Boston Suburb Considers Leaf Blower Regulation

Fred Lebow has heard a lot of clamor about establishing a partial ban on leaf blowers in Brookline, Mass.

Lebow, cochairman of the Noise Control Bylaw Review Committee, has spent more than two years assessing the current noise ordinance.

Under the proposal finalized by the 10-person committee last week, the bylaw would soon regulate a set of issues that have continually made noise in the community: instituting a partial ban on leaf blowers by establishing a program for ensuring the devices fall within a certain decibel range that can be easily tested by town officials, and instituting fines for property owners with noisy tenants.

The recommendations were presented at a public hearing Wednesday on the eve of the deadline for submitting warrants for the Nov. 18 Town Meeting, which will decide the fate of the changes. The proposal would require that portable leaf blowers have an affixed label that indicates the model number and noise level of the machine. That level could not exceed 65 decibels when measured from a distance of 50 feet, which is considered the typical noise level for an urban environment during the day. The proposed bylaw would require all leaf blowers to comply with the new regulations by 2010.

According to the proposal, residents would be allowed to use leaf blowers from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.

Police officers and public works officials would be trained to use portable sound level readers, and they would be able to require testing on leaf blowers that appear modified or damaged, regardless of whether the unit already has a sticker, said Lebow, an Advisory Committee member who started his career as a sound engineer.

In addition, town officials would offer testing services for a $35 nonrefundable fee for residents whose leaf blower does not have a sticker.

"One of our guiding principles through this and one of the things we learned as we began to look into this is that the prior bylaw had not been enforced very much, because it was complicated and difficult to enforce," said Nancy Daly, who serves as cochairwoman of the Noise Control Bylaw Review Committee and chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen. "So one of our goals through this process was to make it more easily enforceable."

Town officials plan to purchase five or six of the sound level readers if the measure is accepted, Lebow said, with each unit costing about $1,500, including calibration services.

Violations can bring in fines ranging from $50 for a first offense to $200 for a third offense and for successive violations, plus court costs for any enforcement action.

The move comes as other communities are considering or have considered partial leaf blower bans.

Cambridge officials agreed on a law that restricts leaf blowers from being used during certain hours of the day, and bans them all entirely from January until mid-March, and again from mid-June until mid-September. In Newton, officials have discussed a citywide ban on gas-powered leaf blowers for several years, and the issue is likely to come up again in the fall.

The proposed changes, which committee members say are intended prevent excessive sound that may degrade the quality of life, exclude generators used for power outages as well as general emergency situations and day and nighttime operations for routine maintenance by the Department of Public Works, like snow removal.

Several of the half-dozen residents who attended the meeting praised the committee after the presentation.

"I've gone to several meetings and I've been very impressed with the details and the time that people have been put into this," said resident Bruce Wolff . "It's amazing the time and effort and technical backgrounds that were totally necessary to reach this goal, and time will find out how this will result."