Leaf Blower Ordinance
July 25, 2023 City Council Meeting
2 Background
March 14, 2023 Council Meeting: Councilmembers Zwick and Brock brought a 16 Item requesting that staff return to City Council with:
• Amendments and updates to the SMMC to prohibit gasoline powered leaf blowers, allowing for electric leaf blowers and enhancing enforcement of the prohibition on gas powered leaf blowers
• Potential funding sources to incentivize conversion to electric leaf blowers
3 Policy History
• 1991 – Council prohibited all leave blowers in Santa Monica to mitigate attributed air pollution
• “No person shall operate any motorized leaf blower (gas, electric, or battery powered) within the City.
• Suggested alternatives to leaf blowers include push brooms, rakes, and manual leaf sweeping machines.
• 2010 – Ordinance modification to increase enforcement, add training and education about the policy, and extend citations to the property owner and landscaping companies
4 Lack of Compliance
Since March 2021, Code Enforcement has received 339
complaints for leaf blower concerns (10.5% of all complaints) Source: Code Enforcement Division Source: Code Enforcement Division 5 Environmental & Health Considerations
• Exhaust Emissions: Gas-powered leaf blowers emit pollutants the State of California has identified as a concern (CO2, NOx, O3)
• Gas leaf blowers and related lawn care equipment emit more ozone pollution than all of California’s tens of millions of cars, combined (CARB)
• Noise Pollution: Gas-powered leaf blowers can produce harmful noise levels (100 dcb+)
• Dust Emissions: Leaf blowers create clouds of dust
(fine particles) that can cause harm to respiratory systems 6 Local and State Action
• Roughly 60 CA cities ban gas-powered gardening tools. • Beginning in 2024, California will require most newly manufactured small off-road engines (SOREs) including leaf blowers to be zero emission to help achieve 100% zero
emissions in SOREs by 2035.
• SB 170 allocated $27M to sole proprietors and other small landscaping businesses to help purchase zero-emission SOREs 7 Funding Sources for Electric Leaf Blowers
Funding Agency Program Amount
South Coast Air
Quality Management
District (SCAQMD)
Commercial Electric Lawn and Garden
Equipment Incentive & Exchange Program –
point-of-sale voucher for new zero-emission,
battery electric equipment
Up to $1,400 (or
85% discount) on
electric blowers &
vacuums
South Coast Air
Quality Management
District (SCAQMD)
Commercial Lawn & Garden Battery Buy-Down
Rebate Program - rebate for equipment
previously funded by the program above
up to 75% off the cost of
a replacement battery
California Air
Resources Board
(CARB)
Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive
Project (CORE) – point-of-sale voucher for
qualifying zero-emission landscape equipment
up to $300 per handheld
leaf blower and up to
$400 per backpack leaf
blower
8 Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council
1. Introduce for first reading the attached ordinance repealing SMMC section 4.08.270 and amending section 4.12.180 to
authorize the use of electric leaf blowers.
2. Adopt a finding of no possibility of significant effect pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (Common Sense Exemption) and finding of Categorical Exemption pursuant to Section 15307 and
Section 15308 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
9 Support for the Recommended Action
At the April 18, 2023 meeting of the Commission on Sustainability, Environmental Justice, and the Environment, the Commission recommended that:
1. City Council adopt these modifications to the Leaf Blower ordinance as proposed
2. The City invest appropriate resources to effectively communicate the changes to the gardening community in
order to make the ordinance effective
10 In Conclusion
The purpose of these code amendments is to achieve the intended outcomes of the initial leaf blower ordinance and amendments. • Repealing Section 4.08.270 would allow for leaf blower usage. • The proposed amendment to Section 4.12.180 would:
• Enhance enforcement by allowing staff to accept video evidence of violations
• Prohibit the sound rating of electric leaf blowers that exceed 70 decibels. Gas-powered leaf blowers often have sound ratings between 80-100 decibels. • Shifts the compliance burden
OVERVIEW
Discussion