LEXINGTON — Got a neighbor with a gas-powered leaf blower? In Lexington, that's now a police matter.
A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers officially took effect March 15 in the wealthy Boston suburb, and the town isn't messing around with enforcement. Local police have been briefed on how to handle complaints, will respond to every single one, and will document each call as an incident in their public log.
No lights. No sirens. Just officers dispatched to deal with... landscaping.
Lexington, Massachusetts — where your landscaper's equipment choices are now a police matter. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
The bylaw, which passed at a 2021 Special Town Meeting, carries fines of up to $200 — and here's the kicker: each day a violation continues counts as a separate offense. Fire up a gas blower on Monday and don't stop until Friday? That's five violations. A $50 first offense becomes a $200-per-day habit fast.
"Any person who violates any provision of this by-law, or who is the owner of property on which such violation occurs, shall be fined an amount not to exceed $50 per first violation, $100 for the second violation, and $200 for the third and each subsequent violation," the bylaw reads. "Each day that such violation continues shall be considered a separate offense."
And it's not just the landscaper on the hook — property owners catch the fine too, even if they weren't the ones holding the blower.
The restrictions don't stop at gas
Even if you dutifully switch to electric, Lexington has rules for that too. Residents can only use electric landscaping equipment between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays, and between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekends and holidays.
Professional landscapers get weekday hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Sundays? No professional landscaping equipment of any kind. At all.
For commercial landscapers already squeezed by tight margins, the ban isn't just an inconvenience — it's a direct hit to the bottom line.
"While there have been tremendous advancements in electric technologies, commercial landscaping equipment still lags far behind," Bob Barnard, owner of R.L. Barnard Landscaping, told the Boston Herald. "Lexington has a lot of trees and has a lotta leaves. And gas-powered leaf blowers are important to our ability to do our job in the fall and the spring. Using electric blowers that are less effective and less powerful will cause us to have to work longer and harder to do our job."
Longer hours, less power, higher costs. Guess who pays for that? The homeowner.
The taxpayer bailout, waiting in the wings
Here's where it gets interesting. State Rep. Michelle Ciccolo, a Democrat who represents — wait for it — Lexington, has filed H.3055, a bill that would create a tax credit for small landscaping businesses that switch from gas to electric equipment.
State Rep. Michelle Ciccolo (D-Lexington). Official photo via Massachusetts Legislature.
The credit covers 40% of the cost, up to $10,000 per year. Funded by Massachusetts taxpayers.
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So the playbook writes itself: ban the equipment, fine anyone who uses it, then file a bill to have taxpayers subsidize the replacements. The regulatory circle of life, Massachusetts style.
Ciccolo's bill defines eligible equipment as anything "powered by an electric motor drawing current from solar power, chargeable batteries, replaceable batteries, fuel cells or through electricity drawn through a cord from the electrical power grid." It also covers batteries and retrofit kits to convert existing gas equipment.
Spreading across the Commonwealth
Lexington isn't alone. Arlington enacted a nearly identical ban on the same date. Cambridge, Marblehead, Tisbury, and several Martha's Vineyard towns have similar restrictions already in place.
There's no statewide ban — yet. But with Ciccolo's tax credit bill laying the groundwork and a growing list of wealthy suburbs leading the charge, the template is clear: ban first, subsidize later, and let landscapers and homeowners figure out the rest.
Supporters cite the Massachusetts Medical Association, which has said gas-powered leaf blowers pose health hazards to workers and the public. Daniel Koretz of activist group Quiet Clean Lexington told the Herald they are "extremely noisy," "disruptive," "harmful," and "remarkably polluting."
The landscapers who actually use them every day have a simpler take: the electric ones don't work as well, they take longer, and somebody's going to pay the difference.
That somebody, if Rep. Ciccolo's bill passes, is you.
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