NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter. Send letters to editor@newcanaanite.com to have them published here.
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New Canaan may appear to be a typical small New England town, but it’s not. It is really two towns, a dense central village area surrounded by low density residential areas. The town recognized this in 1957 when the New Canaan Sewer District was formed to bring water and sewer services to the higher density neighborhoods. Those living within the village core enjoy reasonably priced, reliable town water and sewage services. Those not living in the high density core are forced to install and service costly septic and well systems. The town also recognized density differences when it installed new town paid sidewalks in the early 2000s. Houses served the by the sidewalks got a wonderful amenity that was also plowed and cared for with town funds.
The recently proposed gas powered leaf blower ban fails to recognize New Canaan’s unique residential makeup. The town is in essence treating noise as a Gordian Knot. The truth is noise is not an issue town wide and neither is the solution. We are all the residents of Lone Tree Farm Road, a bucolic street comprised of two and four acre lots without access to town provided water and sewage services. We also don’t have beautiful sidewalks. What we do have are large lawns and lots of trees. The proposed ban is not practical for us as the electrical blowers are not powerful enough to service our properties and landscapers will need to raise prices to account for the increased manpower and battery packs per unit, not to mention the purchase of new equipment.
The ban’s pros and cons have been appropriately identified by the many constituents who have taken the time to comment. Each side is passionate and well meaning. The problem is neither side recognizes that New Canaan is really two towns and the proposed ban seemingly benefits in-town properties and burdens those who live on streets like Lone Tree Farm Road. Interestingly, the ban recognizes the futility of electric blowers as it exempts large town owned properties, the majority of which are in the town core. Even our local neighbor, Greenwich, smartly altered its ban to exclude larger properties.
Finally, we self-selected to live outside the town core. We did so understanding that our homes are not accessed by certain town services. Noise is not an issue on our street and the proposed ban will adversely impact us. We ask that the Town Council recognize our town’s unique makeup and either alter the ban based on lot sizes or outright reject it.
Sincerely,
Residents of Lone Tree Farm Road:
Dockery-Turner Family, McKenna Family, Prior Family, Queally Family, Rittenberry Family, Rosen Family, Rowley Family, Tanner Family, Wechter Family, Weingarten Family and Wood Family
Can’t this be addressed by simple noise ordinance rules that apply not only to leaf blowers but other loud things? I’m sure landscaping services will not be aware, not all will be able to afford the new equipment, and those that do will probably charge 3 times more. And I’m sure the soon to be more powerful non-gas blowing ones will be making a ton of noise too. I think the town should focus on bigger issues.
At the March 2 meeting of the Ordinances and Bylaws committee there were 2 local landscapers speaking who had successfully transitioned to all electric equipment. They didn’t make it out like it was a big deal. At the end of the day it’s a business problem for them which can be easily resolved.
Erik, I agree that if the problem is noise then we shouldn’t focus on a single source of noise. Let’s have a solution that addresses all types of noise. Why is it OK for sports cars or motorcycles to loudly race up and down route 123 or Oenoke Ridge, but leaf blowers should be banned?
I think the difference is that cars and others are a short burst, lasting a few minutes if that, while Leaf Blowers show up throughout the day and can run crews with multiple machines for longer periods of time
Sharing another significant issue to consider, not noise related. The carcinogenic pollution generated by gas powered leaf blowers will affect you as well as the rest of the town. Noise is only one of the pitfalls. Also, your letter doesn’t consider that the proposed limitations are seasonal, and in the summer there isn’t a significant amount of yard work that requires blowing which doesn’t have an alternative (mowers can easily bag grass clippings, for example). Other towns which feature a mix of in town and larger properties such as Greenwich, Westport, and Norwalk in CT and over 2 dozen towns in Westchester County have chosen to protect the health of their residents by thoughtful, locally appropriate regulation which keeps yards beautiful and supports health. Everyone who has an opinion on this topic should read the thoughtfully drafted document from our Bylaws and Ordinances committee and then form a view.
Yes, I think many New Canaanites would appreciate reading the draft document before emailing their opinion to our Town Council.
Mike, I am unable to find the link to the Draft Document Regarding Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers” written by the Bylaws and Ordinance Committee.
This morning after I read the above Letter to the Editor written by Lone Tree Farm Road neighbors, I emailed the Town Council Chair and a member of the Subcommittee requesting the link to the document.
Can anyone provide this draft document to New Canaanite readers, please? Thank you!
Sure, it’s here.
Thanks, Mike for the link.
And just to let your readers know: Town Council member Hilary Ormond emailed the draft document to me this afternoon. Her email arrived while I was posting my comment.
Ms. Ormond, thank you very much.
It’s good to know leaf blowers are still allowed for ‘summer snow removal.’ On a more serious note, has the Police Commission vetted this proposal? Since they’ll be tasked with enforcement, their review is a vital step in ensuring this policy is actually workable.
I agree. We live on a 4 acre lot far from the town center. Over more than 40 years we have developed a woodland garden with paths through the woods bordered with wildflowers. Without careful blowing my garden would be choked in leaves. We live far enough apart in the 4 acre zone such that blower noise is no more noticeable than the kids playing on the fields at St. Luke’s school. We own both gas-powered and battery-powered blowers. The latter we use for spot cleaning; it is far from adequate to clean large areas and would require many more hours to get the job done.
Leaves are nature’s fertilizer. Raking with a hand rake or sweeping with a broom is good exercise, non-polluting.
The letter from Maria Weingarten and her neighbors confuses facts and choices. First, they repeat that ‘noise is not an issue’ on their big properties. The fact is that gas leaf blowers are especially noisy — far louder than electric — and their noise travels over much longer distances (see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332893521_Lawn_and_Garden_Equipment_Sound_A_Comparison_of_Gas_and_Battery_Electric_Equipment/fulltext/5cd101d3458515712e97514e/Lawn-and-Garden-Equipment-Sound-A-Comparison-of-Gas-and-Battery-Electric-Equipment.pdf). Gas leaf blower exhaust is toxic and carcinogenic, and there is extensive scientific evidence for this too. Living on a larger property does not protect you from these harms. Since moving to New Canaan we have lived both downtown and on a 2.5 acre property. The noise and fumes from gas leaf blowers were much worse on the larger property, because our neighbors and their landscapers spent much more time blowing clippings off their large lawns.
It is also not true that landscapers will have raise prices to use electric. Electric blowers are more profitable for landscapers to use because of their much lower operating costs. They quickly pay for themselves. They have plenty of power for summer work, and landscapers can still use gas in the fall. There has been no evidence of landscaping cost increases in the many communities in our area or around Boston that have restricted gas leaf blowers.
You have a right to ignore the scientific evidence if you want. You can choose not to care about the noise and carcinogens that your families are exposed to. But the vast majority of town residents who have expressed an opinion want their summer to be freed from the noise and fumes of gas leaf blowers. I hope the Town Council will respect the science and the wishes of most of its respondents and pass this modest restriction on summer use of leaf blowers.
1) I encourage everyone to read and discuss this draft ordinance with your own landscapers to see what the real costs are and not be misled by the proponent’s provided report. One of our LTFR residents has done so and their landscaper had significant concerns with the costs of this draft ordinance impacting their business.
Another friend spoke with their landscaper already impacted by the Greenwich ordinance – their landscaper has raised prices for clients and has even asked their clients to plug in at their location at times due to lack of adequate battery power for their electric equipment. Someone will end up paying – there is no free ride here and it will be on all of us residents.
2) Town Council needs to hear from YOU and encourage your landscapers to reach out too at: tcdistribution@newcanaanct.gov so the 12 TC members understand the real impacts to local businesses and residents’ pockets of this unfunded mandate before it is too late – this will be voted on by the Town Council in mid-April.
3) Those that listened to TC ordinances sub-committee discussions from local New Canaan landscaper Gravereux and others have proof already of the adverse financial impacts. Link here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7mxGjgB80
It’s a longer discussion, but if you want to get a quick sense of some issues, watch at time stamps at 7:32, 10:06, 20:00 and 1:03:00.
Yet the draft language still passed out of the TC subcommittee – they heard that the electric leaf blowers would require 16 batteries per unit! That is not an insignificant cost – do the math. Once you start recharging those batteries for such extensive daily commercial use, they start losing their capacity for recharge, becoming much more inefficient and then need replacement. The technology is not there yet.
4) Let’s be clear – no one is “free” from noise and carcinogens, especially if you live in the core of town. You’ll still hear the lawn mowers making noise from cutting the grass, no? Individual personal usage of gas blowers are completely exempt as are all town & school facilities, because the draft ban recognizes that this is a large unfunded mandate.
5) This ordinance targets and penalizes landscapers who don’t really have a voice – the very same small immigrant businesses that struggle to survive in a state chock full of: user fees, license fees, taxes, unfunded mandates and a litany of anti-private sector business policies. We are just adding to their already significant burdens.
6) Rules for thee and not for me – the very thing we often complain about at the state level with their top down unfunded mandates – now were are causing our own self-inflicted “big government” wounds that increase local property taxes with new enforcement requirements on our police OR some yet to be determined town employee and even “re-education” classes for residents. And that is on top of higher landscaping costs to be directly absorbed by our residents…
7) The costs of the ordinance will be borne inequitably by those outside of the core downtown area. Mandates that will have greater financial impact on the 90% the town’s area outside of the denser 10% core downtown. The costs for the 1-,2-,and 4-acre zones will subsidize the in town locations.
Why not instead focus on where the noise concerns may be most relevant rather than a town wide proposal? Why consider an in town rule that no more than 1 electric blower can be used at one time on properties of 1/3 acre or less as other municipalities in the U.S. have done?
8) The pollution concerns stated in the comments are somewhat myopic considering all exemptions to the rule. Are personally owned gas leaf blowers or the town owned ones less carcinogenic? No they are not.
Even worse, the proponents completely ignore the replacement battery units that will end up in landfills – that is surely of great concern for our environment is it not? You also cannot ignore that usage time spent will be extended for electric vs gas powered units – impacting the duration of the “noise” and even more concerning is the impact on battery capacity for charging and need for additional replacement batteries and the resulting landfill issues with the disposal of depleted batteries.
9) On our small street, Lone Tree Farm, 11 of 14 homes are against the ban, 1 is for and 2 were undecided. We came together as a street of caring neighbors, discussed these concerns together and decided to write a group letter to voice these concerns. There are likely many more streets in town representing that 90% + of the town that is over 1/3 acre zoning that have the exact same percentage sentiment that we do.
In contrast, the ghost letter writing campaign by the handful of proponents pushing for this and their suggestion of overwhelming support based on their ghost written letters for such a ban likely over exaggerates existing support by the masses for a gas leaf blower ban. The benefits of electric leaf blowers don’t outweigh the costs at this time and they don’t solve for the noise and pollution issues highlighted – the technology is simply not there yet! Which can make one wonder are these just an effort to push a bigger government political ideology at the local level?
10) The tight timeframes on weekends in the draft ordinance are unworkable for landscapers in practice. Anyone that pays attention knows that rainy weather patterns can last a few weekdays, which can completely throw off a landscaper’s weekly schedule, and they have to work the weekend to get caught up. Limiting the landscapers leaf blowing hours to M-F 10-4 and Sat & Sun 12-4 is too restrictive, much more restrictive than the neighboring communities for Saturdays. Does it mean they won’t be cutting the grass with their noisy mowers before 10AM on weekdays or 12PM on weekends? No. Does it mean homeowners can’t be using their personal equipment outside those hours? No. So what exactly are we solving here? Some other municipalities just ban Sundays and Holidays. That seems more reasonable. Starting at 8 AM or 9AM makes more sense for them on Saturdays – the draft ordinance is enacting onerous timeframes that will require more bodies and equipment = higher costs.
Do we really want our town to go to a referendum on a town ordinance banning gas leaf blowers when it is possible that many residents are not on board with it? Don’t we have bigger concerns to address?
If you want to know what is happening up in Hartford with zoning and other areas of top down governmental overreach, like mandating adult vaccine schedules, unfunded home schooling mandates on public school districts which will increase local taxes, etc. feel free to reach out and I can give you bills that need our voices and advocacy right now that will impact our local zoning discretion if passed – even worse than 8002 that was enacted and signed by Gov. Lamont in an “emergency” session in November.
You can’t compare services like sewers, sidewalks, and water service to the noise and pollution generated by landscaping equipment. This is a quality-of-life issue that affects all town residents.
You may think noise and pollution are a non-issue because you live on larger properties, but they’re not. The impacts of leaf blowers don’t recognize property lines and can extend for miles. The excuse that electric equipment isn’t powerful enough is outdated. There’s plenty of commercial equipment available, and landscaping companies throughout the area are already transitioning to electric.
The proposal before the Town Council is well balanced and meaningful for residents across town. Please consider voicing your support by emailing the Town Council at tcdistribution@newcanaanct.gov
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Supporters of the proposed gas‑powered leaf blower ban keep insisting this is a “quality of life” issue. But if that’s truly the case, it’s fair to ask: why does that concern suddenly disappear for the three months each fall when gas blowers run nonstop, all day, every day? If the noise and emissions are as harmful as claimed, they don’t magically become acceptable simply because leaves are falling.
I also keep hearing about the supposed concern for workers “breathing in carcinogens.” If that concern is genuine, why does the proposal allow the very same workers to spend the entire fall season operating gas blowers at full throttle? Either the health risk is real in which case the ordinance should address it consistently or it’s being used selectively to justify a policy that was already predetermined.
That selective logic is exactly why many residents see this proposal as being built on false pretenses. It presents itself as environmental protection, worker safety, and noise reduction, but only when convenient. When the facts become inconvenient, the argument shifts.
A policy that affects homeowners, seniors, and small landscaping businesses deserves honesty and consistency, not a seasonal bromide that sounds good on paper but falls apart under basic scrutiny. If the town wants to address noise or emissions, it should do so transparently and fairly not through a proposal that applies its own reasoning only when it’s politically comfortable.
Richard, there’s no deception and no cause for cynicism here. The ordinance is a compromise. You seem to think the town should go further; others clearly think we should not move at all. That’s how it goes with compromises. But Hilary Ormond and the Bylaws and Ordinances Committee deserve respect and credit for trying to find a middle path on this contentious issue. If our leaders in Washington could learn from them, our country would be in much better shape.
John thank you for your reply. Let me be clear that I am against a town ordinance. I’m not being cynical, and I’m not questioning anyone’s intentions. I’m pointing out that the ordinance’s own logic doesn’t hold together. If gas blowers are truly a serious noise and health problem, it makes little sense to ban them for part of the year while allowing unlimited use during the months when they run the most. That isn’t a “middle path”; it’s an internal contradiction.
Compromise is valuable when both sides give something up in a way that still produces a coherent policy. In this case, the proposal asks residents and small landscaping businesses to absorb real costs while leaving the supposed underlying problem untouched for the entire fall season. That’s why many of us see the reasoning as inconsistent, not because we lack respect for the committee or the work involved.
My concern is simply that the policy should match the justification being offered for it. Right now, it doesn’t. A compromise I could accept would be a year‑round ban on the use of any kind of leaf blowers on Sundays. This would be a policy that is strictly noise‑based and has some logic.
An sound compromises depend on a couple of things: 1) has to effectively address the concerns raised – in this case both noise and the environmental/health concerns, 2) must weigh the costs and benefits: both the financial impacts on residents and if the technology is advanced enough to justify the additional costs to both the landscapers and residents as well as the environmental costs of the additional batteries 3) must consider the unintended consequences to local businesses and residents.
Unintended consequences are frequently ignored at the state level when their legislation attempts to reach a compromise by splitting a baby that cannot or should not be split.
I support everything John Seel writes. I attended several bylaws subcommittee meetings and saw how, over many months, a divided body worked in an amicable way to find a compromise to get a draft ordinance in front of town council for discussion and a vote. We can all learn from the responsible way they went about this.
We live on 5.6 acres and only use electric mowers and blowers. All our neighbors have landscapers blow grass cuttings and the few leaves that fall in summer with gas blowers once a week, on different days. Our neighbors are not close but we cannot enjoy the outdoors while this is going on. If anyone wants to see how quiet, powerful and reasonably priced electrics are today, I can give you a demonstration. Let’s enjoy the outdoors for three months in the summer.
Rob Fryer