code enforcement what works for them?
What are, say, three things we could do to make their workflow function better/more efficiently? Some ideas: Can we deprioritize nuisance complaints to better focus on public safety matters, such as leaf blower violations? Could we switch other complaints to citizen affidavits, so code enforcement does not have to travel as much? Can we use a City of San Mateo phone app for reporting violations or otherwise automate receiving and resolving complaints?
How can we send a positive message to property owners be about this ordinance? Make switching to either no leaf blowing or electric leaf blowing something they want to do?
What is the oversight on contractors doing maintenance work? Is the work necessary? Are they using leaf blowers when better tools exist? What other leaf blowing can we eliminate from city operations? What will happen if a business found violating the ordinance does not have a San Mateo business license?
Should we modify the Construction chapter of the municipal code to specify that landscaping services are NOT exempt from the noise ordinance? This chapter is very broadly written and difficult to interpret. Clarifying the Construction chapter could help leaf blower enforcement.
What are some other organizations we could reach out to help the City spread the word and help people making the switch to electric?
Carl Weinberg, District 20 of Stamford Board of Representatives, published his leaf blower ordinance research on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/StamfordCT/comments/ 1n9zrby/leaf blower ordinances in other cities what is/ ) LEAF BLOWER ORDINANCES IN OTHER CITIES: WHAT IS THE TRACK RECORD? Hi it’s Carl Weinberg from District 20 on the Stamford Board of Representatives. I’ve been reading forecasts about what will happen if the BoR passes the proposed restrictions on gasoline-powered leaf blowers. But since well over 100 municipalities have already implemented similar legislation – for example, Washington DC; Montgomery County MD; Evanston IL; Palo Alto CA; White Plains NY; Larchmont NY; Cambridge MA; Montclair NJ; Maplewood NJ; etc. – we don’t have to guess what will happen. We can find out from them.
As part of the research I conducted as a sponsor of this ordinance, I interviewed mayors and city officials whose cities and towns have implemented similar ordinances. Every mayor and city official I interviewed praised their local ordinance for reducing air and noise pollution and improving quality of life, while having minimal long-term impact on the landscaping industry and on fire safety.
Here are some of their comments, based on real-life experiences instead of dystopian fantasies.
• “Our ban became year-round on January 1, 2023; people are happy without the gas blowers. The only time we hear from residents is if they are reporting someone breaking the law.”
• “People can now take a walk, sit on their porches and not be bombarded by the noise.
Pollinators are loving it because we’re seeing more bees, butterflies and even birds coming back. Because they can’t use gas blowers for fall cleanup, they are mulching more leaves into the lawn instead of blowing off the lawn first resulting in healthier lawns and less tonnage for the township to pick up at the curb.”
• “People have become more aware that these machines pose a health risk to our citizens, as well as the environment. There has been a public education component to this ban. We’ve made flyers in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole and have passed them around the community. We are also working with our community to let them know that they are the "boss" of their landscaper so that customers feel as though they can direct their landscapers as to how to care for their property.”
• “Reactions have been mostly positive. We received an uptick in noise/pollution complaints about gas powered blowers during initial implementation, but that has subsided.”
• “Most landscapers have no real issue - except charging of batteries. Our town has large parcels so it takes multiple batteries for the work. They have to charge at each home they visit. For example, we have two private schools and a private college in Town; as well as a Horse Club. All have large expanses of fields and grounds. There were some initial concerns about the requirements to switch to electric leaf blowers for such facilities. However, the concerns expressed did not materialize after adoption and all are in compliance without significant issue.”
• “Reaction from residents has been nearly 100% positive. We have received at most a handful of complaints. We received a lot of pushback at first from landscapers, but we now have pretty high compliance with the law. Our residents are extremely happy with the ban and appreciate the quiet! Other than the initial pushback from landscapers, there have not been any negatives.”
I’ve always believed in learning from the experiences of others who have been in similar situations. In developing this ordinance, we learned from the more than one hundred municipalities that have implemented similar restrictions on the use of gasoline-powered leaf blowers. In my view, that’s the smart way to make decisions that are in the best interest of Stamford’s residents and businesses.
To: City Council (San Mateo) <[email protected]>; City Mgr <[email protected]>
Subject: Gas power leafblower relentless noise today
Hi there,
I am asking for you all to support as much as possible the elimination of daily noise pollution in our otherwise peaceful neighborhoods by gas powered leaf blowers and any related equipment. These items are also bad for the environment and the workers and residents around them.
I was trying hard to concentrate on work at home today and a yard close by had a leafblower going for a long time (and loud). Since we know and get along well with our neighbors I thought I should investigate some. The neighbor did not answer and I believe was not home. The gardener had on headphones and I could not get his attention from outside fence for an additional 20 minutes while he slowly blew just one small section of yard. (Our lots are standard size.) When I was able to get his attention we had discussion and he said this was his allotted time. I mentioned that some of the other neighbors have gardeners who are much quicker with any loud machines. After we spoke, sure enough. he apparently was done for the day blowing that particular yard. I think some of the gardeners know how annoying these machines are to many and also it is their gardening business (company) so they have incentives to be quick. Others, I suspect, like the young one I just spoke with, are employed by others and have incentive to take longer blowing leaves over the same areas for long periods of time so they can justify their employment hours (?). Regardless, I look forward to when these disturbing and polluting machines are all banned.
Thank you for your consideration and efforts,
Nancy Gogan