Riverside trustees have approved a village initiative to educate residents and contractors in town on the harmful impacts of using gas-powered leaf blowers and other handheld devices. The campaign will last through 2027 before a seasonal ban on the equipment is considered for implementation in 2028 and 2029.
Village officials emphasized the final call on a potential seasonal ban would be up to a future village board comprised of trustees elected next week and in the 2027 municipal election.
At the board’s March 20 meeting, Assistant Village Manager Ashley Monroe presented a draft five-year plan for the eventual phase-out of gas-powered landscape equipment.
Starting this year, the plan calls for Riverside to promote the upsides of using electric devices and explain the environmental costs of continuing to use gas-powered equipment through flyers placed around town, mailers sent to residents and social media. Monroe said these materials would be published in both English and Spanish.
Some of the mocked-up flyers would inform residents that an hour of gas-powered leaf blower use emits the same amount of carbon as driving 1,100 miles — the distance it takes to drive from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado, or from Riverside to Austin, Texas. One design would push residents to inform their contracted landscapers on Riverside’s noise regulations and landscaping hours while another would encourage those contractors to swap to the greener devices.
“We want to engage the contractors in more communication and build our mailing list that we were open to at the last meeting [in November] for communicating any kinds of changes,” Monroe said. “It’s not a forced issue; it’s an opportunity to continue to communicate about issues like this.”
Riverside would begin to phase in removal of the equipment through a seasonal ban in 2028 from April through September with the approval of the 2027 village board, Monroe said, though enforcement would be limited to warnings for the first year.
The ban would be lifted from October 2028 through March 2029 to allow gas-powered devices to be used for fall cleanup and snow removal in the winter before going back into effect from April through September 2029 with citations for ordinance violations beyond the first.
“Our emphasis on this is not to be punitive. It’s not to restrict the time in which people can use things during the day,” she said. “It’s a period of time during the season where it’s likely to be hot, and extra dust is blowing out in the air.”
She said staff recommended waiting for 2028 so village staff can record the data on how often residents complain about gas-powered devices through then while giving the public works department time to swap its own equipment over to battery power.
“This is a very measured approach to a longstanding question about how quickly, really, everybody adapts to something like this,” Monroe said. “There are certainly people with questions about the value in doing this, and perhaps some of the education will help allay some of those concerns.”
In response to a question from Trustee Megan Claucherty, Monroe said the education campaign could inform residents years in advance about the potential 2028 ban at the board’s discretion, though the board at that time would be responsible for implementing it.
Trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga said she thought Riverside should inform residents in advance of when the village board would look to consider a seasonal ban to avoid potential repercussions of a hypothetical immediate enactment.
“It’s important for Riverside to make annual progress on its climate action and resilience plan,” of which phasing out gas-powered landscape equipment is one of many potential steps, she said. “Articulating that goal and that intention to consider [a seasonal ban] really establishes that we will be attempting to make incremental progress, through education first and then through these other measures following.”
Trustee Jill Mateo asked whether staff knew of the consequences of enacting bans in other communities, but Monroe said she believed “the jury [was] still out” on the exact impact to “the smallest of the businesses.”
While trustees Elizabeth Kos and Alexander Gallegos were absent, the rest of the board agreed to have staff proceed with the education campaign with the intent for a future board to consider seasonal bans.
“This is a policy; this is not a law. No ordinances are being approved,” Village President Doug Pollock said after the board reached a consensus. “At any time, I would encourage residents to continue to lobby and continue to voice their concerns, both pro and con. We always want to hear more about this. It is a difficult issue.”
