Town officials say they need time to evaluate the merits of a citizen-led campaign to reduce the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in New Canaan.
After receiving dozens of letters themselves and seeing similar ones in local news—calling for a reduction for reasons of noise, public health and environmental issues—members of New Canaan’s legislative body are calling for a comprehensive analysis before recommending any change to local ordinances.
During a meeting last week of the Town Council’s Bylaws and Ordinance Committee, member Eric Thunem said: “I think we need to hear from a lot more people before we vote on an ordinance that could impact so many more things than just the noise in my backyard. There are a lot of implications that would restrict and change the economics of landscaping.”
Committee members during a June 4 meeting spent nearly one hour discussing the issue. One Committee member, Kimberly Norton, said she was “on board with moving ahead with [restrictions].”
“I think we’ve had an outpouring of letters from the public…there’s lots of interest in the issue, and I think it behooves us to take it forward,” Norton said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
Norton said she was staunchly in support of urgent action to give community members “relief” from the leaf blowers. She cited the discussions the committee had in 2022 surrounding the issue, which had failed to inspire change.
Other committee members were hesitant at Norton’s suggestion of preparing for a vote on the issue at the Town Council’s July meeting.
A co-chair of the Committee, Tom Butterworth (the other co-chair is Hilary Ormond) cited a 2024 Plan of Conservation and Development survey.
The survey had about 1,300 responses, and only 16% responded “yes” to having a noise complaint in their neighborhood, according to Butterworth. Nine percent responded “yes” to having an environmental concern, he said.
Butterworth continued: “This is an incredibly complicated subject with an enormous number of people that have varied interests… I don’t think the letters received are a full representation of what everyone in the town believes. There’s also whether the town wants an aggressive approach, like a total switchover to electric, or something more moderate, which is what has been happening in other Connecticut towns.”
Norton defended the need to quickly find a solution.
“I think it’s pretty clear that a seasonal ban is what the residents are looking for,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessary to make it an academic exercise. It’s a practical matter, and residents have the right to enjoy their property.”
Norton’s proposed timeline included a presentation of the issue to the Town Council on June 18 before a Town Council vote on a proposed ordinance on July 16.
Thunem voiced concerns of moving too fast. He expressed appreciation for letters sent in by the public before reading what he described as “emotional” reasoning.
“I’m not in favor of creating a law that bans or restricts something that has multiple ripple effects throughout the community and the economy… based on statements [with no evidence],” he said. “I want to see the data. I want to research the data behind these claims.”
He continued: “I have spoken to landscapers, most of whom—if not all of whom—have said there are no equivalent economic or timely electric leaf blowers.”
The leaf blower segment of the committee’s discussion ended with Norton proposing for presenters to come to the Town Council’s June 18 meeting. The vote ended in a 3-3 tie, with committee members Norton, Jennifer Zonis, and Cristina A. Ross in favor.
Town Council Chairman Michael Mauro will decide whether to discuss the issue on June 18 at an agenda meeting later this week.
Thank you to the New Canaanite for this update, and to Kim Norton, Jennifer Zonis, and Cristina Ross for being responsive to the public interest in discussing and thoughtfully planning changes to our approach to gas leaf blowers in our town. As many will be heading out of New Canaan for summer, it would indeed be timely to have further discussion and public comment on this incredibly important topic on June 18. I sincerely hope that Mr. Mauro will place this topic on the agenda, and that there will be transparent communication on the next steps.
If “many” are heading out for the summer, why would you need a summer noise ordinance?
I hope the Town Council will move forward on this issue. Plenty of good people are considering leaving New Canaan because they can’t work from home, have lunch or dinner outside, enjoy working outside in their own gardens, due to deafening noise and fumes.
Typical New Yorker complaint…
I am an Advance Master Gardener. I can’t tell you how stupid this ban is. Right now, I am waiting for 4 batteries to charge, one charger is broken, one battery flashes red..so my job will try extra days not hours. I can only imagine the nightmare you are placing on landscapers to carry batteries around( which do not last long) Are you stating you are going to allow your landscaper to use your electricity to charge their batteries?
If you are concerned with the noise using electricity or battery powered equipment just extends the length of time for landscaping.to use equipment. Plus charging
Batteries take hours to charge.
This ban is beyond STUPID & I am happy to take up the discussion w/ anyone prefer preferably someone that uses equipment daily.
Do you use a leaf blower in the summer? I thought the ban would be only during the summer, and gas powered blowers would be allowed in the spring and fall for cleanups. Do you feel the same way if it’s just during the summer?
No one likes the noise and fumes of gas-powered leaf-blowers, especially when used for long periods of yard work. Nevertheless, I would prefer a measured response that takes all stakeholders’ interests into account. This is not an emergency issue and should be reviewed thoroughly before a decision is made that is right for our town.
I think we need a broader approach to addressing noise pollution. Leaf blowers are not the only source of the overall noise problem. For example, motorcycles that go screaming down our roads create much more noise than leaf blowers.
Sure, there’s plenty of sources of noise pollution, but leaf blowers are the most ubiquitous. Tackling this problem could lead to future reforms and we need to start somewhere and move forward.
Not only are gas powered leaf blowers bad for the environment, they are unnecessary. Mother Nature puts leaves on the ground to nourish the soil. Blowing them off is detrimental to soil health as well as human health. Further we are looking at generations of hearing impaired users of the blowers. Please ban them from our town.
C’mon, let’s DO something.
Just this last week, in France, it was proposed to ban smoking basically everywhere. In FRANCE. And not even 22 years ago, you could smoke IN restaurants right here in Connecticut. Imagine lighting up in Rosie after a delicious brunch? Hard to picture it now, isn’t it? When smoking bans were started I remember everyone saying how impossible that would be. How all the bars would instantly go out of business. How you couldn’t take this inalienable right away from people. How there was no way you could enforce it – especially in New York City! Blah, blah, blah.
And yet, it happened.
The rules were changed and, gasp, somehow everyone just went along with it. Bars didn’t vanish. New York City restaurants actually saw business increase by 8.7%. And, even without ever-present police presence, most everyone simply went along with the new laws.
A lot of the pushback conversation I’m hearing about banning/restricting gas leaf blowers sounds a lot the same as the “it’ll never work” comments that surrounded smoking bans. “How will we enforce it?” “How will people enjoy their lawns?” “How will everyone switch to electric?” etc, etc.
If people could get over not having a cigarette with their dessert course, they’ll get over this too.
There are no benefits to gas leaf blowers. Just because that’s what landscapers are used to isn’t a good enough reason not to change things up. And, believe it or not, nobody’s lawn is going to instantly become ugly without them.
Just ask our neighboring Town Councils.
In fact, we should reach out to them and see how they went about changing their ordinances, how they went about researching everything, and how they went about getting the votes needed to get this all done.
Because from where I sit, it sure doesn’t look like the sky fell in Westport, Darien or Greenwich.
It just got cleaner and quieter.
Only 16% of respondents reported noise concerns, not exactly a strong case for a town-wide ordinance. A “seasonal ban” contradicts its stated rationale if the issue is truly about noise and environmental impact, Why wouldn’t those concerns matter year-round? A short-term ban feels more like a bromide to placate a few rather than a meaningful solution.
If the Town Council moves forward, enforcement should be a major consideration. In just the first week of Greenwich’s seasonal law, police responded to 73 complaints. Not exactly an efficient use of law enforcement resources.
Would enforcement of power leaf blower bans, or operation of any fuel powered mechanism like generators, be a wise use of police resources? Officers deployed across New Canaan to catch and ticket offenders? We have a variety of prominent sounds in town – train horns, emergency vehicle sirens, rubbish removal, blowers, power washers, nail guns, excavators, generators, mowers, overhead jets, propellar planes, Dunning stadium – its all part of life in a vibrant modern community. We already have a town noise ordinance.
“The survey had about 1,300 responses, and only 16% responded “yes” to having a noise complaint in their neighborhood, according to Butterworth. Nine percent responded “yes” to having an environmental concern, he said.,”
Like myself, most people don’t have issues with gas powered leaf blowers, most of the times, the messages you see are for the people who are against it. People don’t understand what it is to blow Acres of leaves with a battery blower, please ask a contractor.
If the town should subsidize electric blowers for home owners, I’ll switch right away. As I pointed out in a previous article, my Stihl BR600 gas blower costs $550 while the Stihl BRA600 electric blower costs $1450. Also, these electric blowers have a short run time. I do consider myself an environmentalist but within price and reason.
I don’t see electric blowers being successful in the 2-acre and 4-acre zones due to their runtime constraints. So, I would prefer a ban that restricts gas blowers on Sun and limits the blowers to 3 days in the week 8-6pm including a Saturday. This gives 4 noise free days. And seasonal restrictions are fine as well.
If anyone here uses electric backpack blowers, please chime in with your brand and actual runtime.
Good comments all around. However, someone might want to talk to the landscapers. These are small businesses locally owned (if not in New Canaan per se, then in neighboring towns). They have a lot of overhead and operate on thin margins. They are nonetheless capital intensive – their machinery cost a lot of money, not to mention trucks and trailers. They also happen to employ a lot of workers, usually immigrants. These companies do not have extensive financial wherewithal. Their annual cash flow would be insufficient to replace their entire fleet of heavy and light equipment in a single year. It would take multiple years at best. Most of these businesses are not bankable from a lending perspective. So, they would be on their own to pay for the cost of these ordinances.
Absolutely, an economic reality if there is a complete ban of gas blowers. I have both an electric and gas blower and the practicality of using an electric blower for commercial landscaping is currently cost prohibitive. To match the power of a gas blower the average electric blower in many cases is less than an hour. That would mean that every landscaper would likely need to purchase 6 or 7 high capacity batteries for every blower they have, as they likely could not charge during the day. Electric blowers and batteries are also considerably more expensive than their gas counterparts. If this ordinance goes through, my landscapers will need to raise prices accordingly, and not by a small amount. He will not be alone.
However, I also don’t like the noise that gas blowers create. I believe Ms. Orteig has a good idea in restricting commercial Gas blower use on weekends and perhaps to certain hours during the week.
Maybe — hear me out — we could all live in landscapes that don’t resemble Augusta National, where occasionally one might be forced to see an acorn, a fallen leaf, or some grass clippings. Perhaps, when there is a need for some yard work in this alternative universe, it might be addressed with a rake costing 19.99 to 34.99 (depending on the outlet)? Or, nah? Instead, we can keep polluting the air and our noise environment, and our yards can do their best approximation of what we see on CBS on Masters Sunday?
John Clarke is a good writer.
That is my pet peeve about new home construction. All the builders start by clear cutting the lot. Just drive by almost every construction site in town and that is the standard operating procedure. It’s unfortunate that no one gives a damn.
How about gas blowers restricted to a couple of days per week, not including weekends. We had a brunch reunion with 7 friends from 35 years ago utterly spoiled by a gang of landscapers blowing at 10:30 AM on a Sunday.
If we restrict to a couple of days, the landscapers can keep their gas blowers and start buying electric ones if they want to work on the other days. And no landscapers should be doing noisy work on the weekends. Only homeowners should be permitted.
“And no landscapers should be doing noisy work on the weekends. Only homeowners should be permitted.” If noise is your concern, why restrict landscapers but allow homeowners to use gas leaf blowers freely? The disruption is the same no matter who operates the equipment. Selective rules don’t solve the problem—they only shift it.
Because homeowners may be at work and a weekend might be their only option to take care of their yards. Saturday must be available to homeowners from 8am to 4pm at the very least.
You make a good case for why regulations may not be the answer. There will never be a single day or time that works for everyone.
Perhaps the best path forward is trusting residents to be respectful of one another while allowing flexibility in how and when they maintain their properties.
And some of us spend most of our summer in New Canaan, which is a lovely place to be.
Survey? Was this from the POCD? Or a separate survey?
The local government officials should be speaking with town boards in Greenwich and Pound Ridge who have effective regulations in place. This town is no different or more “special” than any other town and should be enforcing the same common sense laws that other towns are. To give the businesses benefitting while overusing loud polluting equipment would be fraught with bias. I’d also question the legitimacy of prior “surveys”. To do them right you’d have to have canvassers getting input from every single address as much as possible.
Good point Tom, there’s no need to re-invent the wheel.
Hello to all: Town Council’s agenda for its June 18, 2025, general meeting will include a public discussion exploring the impact and wisdom of whether to enact some form of a restriction on leaf blowers. The discussion is informational only; there will be no vote for any form of a restriction at that meeting. For disclosure purposes, this is being posted in my capacity as Chairman of Town Council.
Thank you, Mr. Mauro.
I am including zoom and email information for residents who may not be able to attend the in-person meeting.
Town of New Canaan Town Council Meeting
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025,
Time: 7:00P.M.
Place: Town Hall Meeting Room
To Join via Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84210046647?pwd=WU1PTkFGZnIrQkRNVW9LZUVISUhFdz09
Meeting ID: 842 1004 6647
Passcode: 532384
Item #3. Public Comments – Members of the public are welcome to speak to the Town Council on agenda topics scheduled for review and/or vote. Speakers are requested to provide their name and street address, and comments will be limited to two to three minutes, subject to the total number of speakers.
Item #5. Gas Powered Leaf Blowers – Presentation and general discussion regarding a possible ordinance limiting the use of gas powered leaf blowers. (30 minutes – Tom Butterworth/Hilary Ormond/Robin Bates – Mason/John Seel/Luis Castaneda, John Kriz)
*NOTE: If you are unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting, but wish to comment about the possible Town Ordinance to limit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, you can email Town Council members prior to the June 18th meeting:
Include your full legal name and street address and send your comments to:
TCDistribution@newcanaanct.gov
The “Town Council” meeting and the discussion of the issue from last week is on “Youtube”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Bh7FvSff0&t=8933s