Leaf blower limits start June 1 and run until mid-September

Those who hate the roar and exhaust of gas-powered leaf blowers could get some relief starting June 1.

Gas leaf blowers will be off-limits on lots smaller than 1.5 acres through September 14.

“They’re just awful,” resident Beverley Bryant told The Acton Bridge. 

The season ban stems from a 2023 Town Meeting vote that came amid noise and pollution concerns. Three years out, gas blowers still have their defenders — and some who wish a multi-year phaseout was moving faster.

Current rules prohibit gas leaf blowers in the summer and winter. The restrictions ramp up in 2028 to bar commercial landscapers from using them year-round. The full-year ban expands to residents in 2030.

Violators face warnings and subsequent $100 or $200 fines. 

Residents and landscapers can keep using battery-powered blowers.

Police have the authority to enforce leaf blower rules, but Concordian Sven Weber said recently that residents have been reluctant to report people flouting the restrictions.

“It’s definitely not a neighborly thing to do,” Weber, who brought the ban to Town Meeting, told The Bridge.

Police launched a “preemptive strike” last year, Capt. Brian Goldman said, warning more than 30 landscaping companies about the blower ban. They’re taking the same approach this spring, he said.

Officers issued one leaf blower citation and 14 warnings last year, Goldman said. The department has fielded 33 complaints since restrictions started in 2024, he said.

Town officials have also posted signs and online reminders. 

Acton Riverwalk resident Janet Miller said her neighborhood has demanded that contractors use all-electric equipment. 

“We’ve found somebody,” she said, although it likely “limits the number” of eligible contractors.

Weber cited research in 2023 showing that one hour of gas leaf blower use generates pollution equivalent to driving a car 1,100 miles due to the blowers’ inefficient engines. 

People who backed the ban pointed to safety warnings for users as proof of the gas blowers’ teeth-rattling sound. 

Marianne Maurer, who works in her family’s landscape and excavation business, recommended a Town Meeting “no” vote.

Technology is “slowly getting better,” she wrote in a recent email, but electric options still can’t compete with gas.

Spring cleanups take longer, Maurer said, electric blowers “sound just as loud to most homeowners,” and the strongest electric blowers were almost three times as expensive as gas backpacks as of last year.

“I’m for [a] better world and environment,” Maurer told The Bridge by phone, but she questioned how effective the new rules are at cutting pollution, given the process of making, charging, and eventually recycling batteries. 

‘You can’t think or talk’

Town officials say “communication and education” are the first steps toward compliance with changing leaf blower rules. 

People spotting recurring violations can email Deputy Town Manager Megan Zammuto at [email protected] or call police at (978) 318-3400.

Other towns — including Arlington, Belmont, and Lexington — have adopted their own restrictions. Weber said he’s heard from people frustrated with Acton’s phased approach. 

He’s urged people to “be patient” and said “we just have to give it another 18 months.” 

Resident Betsy Olsson-Mackowski described gas blowers’ “noxious” emissions and said “you can’t think or talk” while the machines howl nearby. 

On timing, however, she said, “we can only push our neighbors and the whole community so much.” 

A broader ban may be well over a year away, but Olsson-Mackowski said, “I don’t know how Acton could do it any other way.”