Publication Date: Friday Apr 17, 1998

MENLO PARK: Council approves leaf blower ban

Even as Menlo Park City Council members were voting to ban gas-powered leaf blowers Tuesday night, about 150 irate gardeners vowed to gather enough signatures to place the issue on the November ballot.

Members of the Bay Area Gardeners' Association, who oppose the ban, stormed out of the Tuesday meeting in protest moments before the council voted 3-2 in favor of an all-out ban on the noisy leaf blowers. The ban is due to take effect in 90 days.

But if the gardeners gather more than 1,700 signatures within 30 days, the ban could be put on hold until residents get a chance to vote on the measure in November, according to City Attorney Bill McClure.

Saying that leaf blowers have generated more fervor than any other issue in the city's history--including Sand Hill Road--Council member Bob Burmeister said he had received more than 800 letters, e-mails and phone calls in opposition to an all-out ban.

Since February, the newly-formed Bay Area Gardeners' Association has organized protest rallies and petition drives, and even traded in noisy old blowers for quieter new ones in an effort to persuade the five-member council not to ban the tools that they say are essential to their trade.

On Tuesday, Burmeister presented a draft ordinance to his colleagues, that proposed a compromise to the ban, including regulating the decibel levels of leaf blowers and restricting times of use. Council member Bernie Valencia-Nevin suggested mediation to reach a compromise with her colleagues who opposed a compromise.

But the council majority--Mayor Kinney, Mayor Pro Tem Paul Collacchi and council member Steve Schmidt--remained unconvinced by the outpouring of opposition to the ban.

"Everyone agrees that really noisy leaf blowers are horrible and they have to go," Collacchi said.

"The cost associated with banning (leaf blowers) is not very great," said Collacchi, who said that the gardeners' concerns about losing income as a result of the ban had not been borne out in other cities that had already banned leaf blowers, including Los Altos and Carmel.

Collacchi suggested that the situation would be remedied if Menlo Park residents each gave their gardeners a raise of $5 per week to do their jobs with rakes and brooms instead of leaf blowers.

"I think it's right to ask people to pay the full price for their consumer choices," said Collacchi. "It's not a tax, it's a subsidy."

At the request of city staff, the council approved the purchase of two leaf sweepers at a cost of $65,000 to replace city-owned leaf blowers.

Both Collacchi and Schmidt said they were prepared to revisit the leaf blower ban if it caused a hardship to anyone or if quieter technology became available.

Although members of the Bay Area Gardeners' Association were not surprised at the outcome of Tuesday night's vote, they were optimistic that they would be able to gather the requisite 1,700 signatures from Menlo Park residents within 30 days.

"We'll get it on the ballot," said the 200-member association's treasurer, Joe Sheetz.

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