Proposed Gas-Powered Leaf Blower Ban Prompts Landscaper Concern

February 17, 2025
• A citizen’s petition for May Town Meeting seeks to ban gas-powered leaf blowers from May 15 to September 30. Some landscapers say it could do more harm than good.

Sitting outside his house during the summer of 2023, David Rudolph had had enough.

“You see these people going around trying to get every blade of grass off with the leaf blower,” Rudolph said. “It just drives me crazy. It’s unnecessary.”

In submitting a citizen’s petition to Town Meeting, Rudolph hopes to address two central concerns: noise and pollution. Electric leaf blowers are generally quieter than gas-powered ones, and their noise can travel less far. Gas leaf blowers can also emit more pollutants than cars, so making the switch would be an environmentally friendly one.

If the petition is adopted, the Board of Health would enforce the ban, by complaint, and issue a warning on the first offense, followed by a $100 fine on the homeowner for every subsequent offense.

Landscapers, however, don’t seem keen on the idea. Those who spoke with Needham Local said the ban would force them to raise prices on their customers and possibly rethink their business entirely.

Such is the case for Mike Lenahan of Lenahan’s Landscaping. The Needham-based operation started 27 years ago, but Lenahan said he may “start backing out” under the proposed ban.

Replacing his 32 backpack leaf blowers could run upwards of $20,000 — a cost he would pass onto customers. Electric equipment is also less efficient and would add additional time to services, Lenahan added. His prices would double or triple as a result, he said.

“It’s a big initial cost to chew off right out the gate,” Lenahan said. “They’re forcing electric on everyone, but it’s not there yet.”

Rudolph acknowledged that electric equipment hasn’t caught up to its gas-powered counterparts, but said a partial ban as opposed to a full year one could help make that an easier transition.

A seasonal ban would still hurt operations for Jim’s Landscaping, another Needham business. Besides investing in electric blowers, they would also need to upgrade their shop to support charging that equipment, owner James Evans said. They already have one battery-powered crew.

Still, Evans said he understands how disruptive landscapers can be. As the parent of two young children in Needham Center, the Evans family is used to the noise leaf blowers can emit, he said.

However, he and other landscapers “feel like we’re getting singled out” with the ban, Evans said. Instead of putting the onus on private business owners, Evans suggested town-operated machinery and its contractors transition to electric first.

“If the town wants to do this, I think it would be a show of good faith if they led the way,” Evans said. “If the town is asking residents and landscapers to use certain equipment, I think it’s only fair that the town also has to do this, and they should probably understand a bit of the operational challenges.”

In Newton, all blowers are banned from Memorial Day through Labor Day, though one electric blower can be used, per lot, during that period, but it must be limited to 65 decibels.

While Rudolph said he would have preferred a year-long ban, conversations with landscapers shortened his timeline. He said they’ll be closely watching Lexington and Belmont, who instituted full bans this year.

“It’s kind of counter intuitive not to have the ban in the fall, but it just seems not completely practical yet,” Rudolph said. “It’s going to cause too much havoc.”

Timothy McDonald, director of the Needham Department of Health and Human Services, said a neighborhood-wide flyer could help enforce the proposed ban.

Given the experiences in other communities, McDonald said there’s some concern regarding the volume of complaints that could be generated. The department has other responsibilities, such as food inspections, that would take precedent, he said.

“If we are getting 10s or a dozen complaints today, realistically, that’s going to really stretch our department,” he said.

The health department would also oversee the enforcement of two proposed plastics bans, which are also on the Town Meeting warrant this spring.

Instead of blowing his leaves, Rudolph mows and bags them for compost, and he’ll brush any scraps off the sidewalk. An educational campaign could encourage people to think about leaf management differently and understand the potential benefits of keeping their leaves, Rudolph said.

Those who have moved to electric blowers — such as TJ Collins in Needham, who made the move three years ago — the upfront commitment is costly, and many batteries only last about 45 minutes, Rudolph said.

One landscaper he spoke with felt just raising awareness would suffice, but Rudolph disagrees.

“I don’t think that alone is going to solve the problem,” he said, “but it definitely should be a component.”

Offering landscapers more time to adapt to a ban could improve the proposal, Evans said. He said he feels “a one-size-fits-all solution” doesn’t work in Needham, given the varying lot sizes.

For James Farquharson, owner of Colonel West Landscaping, the ban “would affect us greatly,” he wrote in an email. As a Needham native operating a strictly Needham-based company, Farquharson feels the ban would make it more difficult to maintain their current workload. A $500 to $600 job could turn into a $2,000 one, he added.

Lenahan said the ban hurts both his customers and employees.

“It’s gonna be really expensive, and you’re gonna put people out of a job,” Lenahan said.

Going into Town Meeting, Rudolph said he feels confident in drumming up support.

“I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Oh, I love leaf blowers,’” he said. “You mention it to someone and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I hate those things. They drive me crazy.’”

The Select Board will likely speak with Rudolph and decide whether to support the measure at an upcoming meeting. Town Meeting is scheduled to begin May 5.