MISSION VIEJO : Council to Consider Ban on Leaf Blowers

This may become the second city in Orange County to silence leaf blowers.

A range of options being presented to the City Council on Monday runs from banning the blowers to restricting hours of operation. At least one council member, Mayor Robert D. Breton, plans to push for eliminating the devices.

“I detest these obnoxious machines with their grating sounds and the dust, pollen and smoke they spread around,” Breton said. “To me, this is a health issue.”

Only one Orange County city, Laguna Beach, has banned leaf blowers, while a handful of others have passed laws regulating their use.

Since asking city staff in May to research other local leaf blower ordinances, Breton said, he has “100% support” from citizens who have written or called City Hall.

“I don’t think people like to put up with this kind of noise,” Breton said. “People want to be part of our pastoral, park-like setting, and that’s what’s so disruptive about these machines.”

If passed, Breton favors enforcing an anti-leaf blower ordinance only when a complaint is received.

“We’re not going to send out the leaf blower patrol or anything like that,” he said. “If someone complained, we’d go out and issue a citation, if necessary.”

However, Councilwoman Susan Withrow isn’t convinced that an outright ban is necessary.

“I don’t think that’s the way to go,” Withrow said. “An outright ban is a pretty heavy-handed move. I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Withrow said she recognizes that controlling leaf blowers is a potentially volatile issue in Mission Viejo.

Landscape and gardening services are “a real big business in this city,” she said. “Most people have two incomes and don’t have time to do their yards.”

The planned community was developed by the Mission Viejo Co., which set aside room for broad, sweeping greenbelts in the city’s medians and slopes. Withrow said a city study showed that about 40% of Mission Viejo’s waste comes from clippings and vegetation that is thrown out.

Still, she said, “I don’t recall seeing complaints about leaf blowers come my way. I need a lot more information before I can decide on this.”

Cities that have imposed restrictions on leaf blower use include Irvine, Costa Mesa, Cypress and Dana Point. Laguna Beach outlawed the machines in January.

However, most cities simply impose time limitations on leaf blower use, restricting their operation to daylight hours. Irvine takes regulation of leaf blowers a bit further, requiring them to run at no more than half-throttle, mandating city inspections and asking for machine operators to be licensed.