Vancouver City Council

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: April 28, 2004
Author: D. Losito

Phone No: 604.714.5677

RTS No.: 4212

CC File No.: 3755
Meeting date: May 18, 2004

TO: Vancouver City Council

FROM: Director of Health Protection of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority in consultation with the General Manager of Parks & Recreation

SUBJECT: Leaf Blower Regulation - Report Back on 2003 Experience

RECOMMENDATION

THAT this report be received for information.

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The City Manager submits the foregoing for INFORMATION.

POLICY

On May 13, 1997 the Urban Noise Task Force report was received by Council. It identified leaf blowers as a significant source of noise complaints. Nevertheless, less than one third of respondents supported an outright ban of leaf blowers. Instead stricter equipment noise limits were recommended coupled with restrictions on time and day of use.

On March 5, 2002 Council adopted restrictions as to time (and day) of use and prohibited the use of any leaf blower that did not meet an equipment noise standard of 65 decibels, effective January 1, 2003.

Further, Council requested that the effectiveness of the new regulations be monitored, with a report back to Council by late-2003 on the implementation of the new requirements, and the industry initiatives to have all equipment meet the noise standards, as well as education programs for users and the general public, with possible further options if required, including consideration of a total ban.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this document is to report back to Council on the first year's experience with the new restrictions on leaf blower usage brought into effect January 1, 2003.

BACKGROUND

In 2001 Council amended the Noise Bylaw to prohibit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers throughout the City of Vancouver, within 50 metres of any residential premises, except for the appropriate use during October through January, when the vast majority of leaves are in need of collecting: and further that effective February 2, 2004 the Noise By-law be amended to prohibit the use of gas-powered leaf blowers throughout the City of Vancouver at all times.

March of 2002 Council rescinded the July 12, 2001 motion and the Vancouver Noise Control By-law was amended to include restrictions on leaf blowers effective January 1, 2003. These restrictions were twofold - establishing hours of operation and setting a "low noise" equipment standard- and were seen as a compromise from the original Council position of an outright ban on gas leaf blower use. The hours of operation were set between 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday plus 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. No leaf blower noise is permitted on Sundays or Holidays. Effective January 1, 2003 leaf blowers were restricted to those which have been certified as `low noise' at time of manufacture. This certification means that the equipment meet's a manufacturing standard of operating at or below 65 dBA (measured at 15 metres).

As part of the 2002 Council decision, the Environmental Health Division (VCHA) was asked to report back on the effectiveness of the new regulations after one year. This report provides that information to Council.

A fairly extensive notification program was pursued in order to ensure widespread knowledge of the changes amongst the public and industry. Direct notification was provided to and through the BC Landscape and Nursery Association, Building Owner's and Managers Association, Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver School Board. Notices were included in tax mail-outs as well as the local newspapers to reach the general public as well as lawn and yard maintenance companies not affiliated with the above-named associations.

The intent was to start any enforcement with an educational approach, as the first step of a progressive enforcement program, in the manner Environmental Health typically enforces other City By-laws. This involves information exchange on a first visit and then progresses to more direct enforcement (verbal orders, written orders, prosecution etc.) as necessary.

Approximately 40 power equipment related complaints were investigated during 2003. Leaf blower complaints were split fairly evenly between concerns over hours of operation and type of equipment in use. All of these were resolved by providing information on the By-law with no necessity to resort to stronger enforcement. The number of recorded complaints which led to an investigation by Noise Control staff may be misleading as a measure of the amount of interest or concern expressed by the public, as it only includes formal complaints. A far larger number of calls (approximately 200) were received that were simple inquiries and were not recorded as actual complaints. A fair number of these `information' calls were from people who had believed that leaf blowers had been banned outright. We still tend to receive a number of complaints about the incessant nature of the noise. This tends to occur where lawn maintenance activity moves from one property to the next in what seems to be an endless cycle. The calls and formal complaints appear to be geographically focused in two areas of the city - the dense West End and the larger properties of Kerrisdale.

Staff has concluded that the implementation of the new by-law provisions appears to have been reasonably successful when compared to implementation of other by-law changes. Compliance with the new provisions has been achieved with some extensive early education and has only required minimal additional education or enforcement. Part of the reason for fairly good success is that the two biggest users (the Vancouver Park Board and the members of the BC Landscape & Nursery Association) have both invested in an extensive changeover to new equipment. This is reflected in the fact that the majority of complaints that required investigation involved leaf blower use by private homeowners or apartment managers.

The BCLNA has published a document entitled "Working Toward Quieter Neighbourhoods" which reports on their progress in implementing their strategic plan for complying with the Noise By-law provisions. A copy of this report was recently forwarded to Council by the BCLNA for their information. It clearly reflects that a major transition is well underway to universally adopt the Low Noise equipment. The three areas that still appear to be lagging are the apartment manager who may be doing their own yard maintenance with non-compliant machinery, the "fringe" yard maintenance companies who tend to not belong to any formal association and the homeowner who maintains his or her own yard. Anecdotally, most complaints seem to be generated by the first two of these groups. It is this area that requires some further reinforcement this spring and summer through targeted education and notification, followed up in short order by enforcement action.

In summary, staff believes that the transition of leaf blowers to low noise equipment and the commendable efforts of the BCLNA in implementing their strategic plan have contributed to significant progress down the road to reducing the community impacts of leaf blower use. We are confident that, through efforts focused at the smaller enterprises, the apartment managers and the homeowner, we can further improve the situation in 2004, gaining a much higher level of compliance and reduced annoyance of the public. Given the efforts made by the BCLNA and other industry members to promote compliance, staff does not believe it would be appropriate to introduce further restrictions, up to and including a prohibition, at this time.

* * * *