Huntington rejects new gas-powered leaf blower law, eyes compromise next year

The Huntington Town Board voted down a new push to restrict the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, but Supervisor Ed Smyth said he is working toward a compromise early next year to address a yearslong tug-of-war over the devices. 

For years, the town has grappled with balancing the needs of commercial landscapers with concerns residents have over the devices' impact on public health and the environment.

Landscapers favor the devices' power and efficiency over battery-operated blowers, while residents have complained about the blowers' noise and particle pollution.

Earlier this year, freshman town board member Jen Hebert, a Democrat, began meeting with both sides to seek a compromise.

Her solution was to make the operation of the devices a noise disturbance violation for just over half the year, including summer months, Sundays and holidays.

But the gas-powered blowers would be permitted at cemeteries, golf courses and school-owned properties, and commercial landscapers could use them in commercial and industrial zones during the workweek. 

The resolution sp onsored by Hebert failed at Tuesday's town board meeting with Republicans Smyth, Dave Bennardo and Theresa Mari voting no. Brooke Lupinacci, a Conservative, joined Hebert, a Democrat, in voting yes.

Smyth, the town supervisor, said he thought the measure was government overreach.

“The vast majority of residents that I have heard from are willing to tolerate the annoyance of gas-powered leaf blowers,” he said in an interview.  

Hebert said she was disappointed but not surprised the measure failed.

“I really think I did the work needed to come up with the best possible compromise that was really fair all around, and it still wasn’t enough,” she said.

Dr. Eve Meltzer-Krief, vice president of the American Academy of Pediatrics' New York Chapter, has advocated for gas-powered leaf blower bans. She said in a phone interview after the vote that the government’s job is to protect public health.

“I don’t think it’s government overreach at all, I think it’s their responsibility,” said Meltzer-Krief, president of the Harborfields Board of Education and a former Democratic candidate for Suffolk County legislature.

Evan Dackow, executive board chairman of the Landscape Contractors Association of Long Island, said town officials should go after landscaping companies that operate without a business license, are uninsured and operate early in the day and into the night.

“Let’s start there first,” Dackow said. “Then as professionals we’re all going to come to the table to figure it out how to address legitimate concerns.”

Elsewhere on Long Island, North Hempstead has a summer ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, as do the towns of Southampton and East Hampton. The Village of Greenport's year-round ban took effect last year.

Huntington officials have wrestled with what to do about the gas-powered blowers for two years.

In November 2024, the town board voted to enact their phaseout. That resolution said starting Jan. 1, 2025, the gas-powered blowers would be banned for use on residential properties between Memorial Day and Labor Day. They also would have been banned on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Starting this year, allowances in the resolution for their use in cemeteries, on golf courses and school-owned properties, or in commercial and industrial zones would have remained, but residential use of the devices would have been banned.

But after blowback mostly from landscaping companies, the town board voted in February 2025 to hold off implementing that ban. It renewed the hold this past February and it will expire this coming February.

Smyth said officials are working to have a “reasonable compromise” in place by then. 

By Deborah S. Morris

deborah.morris@newsday.comdsvmorris

Deborah Morris is a native Long Islander and covers the town of Huntington.