LAGUNA BEACH : City Prepares Law to Ban Leaf Blowers

The noisy garden tools known as leaf blowers are getting the boot in Laguna Beach, where the City Council has agreed to prepare a law to ban them.

The council voted 4 to 1 on Tuesday to ask city staff to ready an ordinance that would eliminate the use of power blowers in the city after residents complained they are loud, messy and pollute the air.

Even the discussion at City Hall was punctuated by the sounds of a leaf blower, which a resident switched on outside council chambers, just to “set the tone,” as City Clerk Verna Rollinger put it.

The city itself uses leaf blowers, and the city staff had recommended against banning them.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank has said leaf blowers are very effective for clearing sandy beach walk areas and that discontinuing them will likely mean that he will have to hire more maintenance workers to wield brooms.

The council, however, opted for the brooms.

“I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically supported (the proposed ban) because it’s an issue I’ve had strong feelings about for a long time,” Councilwoman Lida Lenney said after the meeting.

Frank said Wednesday that the city will discontinue using the gas-powered machines, even before the ordinance is presented to the council for approval.

“We’re stopping the use of our blowers this week,” he said.

Options open to the council included allowing only electrically powered blowers or restricting the decibel level or times the gas blowers can be used. Councilman Wayne L. Peterson voted against the ban.

The council’s action was in keeping with a request from the Laguna North Neighborhood Assn., which conducted a nine-month study of leaf blowers and finally deemed them “not compatible with Laguna’s ambience.”

A number of other cities and communities in Orange County have also moved to either ban or limit the use of leaf blowers.