‘A lot quieter’: Miami Beach Commission will consider ban on gas-powered leaf blowers
After years of discussions, Miami Beach may soon become the latest city to ban gas-powered leaf blowers.
The City Commission will consider an ordinance that would outlaw the noisy, pollution-emitting blowers following a transition period that would allow landscaping companies and homeowners to replace their old equipment.
Commissioner Mark Samuelian, who will present the proposal at the Dec. 8 commission meeting, said the details of the ban are still being finalized but the new law would carry fines and give the public a transition period to comply with the restrictions. A draft of the ordinance, provided to the Miami Herald, sets Feb. 1, 2024, as the date when the city would begin issuing fines for violations of the ban. Fines would range from $150 for a first offense to $500 for a third offense in the preceding 12 months, according to the draft ordinance. The city would launch a public education campaign and establish a “warning” period before imposing fines.
“We need to give people a little notice,” Samuelian said. “We want to give them a path. That time frame is still being finalized.”
In 2017, the City Commission passed a resolution directing the city administration to replace its gas-powered leaf blowers with electric ones. The city expects to finish its transition by spring of 2022.
Samuelian said residents have long complained about the noise and environmental pollution that gas-guzzling leaf blowers emit. But he said City Hall needed to lead by example before asking the private sector to invest in new technology. The cost for the city to replace its 38 gas-powered leaf blowers with electric blowers was estimated to be $48,000 in 2017.
“We didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Thou shall do something,’ ” Samuelian said. “We said, ‘Let us do it, let us show we can do it,’ and we did not enact anything until we were so far down the path and it was clear we were going to do it.”
Bans in place in other places
Cities and towns across South Florida and the U.S., including Washington, D.C., and the state of California have moved to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in recent years.
In 2018, Key Biscayne banned them. The town of Palm Beach restricted their use in 2017. Other local governments have tried unsuccessfully. A proposed ban was rejected in Fort Lauderdale this year. A similar proposal in Coral Gables was tabled after residents complained about government overreach and possible price increases for landscaping work.
Some local governments with leaf blower bans have allocated money to help landscaping companies or residents pay for the new electric blowers. In Washington, D.C., the DC Sustainability Utility offers $50 rebates for residents who switch to electric leaf blowers. California Assemblyman Marc Berman told the Los Angeles Times that the state set aside $30 million to help landscapers transition to zero-emission equipment.
Miami Beach’s proposed ban would include an exemption for homeowners or landscape company operators that apply for a “financial hardship waiver,” according to the draft ordinance.
Those who apply for the waiver would need to meet still-undetermined income levels and show that “there is no comparable alternative product that does not use gas to power up leaf blowers” or that buying an alternative leaf blower would create an “undue financial hardship,” according to the document.
In Miami Beach, many complaints have been made about the loud noise produced by leaf blowers, said resident activist Herb Frank, who has pushed for a leaf blower ban as a member of the resident advocacy group Miami Beach United. The city currently has some restrictions on the operation of lawn blowers and other “noise-producing tools,” limiting their use in certain zoning districts before 8 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends and holidays.
But their effect on the environment is more concerning, he said.
Noise and air pollution
Gas-powered lawn and garden equipment has been found to be a “prevalent source of toxic and carcinogenic emissions,” according to a 2015 research paper published by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“They don’t realize what it’s doing to the air that we breathe,” Frank said.
Electric leaf blowers are also less noisy than gas-powered ones, according to Miami Beach Public Works Director Joe Gomez.
At an October meeting of the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, Gomez said the city’s electric blowers are “a lot quieter” than the gas blowers. In a follow-up email to Commissioner Ricky Arriola after the meeting, Gomez wrote that the city’s new electric leaf blowers produce sounds at 58 decibels compared to the 78-decibel output from gas leaf blowers. He said gas blowers constantly emit noise, even when they are idling, but their electric counterparts only make noise when their operator pulls the trigger.
“They’re not going to be silent, of course, but they are going to be a lot quieter than the gas blowers,” Gomez said at the meeting.
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