Does California allow civil lawsuits for this kind of thing?
It sounds like that might be the most practical way to force compliance.
It sounds like that might be the most practical way to force compliance.
i'm personally not sympathetic to the noise argument, since we accept the constant noise of much more plentiful and sometimes-quieter-but-sometimes-louder 2-ton vehicles all over the place. blowers/trimmers are also usually used during business hours where it has to be acceptable to make some noise for work purposes.
in contrast, the pollution argument is quite salient, as @porb121 details[0], and reason enough for the ban. the exhaust pollutants can be smelled surprisingly far away (dozens of feet) and can enter homes through windows and linger. and with blowers at least, raking and sweeping are likely as efficient in most cases and doesn't really save labor/exertion.
The reason I’ve been hesitant to complain is it feels wrong to go after the (mostly working immigrant) landscape companies the Palo Alto NIMBYs have all hired to do their landscaping.
I assume a lot of them are probably commuting from far away.
depends on the vehicle. in my neighborhood, we have plenty of (intentionally) loud cars, motorcycles, and trucks. but the point is that work machines that come with unavoidable noise should be allowed to make that noise during working hours (unlike most vehicles, except perhaps delivery trucks, but they should be using primary thoroughfares, not neighborhood streets).
i also don't report landscaping companies for that reason.
A jackass on a straight-pipe harley is obnoxious, but they are around for like 30 seconds. But a jackass on an industrial zero-clearance lawn mower is going at it for at least 30mins.
These things don't need to be so loud that operators need to wear hearing protection.
A loud ten second car? Whatever.
Constant leaf blowers every morning for hours? They drive me crazy.
And heavens forbid leaves build up around plants, we must remove all compost like that because it will contaminated the soil, it’s so unnatural.
In a front lawn or landscaping that no one uses, it should be low maintenance native plants that are adapted to the weather so they barely need water and will benefit by letting the leaves decay. Send the leaves through a shredder if one really hates the sight of leaves.
however, i’d point out that lifting the noise floor, as road noise does, contributes to lifetime hearing loss, as we make everything else louder (it also negatively affects attention, concentration, stress and anxiety in subtle but meaningful ways). it’s the kind of long, low externalized cost that our short-term-oriented brains tend to evaluate and address poorly.
And if a neighbor refuses to comply with noise ordinances because they want faster/cheaper lawn care, they already kind of hate you. They're just being subtle in how they show it.