Other Florida cities issues dozens of citations for gas leaf blowers
While Winter Park will put its ordinance banning the devices to a voter referendum, some cities are enforcing rules against the noisemakers
May 4, 2024
By Beth Kassab
Bill Quinsey hears more about leaf blowers than just about anyone else in Florida, where the deafening gas-powered devices turned into a political rallying cry during the latest session of the state Legislature.
Quinsey, the code compliance manager in Naples, oversees a team that has issued 74 citations and 230 written warnings to people using the banned devices in the southwest coastal town of about 20,000 people.
“Leaf blowers are probably our No. 1 complaint [from residents] now that it’s on the books,” Quinsey said. “Some landscapers adopted it pretty quickly and others were struggling and had to get multiple citations.”
The noise, he said, is at the root of the complaints and also what drove the city to pass an ordinance that took effect in 2021 against the gas-powered machines as well as electric versions that exceed 65 decibels.
The city suspended the ordinance for about eight months during cleanup efforts after Hurricane Ian, he said, but began enforcement again about a year ago.
Education, including signs and emails directly to landscape companies, are a big part of the effort.
“We’re up to 300 unique landscapers we’ve contacted,” he said. “As soon as we get everybody on board, we get new people” who move businesses in to Naples.
Naples, in conservative Collier County where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than two to one, is just one of the Florida cities already enforcing such an ordinance while a state senator turned Winter Park’s version of a ban into the latest poster child against “government overreach.”
The Winter Park City Commission voted last month to let voters decide next year whether its ban — originally passed in 2022 but not yet enforced — will stay on the books.
Naples isn’t alone.
The town of Palm Beach, known as home to the estate of former President Donald Trump, also prohibits gas leaf blowers, along with South Miami, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest and Miami Beach among others.
Since Feb. 1, 2022, Miami Beach, for example, has conducted 675 service calls related to leaf blowers, including complaints and proactive inspections. During that time, the city issued 21 written warnings and 56 violations.
“We’ve seen many benefits since transitioning away from gas-powered leaf blowers, including less noise and no longer needing to utilize gas and oil,” said Melissa Berthier, spokeswoman for the city of about 80,000.
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
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By: Beth Kassab
No biography available at this time
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We deserve quiet in our homes. These lawn services use the blowers instead of raking lawns. The revving and whines are omnipresent and beyond irritating. Thank you for pointing out the other cities that have successfully implemented a ban.
Invest in a good pair of ear-plugs. Try playing some music to drown out the noise of those “pesty” lawn blowers. You can do this!
Winter Park has always been a city, close to a big city. Cities are noisy. If you don’t like noise then move to the country. If you want to regulate what devices people can use in their homes, then move to an HOA community, Cuba or China. In the meantime don’t tell me what items (leaf blowers, lawn mowers, gas stoves, etc) I can or cannot use on my property. Let freedom ring!
I assume you would have no problem with me playing my electric polka music full volume at 3:00 a.m. if I lived next door to you. if you don’t have a problem with that then you should be able to use your gas leaf blower!
Actually, there are noise ordinances that specify the time of day; I am not opposed to a time of day to limit the leaf blowers. What I oppose is a government telling me which products I am allowed to buy, when they are available in the marketplace
It’s called having asthma can’t breathe the polluted air. Country has an incredible amount of pollen also there is no country in Florida anymore. I’m not living in a bubble because you can’t be considerate.
How about a good old fashioned compromise to the leaf blower flap?
The yard maintenance companies could continue to use gas powered leaf blowers if they play Bach Festival music on boom boxes when they do it.
This is a quality of life issue. We deserve to live in a quiet community free of the banshee scream of these gas (and electric) powered blower devices. The same would apply to music played at an inordinately loud volume.
Move to an island if you do not like noise. As far as Naples, Florida goes; the mayor and all of the city commissioners are probably all democrats. The community is definitely has more conservatives than the liberals.
As a consist reader of the Voice, I have observed many articles incorporate political innuendoes. For example, why does “Naples, in conservative Collier County, where Republicans out number Democrats by more than two to one,” or “Palm Beach, known as home to the estate of former President Trump,” have any relevance to the issue of leaf blowers in Winter Park?
What is the underlying message?
It’s been asserted here in comments and at public meetings that this issue breaks along party lines. The state senator who got involved said it was “government overreach” and used other charged language and people have stood up at commission meetings to assert that conservative cities wouldn’t pass this sort of rule. But the facts show otherwise.
Beth Kassab,
But knowing that a city has an ordinance banning gas powered blowers may not actually tell the whole political slant/bias story about each city’s ban. Did the voters of the city adopt the ban by voter referendum? Or did a sitting city commission impose the ban? In Winter Park for example, the ban was imposed by a commission that is predominantly to the far left. One would need to know all of the particulars behind the individual bans in each city to determine whether there was actually any political “leaning” to each ban. If the predominantly GOP residents of Naples adopted the ban by referendum, that would say something that a commission imposed ban may not. Otherwise, one would need to know the party affiliation of the commission members who imposed the ban to reach any kind of political “bias” conclusion. Gas blower hatred may be a non-partisan issue, but only enough data could confirm or defeat that notion. If this issue drives more people to vote, I am all for it.
Perhaps a left leaning commission imposed its will on a wealthy conservative snow bird populous. Snow birds who perhaps don’t know the going rate for lawn maintenance or don’t care about a huge increase because they have money to burn and their kids have already been put through school/college. The money is worth the quiet to THEM, which if we are honest is what the issue here is really about…. the quiet for US. Winter Parker’s are not so very, very worried about their lawn man’s health, and their gas guzzling luxury cars and heated pools prove any “green” signaling a farce as well.
I think we need a much better job of informing people of the hazards associated with gas powered lawn equipment. Yes, the noise is annoying. But the emissions are downright hazardous. According to a report from the California Air Resources Board: “For a commercial leaf blower, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a new light-duty passenger car about 1,100 miles — about the distance from Los Angeles to Denver, over 15 hours of driving.” These machines are responsible for an astonishing 4% to 5% of the total planet-overheating gas pollution in the United States. The state of Florida is the biggest contributor to this statistic.
Emissions? How about jet airplanes, cows, cars, buses and lawn mowers? All this over leaf blowers? What a poster child for “First World Problems.” Voters will decide in March. For now, the market has already decided. And McLaren is on the way. They’re even louder than leaf blowers.
Glad to see that Naples included a real criteria (65 decibels) into their code. That is the real criteria, not the fact that it is a gas blower.
Naples missed it by just a little bit as the 65 decibels needs to include a distance at which it will be measured. There are some new electric blowers that exceed the 65 decibels limit. So having one of those wouldn’t do anything to reduce the noise.
Some ordinances include a point from which to measure sound such as the property line. However, Naples’ rules explicitly state that the device must be rated under 65 decibels per the manufacturer’s label: “Battery- and electric-powered leaf blowers may be used within the city provided they do not exceed a decibel level of 65 dBA as shown on the manufacturers label affixed to the leaf blower.”
This is about health vs. economics. Few Winter Parkers sleep with their leaf blower next to them. It is not a political issue for most. It is an issue of noise and air pollution vs. having to pay more to landscape companies or having to use a rake or electric blower yourself. So stop over politicizing the issue and face reality. Oh, and let’s help our two commissioners understand science a bit better so they can make informed decisions.
Health vs Cost? I buy the increased cost argument as genuine from those professing it. But selfless Winter Park’ers so worried about the lawn man’s health? Please. It’s about people with the luxury of being able to be at home all day not hearing noise.
But what about lawn workers who vape, smoke cigarettes, or smoke pot? How will imposing economic burdens on businesses large or small improve that worker’s health? Just asking. Guess we have to save people from themselves with this measure no matter the efficacy or the cost. I support the right of residents to vote on blowers. Thank you, to the commissioners who agreed.