Winds Of Change: Eye On Equipment

Gas-powered blowers have been at the center of a controversy for years, but it’s a conflict that keeps returning like gag birthday candles that refuse to go out. According to Robin Pendergrast of International Marketing Exchange in McHenry, Ill., who has been tracking blower initiatives across the country and helping landscapers fight back, there are more than 400 hundred communities with noise control initiatives in the United States aimed at limiting or banning use of gas-powered blowers.

The issue runs deeper, though, and in some places, it has spilled over into talk of limiting the use of other landscape maintenance products such as gas-powered hedge clippers and even mowers.

These waves of initiatives have been building in recent years, but the waters of regulation may hit flood stage soon as highly visible cities such as Los Angeles pass extreme noise ordinances.

“With all the negative coverage being given to blowers in consumer magazines and newspapers that contain tremendous amounts of misinformation, I estimate that we could see a tripling in the number of communities restricting blower use by this time next year,” said Pendergrast.

L.A. STORY. Los Angeles’ ban on any gas-powered hand-held blower operating above 65 dba within 500 feet of a residence was slated to go into effect July 1. At this writing, the ordinance looks as though it may be challenged in court. Even if it is not, the ordinance holds several potential repercussions for the green industry:

• Area contractors will have to restructure their operations in terms of manpower, machines and customer prices, if they can. If contractors can’t raise their prices, they will have to settle for lower profits due to increased labor costs.



• Customers will have to get used to paying more, having less done on their landscapes, accepting possibly lower standards for their landscapes’ appearance or maintaining their landscapes themselves.



• Dealers and distributors have already lost business through plummeting sales of gas-powered blowers to both consumers and commercial users, in expectation of this ordinance.



• Los Angeles’ move has already encouraged other California communities to discuss or enact limitations or bans on power blower use. Some of these discussions have covered other types of landscape equipment.



• Communities throughout the U.S. are watching the situation, especially in active areas around Chicago and New York City, to see how the situation plays itself out.

The situation has been bubbling for years, spurred on in the last few years by City Councilman Marvin Braude, slated to retire July 1. Earlier this year, he got what he wanted - a much publicized debate on the issue - complete with testimony offered by movie stars.

“All the points of their arguments have been negated by new technological developments and the upcoming California Air Resources Board restrictions,” Pendergrast pointed out. “The issue isn’t as much leaf blowers as it is politics.”

Larry Rolfes, director of governmental affairs for the California Landscape Contractors Association, agreed: “Most cities we work with are reasonable, but I can’t say this one is. We think outright bans on leaf blowers is a mistake.”

At a meeting in early May, the Portable Power Equipment Manufacturers Association and other groups asked the city to consider a one-year delay. Don Purcell, PPEMA’s executive director, explained: “We asked for the delay because CARB is expected to take action within the year and that could make the noise question moot. They weren’t listening. They turned it down and had no interest in delaying the ban.”

At press time, the city and the industry were discussing a possible compromise which would allow use of power blowers using vacuum attachments that keep the noise level to 65 dBA or less. There was also dis-cussion of taking the ordinance to court and the remote possibility that the city would repeal the ordinance after Braude retired.

Questions remain on whether commercial operators would accept a compromise such as this and even whether many contractors will follow the ordinance as it stands.

CLCA used an industry study to estimate that it takes approximately five hours of manual work to do the work of one hour with a blower. It also surveyed its members to determine that the cost to the contractor and the property owner is expected to rise approximately 20 percent to 40 percent when blowers are banned.

Whether the marketplace will pay higher prices, or whether contractors are content to live with lower margins, is yet to be determined. As more and more communities try to regulate operating hours or ban blowers outright, the industry will have to adjust its traditional practices.

It may mean explaining to homeowners why they will have to pay more for the same services. Rolfes noted that some homeowners may choose to maintain their own properties or let their standards for maintenance slide. “Landscapes may not look the same. You won’t get the same manicured, perfect look with a blower,” he noted.

Garris Chupa, owner of Garris Chupa Landscape, Santa Rosa, Calif., agreed: “Homeowners have become accustomed to a particular look for their landscapes. In areas where blowers have been banned, we see pockets of leaves left on a landscape, the garden beds may look more rustic - it’s a different look. When a community says, ‘We’re banning blowers,’ it’s really saying, ‘We’re changing the look of where we live,’ or ‘It’s costing us more to keep the same look.’”

For the contractors who may have to accept lower levels of productivity while employees sweep, rake, gather up and cart off landscape debris they used to blow, the noise ordinances may mean a significant loss of dollars.

Most industry experts admit that blowers have been abused and there are many tasks done just as well and maybe more efficiently without a blower (such as moving a large pile of debris some distance).

HEATING UP. California has some 40 commu-nities that have restricted or banned blowers, but they are not the only region in the country battling the tide of public opinion.

The village of Great Neck Estates, N.Y., banned blower use between June 1 and Sept. 15 after a three-month battle between a group of citizens and the Nassau-Suffolk Landscape Contractors Association.

According to NSLCA Executive Director Pat Voges, legal counsel has said that the ordinance would be difficult, if not impossible, to overturn because it is being termed a “trial ordinance” by the community. In other words, officials will reevaluate the bill in the fall to determine if it worked the way it was supposed to.

“The lawyers told us that if we appealed it, a judge would likely say, ‘Well, this is trial law. Let’s take a look at it after the season,’” said Voges. “They aren’t very optimistic.”

Although the rhetoric at the community meetings leading up to the ordinance was at times bizarre, Voges said the group was well-organized and was tapped into the activities of other citizen groups attacking blowers on the East Coast.

“We presented facts and figures showing the potential economic impact of a ban on blowers that included potential landscape service price hikes to customers,” explained Voges. “But they came back with written testimonials from landscape customers in Scarsdale and Larchmont where bans are in place claiming that at no time did the price of their landscape service increase, in spite of the ban. This was definitely a well-organized effort.”

The growing sophistication of the antiblower movement could give groups in communities across the country momentum to go forward.

But that's not to say blower critics have been given free reign to set up noise ordinances. The mayor and city council in Princeton, N.J., reversed their course in early June and decided against a blower ban they had already passed.

"They realized this ban was going to set a dangerous precedent," noted Pendergrast.

The ban originally passed despite testimony from the police chief who said it would be at the bottom of the list of laws to enforce, according to Hunt Stockwell, a local activist working to stop the ban.