{"id":217497,"date":"2026-04-03T13:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217497\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:25:07","slug":"the-roar-of-gas-powered-leaf-blowers-is-coming-back-to-key-biscayne-a-city-that-pioneered-banning-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/217497\/","title":{"rendered":"The roar of gas-powered leaf blowers is coming back to Key Biscayne, a city that pioneered banning them.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

That serenity of residents on their verandas and porches could once again be pierced by the roar of the gas-powered leaf blower. Thank Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republicans in the Florida Legislature.<\/p>\n

Key Biscayne passed an ordinance that banned the noisy lawn contraptions in 2018. Some municipalities looked at the island with envy,\u00a0 passing their own bans or planning to do so.<\/p>\n

Miami Beach, South Miami and Pinecrest all passed bans on gas-powered leaf blowers. But the Florida Legislature passed a sweeping farm bill that preempts municipalities \u2013 even those who have passed bans \u2013 from targeting gas-powered leafblowers.<\/p>\n

Now, municipalities \u2013 sick of home rule being preempted by Tallahassee \u2013 are looking at work-arounds to stop \u2014 or at minimize \u2013 the impacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leaf Blowers and Lobbyists\u00a0<\/p>\n

This session Republicans \u2013 who have a supermajority \u2013 couldn\u2019t even agree on the budget. But lawmakers once again sided with lobbyists of the powerful Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Association has been successful in getting lawmakers to prohibit municipalities from outlawing artificial turf and regulating pesticides.<\/p>\n

The leafblower issue was part of SB 180, a sweeping farm bill. By tucking the leaf blower provision into a broad \u201cagency bill\u201d for the Department of Agriculture, the industry was able to frame the issue as protecting farming tools rather than just a fight over noisy lawn equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being beholden more and more to the interest of the businesses. And not looking at the holistic community, and also listening to what the people want,\u201d said former Key Biscayne Council Member Katie Petros who spearheaded the island\u2019s ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.<\/p>\n

During the bill signing in Sebring last month, DeSantis was blunt about his preference for gas-powered tools, framing the ban reversal as a win for personal choice. \u201cIf you want to use different stuff, fine, it\u2019s a free country. But I like the gas-powered better,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think it\u2019s more reliable \u2026 If that\u2019s what you believe, then you should be able to continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Petros said banning gas-powered leaf blowers in 2018 made Key Biscayne a trendsetter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the first community in Miami-Dade County that actually did ban the gas powered leaf blowers, and the other ones followed suit,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I was on Council, it\u2019s the one thing that I got calls from other communities, even across the state they wanted to know how we were able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Possible Work-Arounds<\/p>\n

Williamson is well versed on the issue, responding to a reporter\u2019s inquiry with an outline on everything leafblower. He said the new state law is pretty comprehensive, prohibiting enforcing time-of-day restrictions and restrictions on decibel levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Village can retain general noise authority, but cannot single out gas\u2011powered leaf blowers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Key Biscayne can enforce noise regulations and hours of operations \u2014 as long as they apply equally to gas or electric equipment.<\/p>\n

He said Key Biscayne can encourage voluntary use of electric or battery\u2011powered equipment through education, outreach, even incentives<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will need to reassess our policy and clean up the code accordingly,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the meantime, we need to make sure our Code Compliance officers are informed on the new law taking effect on July 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using other ordinances to address leaf blowers is tricky. Most noise complaints are made by individuals and then investigated by police. Williamson said that the Village is asking the Sustainability Advisory Board to look into the issue.<\/p>\n

In Delray Beach in Palm Beach County<\/a>, Mayor Tom Carney wants to explore using the noise ordinance, as well. The town just invested in five sound meters at $7,000 <\/a>a piece which could be utilized.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that goes for not just lawn blowers, but also other lawn equipment, which, by the way, have decibel levels which exceed lawn blowers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pollution Problems and Electric Benefits<\/p>\n

Gas-powered leaf-blowers are the unfiltered cigarette of lawn equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A single commercial gas leaf blower can emit 30 million micrograms <\/a>of fine particulates per hour. These particles are small enough to enter the bloodstream directly through the lungs of landscape workers \u2013 often immigrants.<\/p>\n

A report by the Public Interest Network found in 2020 that in Florida alone, gas-powered lawn and garden equipment contributed 2.6 million tons of carbon dioxide, second only to California.<\/p>\n

\"\"Antonio Espinoza, a supervisor with the Gras Lawn landscaping company, uses a gasoline-powered leaf blower to clean up around a housing development in Brick, N.J. on June 18, 2024. New Jersey is one of many states either considering or already having banned gasoline-powered leaf blowers on environmental and health grounds, but the landscaping industry says the battery-powered devices favored by environmentalists and some governments are costlier and less effective than the ones they currently use. (AP Photo\/Wayne Parry)<\/p>\n

Lawn equipment in Miami-Dade County emitted nearly 199,000 tons that year, sixth most of any county in the nation and the most of any in Florida. That\u2019s the equivalent of total annual emissions from 44,000 cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the best-selling commercial leaf blower, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a 2016 Toyota Camry about 1,100 miles, or approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Denver,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Petros said landscapers using electric lawn equipment will find them suitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see more landscapers using the electric versions because it\u2019s better for them too once they invest in it,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce they invest and they switch over, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll ever switch back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Invest in Local News for Your Town. Your Gift is tax-deductible<\/a><\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

JOHN PACENTI is a correspondent of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That serenity of residents on their verandas and porches could once again be pierced by the roar of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[589,98936,98937,98938,123,125,124,23692,98939,412,1584],"class_list":{"0":"post-217497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-katie-petros","10":"tag-leaf-blower","11":"tag-lobbyist","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-headlines","14":"tag-miami-news","15":"tag-noise","16":"tag-noise-ordinance","17":"tag-ron-desantis","18":"tag-steve-williamson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}