Montclair adopts ban on gas-powered leaf blowers

MONTCLAIR — One of the township’s longest-running debates seems to have been settled Tuesday night, when a majority of the council approved an all-out ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

The issue dates back decades, with landscapers and residents waging a war of words in the opinion pages of local newspapers and the Township Council chamber. Yet the back-and-forth never changed: Landscapers decried inequity in the rules applied to the public, compared with township employees, and the impracticality of electric blowers in a community rich with canopies of deciduous shade trees arching over spacious properties, while residents complained of the environmental impact and noise pollution caused by the fuming, cacophonous machines.

After a 4-1 vote in favor of the ban, with two council members absent, the embargo will take effect Oct. 15, when existing limitations would have once again allowed their use through mid-December.

“Montclair needs to be a disruptor,” said Councilor Peter Yacobellis, who supported the measure despite reservations. “We have to be. Who else will take the first step?”

His comment reflected the deciding ideology of colleagues Lori Price Abrams and Mayor Sean Spiller, who also acquiesced that the new ordinance would not be easy for landscapers or residents. But, in Spiller’s words, it was about “changing practices” and forcing an industry to discover ways to make quieter but less powerful electric equipment suit their needs.

Yacobellis also told the public he had instructed the township manager to explore financing a $10,000 buyback program for residents' gas-powered machines.

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“This is a good example of when multiple things can be right,” Spiller said ahead of the night’s vote, acknowledging landscapers’ claims that the technology for battery-driven blowers is not yet capable of handling large jobs or serving autumn months, when heaps of leaves line Montclair’s streets.

“In some ways, it probably isn’t,” he said.

Landscapers voice opposition

However, the stiffest warnings offered by landscapers who attended Tuesday’s hearing, and even several residents also opposed to the ordinance, had little to do with workload. In the face of protest over the environmental impact of gas-powered machines, detractors spoke at length about the lack of consideration given to the dangers and pollution inherent in their electric counterparts.

Bob Fredette, a landscaper based in Montclair, told the council the lithium batteries he uses can power a leaf blower for about five minutes and need up to 30 minutes to recharge, requiring him to keep up to 20 of the purportedly unstable power supplies in his truck throughout the day.

“This is a potential fire hazard that you’re not even ready to face,” he warned. “You haven’t addressed any of that.”

Landscaper Joe Bocchiaro said that not only are the batteries lacking in their life span, but when one power supply runs empty, the next one cannot simply be "popped in," because the blower has to "calm down" for a while before a fresh battery is installed.

Furthermore, Bocchiaro foresaw a troublesome paradox for colleagues who don't want to travel with a truckload of lithium-ion batteries on hot spring days: To recharge each battery, a landscaper would need to use a gas-powered generator ― negating the move to electric machines ― or to plug the battery into a truck, violating the township's rule against idling.

Fredette, other landscapers and even residents concurred that the plan was hasty and lacked analysis, for the sake of appeasing a loud contingent who considered the well-known effects of fossil fuels but knew little about their alternatives. Those who work the most closely with the vilified machinery said they were never given a voice.

In an impassioned appeal to Spiller, Vito Dente, another landscaper, said, “Mayor, I want to talk to you. You only talk to one side. Talk to us.”

Although the new ordinance was, in part, intended to remediate the unequal treatment of private lawn crews and those employed by the municipality under existing code, Fredette questioned whether anything would change.

“We have been discriminated against since 1994,” he said, when a nascent form of the current stipulations were first enacted. “The only people who get tickets in this town are landscapers.”

Richard Galioto Sr., a landscaper from Bloomfield who has been a central figure in opposing the ban for years, asked whether crews employed by Essex County to clear parks outside municipal control would be subject to the ordinance. Township Attorney Paul Burr said he was not sure, eliciting a scoff from Galioto.

Resident Martin Barnett pressed for an approach that would implement the ban over time, as the technology for electric lawn care catches up to its purpose. “While it’s a good idea, it’s not a great idea,” Barnett said, adding that the move’s “time has not come.”

Montclair's history with leaf blowers

In February 2021, the council reduced the number of days gas blowers could be used from more than half the year to just two months in the spring and two months in the fall and further shortened the times they could be used each day, while permitting their electric variants year-round.

However, the February amendment included lenient provisions for homeowners compared with professional landscapers.

Likewise, the previous regulations did not apply to landscapers working on township property.

Those limits were seen as a win for environmental advocates, who compared the use of just one backpack leaf blower for a day’s work on one property to the amount of fuel burned by an idling car. Compounding the equipment’s unpopularity was the constant din of the several crews working Montclair’s residential blocks from morning until late afternoon, day after day, in the spring and fall.

Existing rules already limited their use to times most residents would be at work, but not everyone makes their living 9 to 5, and those at home complained of the constant drone, as well as a worsening air quality that affected their health and the climate.

In fact, not only has the debate run in circles for years, but even the prohibition is nothing new. Montclair banned “internal combustion” blowers altogether decades ago. But after manufacturers of the gas machines sued to overturn the law, the council loosened the regulation in 1994 to allow their use during certain times of day and months of the year.

That move led to pushback from professionals like Galioto, of Bloomfield’s King and I Landscaping, who fought the regulations tooth-and-nail, leading the township to revisit the stipulation in 2015 and to order its Office of Code Enforcement to issue only warnings in the meantime.

The temporary, informal moratorium erupted in a confusing game of “he-said-she-said” when multiple landscapers received summonses, Galioto told the Montclair Times eight years ago. Because the law was not amended to reflect the warning period, the court continued to hear summonses brought by citizen’s complaints.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Montclair NJ adopts ban on gas-powered leaf blowers