The Baltimore City Council on Monday evening postponed a final vote to ban gas-powered leaf blowers.
The council adopted an amendment to the proposed ordinance that would allow landscaping companies and residents to use gas blowers between Oct. 15 and Dec. 15, 2025 and 2026 before their year-round use could be fined.
If the bill passes at the next meeting on Oct. 7, city agencies and their contractors will have to comply with it by Dec. 15 of this year.
“The board and the city departments that contract or perform services internally to build and maintain properties said they had no problem making that transition essentially immediately this year,” said Councilman Ryan Dorsey, who sponsored the bill sponsors.
Before the change was 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 up to $1,000 for each violation, with each day of violation counting as a separate violation.
More than a hundred other U.S. 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, DC banned them in 2022, and Montgomery County banned their sale 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 association said. Some opponents also complain about the noise.
The Department of Public Works said in a report that it would cost the water utilities department $41,000 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 fans at $378 per unit for about $9,000.
Department of Recreation and Parks Director Reginald Moore said in support of the bill that his agency had already begun switching to electric fans “in recent years.”
Another bill related to pollution and local environmental concerns was introduced on Monday. It would change the zoning codes for crematoria.
In July, Judge Kathryn Grill Graeff upheld a court decision to allow a new crematorium in North Baltimore, according to an unreported opinion that should not be cited as precedent. Residents opposed the crematorium at the Vaughn Greene Funeral Services site on York Road, near the Radnor-Winston and Winston-Govans neighborhoods, over pollution concerns. In May 2023, the Baltimore City Circuit Court affirmed a decision by the zoning board to approve the crematorium.
The bill proposed by Councilman Mark Conway would create a new zoning category for crematoria that would prevent new facilities in residential areas.
“This is a common sense bill that defines crematoria in the future zoning code so that cases like the one we see on York Road do not happen without some form of redress,” Conway said.
Conway explained at a press conference at City Hall on Monday that crematoria are allowed in any cemetery or funeral home under city law, and that the new bill would move them out of residential areas.
“Crematoria release many unpleasant gases and dangerous chemicals that we know are not good for human health,” Conway said Monday. “We want to make sure they are not in densely populated neighborhoods.”
Brittany Baker of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network said at the news conference that crematoria are sources of greenhouse gases and local air pollution, and pose a particular risk to surrounding communities during summer heat waves.
“This is especially important because of the interaction between extreme heat and air pollution,” says Baker. “Air pollution increases as temperatures rise. Baltimore experienced four consecutive days of 100-degree weather in July.”
Lisa Polyak, an environmental engineer, said the zoning code prohibits other types of incinerators in the city limits.
“Incinerators are the source of some of the worst environmental pollutants, things like metals, acid gases, dioxin and small particles that medical experts tell us are the source of life-threatening respiratory and health problems,” she said.
Conway said his bill would ban new crematoria but would not close existing facilities. Polyak said there are more than 110 crematorium incinerators operating in the state, including six in three state-permitted locations in Baltimore City.
