Tired of the Droning On and On of Leaf Blowers - Yea, Me Too.

Is everyone as tired of loud and droning on and on of leaf blowers all year long? Yea, me too.

Supposedly the City Council and or the Quality of Life Committee was ‘looking’ at instilling some form of control on the noisy backpack/handheld gas chuggers, but that seems to have fallen to the wayside. Indecision? Lack of wanting to make a clear cut decision? Who knows – but something needs to be done.

More than 100 cities/communities have banned gas powered leaf blowers in the United States (CO, Il, Ma, NJ, NY TX and VT).

Some communities limit the days and or hours gas powered blowers can be used, Seattle for instance it is illegal to use ANY leaf blowers whether they are gas, electric or battery which are louder than 65 decibels before 7am and after 7pm.

** Note gas powered leaf blowers have a decibel level of between 65 to 90 db and electric blowers have a reading of about 60 – 75 db. The threshold is 85 db’s before damage can be done to your hearing.

In California, a recent law passed earlier in 2025 will phase out all gas powered lawn equipment (the main focus of the law however, was leaf blowers).

Looking within our state, Maplewood and Montclair have completely banned gas powered leaf blowers.

Other New Jersey towns have seasonal bans:

• West Orange (which will move to complete ban the end of 2025)
• Mantoloking seasonal ban from June 15th thru September 15
• South Orange and Princeton each have seasonal bans

Towns considering total bans are: Glen Ridge and Morristown.

So where is Asbury Park on this topic? No where and it seems to just stay there.

If there is uncertainty about a complete ban (which I understand because this a person or companies business and a complete ban would require a large purchase of new equipment). So, I suggest Asbury Park take the following steps towards an incremental and ultimate complete ban:

• Start with hours and days of use. Leaf blowers cannot be used before 8am and after 5pm Monday – Saturday and Not at all on Sunday.
• Leaf blowers cannot be used on any major holiday (I say this because last year a fairly large and local landscaping company decided Thanksgiving morning was the best time to spend 4 hours at my neighbor’s house)
• Seasonal bans – I like that as a start as well. Ban leaf blowers June 15th – September 15. Before that date and after that date, the above days and hours are in effect.
• Moving forward after doing that for a year – Asbury Park moves the seasonal ban up a month to May 15 and ends on Oct 15.
• After a year of doing May 15th to Oct 15 – there is a complete ban on all gas leaf blowers.

Theoretically if the City of Asbury Park were to invoke the above slow movement towards being leaf blower free, by 2028 Asbury Park could be free of the noise.

Think of the incremental regulations and changing as a way for businesses to adapt and have time financially to plan for the ban. It’s fair to them and it’s fair to the residents of AP who deserve to enjoy their home/yard without the disturbance of an army of leaf blowers descending on the neighborhood.