A year-round ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, with a three-year phase-out period, is likely to be considered by County Board members later this year.
A county staff recommendation to that effect received no significant pushback from any Board members during a Feb. 24 meeting.
“We are on the right track,” Board member Maureen Coffey said.
Any action would be dependent on changes to the county’s noise ordinance, which would require several months to implement.
County staff have undertaken outreach on the issue since last year, when Alexandria became the first Northern Virginia locality to use its regulatory powers to ban gas-powered blowers.
Board member Susan Cunningham said she believed there had been “very thorough engagement with the community” and that the recommendation was a fair compromise between competing concerns.
“I hope this will be a nice, gentle rollout, and people will voluntarily be there even before we are mandating it,” Cunningham said.
Board member Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., brought up the question of staff costs to ensure compliance.
“What good is having a policy in place … if you don’t have the people to enforce it? There’s a lot we need to look at,” he said.
Jennifer Fioretti, Arlington’s assistant county manager for climate policy, acknowledged that response time for enforcement of any prohibition would be a challenge.
“Leaf blowing takes 20 minutes,” she said.
Alexandria based its authority to regular gas powered blowers on an opinion by then-Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R). Whether Arlington would be able to use the same rationale, without first getting General Assembly authority, remains something of an open question.
Alexandria’s ordinance set an 18-month phase-out period from the time of its adoption in May 2025.
