Update: Mass. Landscapers Fight Blower Ban

Arlington landscapers and maintenance crews will have to muster significant voter turnout to overthrow a city ban on leaf blowers from May 15 to Oct. 15 every year.

Landscapers in Arlington, Mass., are fighting back after the Town Council voted to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers for five months of the year due noise and pollution complaints.

A group of residents told the Arlington Board of Selectmen on May 21 that they have collected enough signatures to force a special election on the ban.

The special election is tentatively scheduled for July 19, and will need at least 20 percent of registered voters to show up to the polls for the ban to be overturned, and polls for special elections are only open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. For context, a highly contested recent race for the local School Committee and Board of Selectmen only garnered a 26 percent turnout, said Town Counsel Juliana Rice. Collecting enough votes to overturn the ban, even if a majority of voters that show up are against it, will be difficult.

Members of the Arlington Town Meeting voted 95-85 to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers every May 15 through Oct. 15, though state and other legal hurdles will likely prevent implementation until 2013. Residents advocating prohibition – originally proposed as a year-round ban – cited the noise and particulates churned up by the equipment as reason enough to outlaw them, leaving no alternative but brooms and rakes for landscape cleanup.