The Baltimore City Council delayed a final vote to ban gas-powered leaf blowers Monday night.
The council passed an amendment to the proposed ordinance that would allow landscape companies and residents to use gas blowers between Oct. 15 and Dec. 15 of 2025 and 2026 before their use is subject to a fine year-round.
If passed at the next meeting, Oct. 7, city agencies and their contractors would move to comply by Dec. 15 of this year.
“The administration and the city agencies who contract or perform services in-house to landscape and maintain property said they had no problem making that transition this year, effectively immediately,” said council member Ryan Dorsey, who is sponsoring the bill.
Before the amendment passed Monday, the ordinance would have required landscape companies to comply by Dec. 15 of this year. Under the proposed ordinance, violations would be subject to civil penalties of a maximum $1,000 for each offense with each day of violation counting as a separate offense.
Over 100 other American cities are already phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers, according to testimony from the mid-Atlantic branch of the National Audubon Society, an environmental group. Washington, D.C., prohibited them in 2022, and Montgomery County banned the sale of them in 2024 and will not allow their use starting next July.
In one hour, a commercial gas-powered leaf blower emits as much pollution as driving a car for 1,100 miles and four times as much as commercial lawn mowers, the society said. Some opponents also complain about the noise.
The Department of Public Works said in a report that it would cost $41,000 for its water facilities division to replace 18 gas-powered leaf blowers at $2,300 per unit. However, the report also said the department’s solid waste division could replace 24 gas-powered blowers at $378 per unit for around $9,000.
Department of Recreation and Parks Director Reginald Moore said in support of the bill that his agency already began transitioning to electric blowers “over the last several years.”
Another bill related to pollution and local environmental concerns was introduced Monday. It would change zoning codes for crematories.
In July, Appellate Judge Kathryn Grill Graeff upheld a circuit court decision to allow a new crematory in North Baltimore, according to an unreported opinion that may not be cited as precedent. Residents opposed to the crematory at Vaughn Greene Funeral Services’ location on York Road near the Radnor-Winston and Winston-Govans neighborhoods over pollution concerns. In May 2023, Baltimore City Circuit Court upheld a zoning board decision to approve the crematory.
The bill proposed by council member Mark Conway would create a new zoning category for crematories that would prevent new facilities in residential areas.
“This is a common sense bill that defines crematoriums in the zoning code going forward so that instances like what we’re seeing on York Road don’t happen without any recourse,” Conway said.
Conway explained at a city hall news conference Monday that under city zoning laws, crematories are permitted in any cemetery or funeral home, and the new bill would reclassify them out of residential neighborhoods.
“Crematoriums release a lot of obnoxious gases and dangerous chemicals that we know are not good for human health,” Conway said Monday. “We want to make sure they’re not in densely populated neighborhoods.”
Brittany Baker, from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said at the news conference that crematories are sources of greenhouse gases and localized air pollution, and especially pose a risk to surrounding communities during summer heat waves.
“This is particularly important due to the interplay of extreme heat and air pollution,” Baker said. “Air pollution levels spike as temperatures rise. Baltimore had four consecutive days of 100-degree weather in July.”
Lisa Polyak, an environmental engineer, said the zoning code bans other types of incinerators in city limits.
“Incinerators are the source of some of the worst environmental pollutants, things like metals, acid gases, dioxin and tiny particles that medical experts tell us are the source of life-threatening respiratory and health problems,” she said.
Conway said his bill would prohibit new crematories but not close existing facilities. Polyak said there are over 110 crematory incinerators operating in the state, including six in three locations permitted by the state in Baltimore City.
