Local governments in Northern Virginia are taking action against gas-powered leaf blowers.
Senator Saddam Salim is a Democrat from Fairfax County who had a bill earlier this year that would have given local governments the authority to crack down on gas-powered leaf blowers. But that bill never got out of committee because some local governments and homeowners associations lobbied against it.
"Why would the organization or localities not want the power back to themselves? And along the way, I think we discovered this will become a board or a council matter that's going to get heated, that's going to divide a lot of people, especially those jurisdictions that have golf course[s] or large recreational facilities," Salim says.
One local government that did want the authority was Alexandria, which asked the previous attorney general if the city government had authority to take action under its noise ordinance. When city officials got a favorable opinion, they took action. And then Arlington followed suit, giving businesses 30 months to ditch their gas-powered leaf blowers.
"We wanted both to be considerate of businesses who have invested in the equipment that is gas-powered leaf blowers, and our community's desire to move beyond it," says Arlington Chairman Matt de Ferranti.That puts us on course for three falls from now, which is a significant amount of time."
The future may be blowing in the wind for any other local governments in Virginia that wants to follow the model of Alexandria and Arlington, using the authority of their noise ordinances to silence gas-powered leaf blowers.
