By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Fall foliage is peaking, but an ordinance proposed to restrict use of gas-powered leaf blowers won’t be decided until the bleak midwinter.

The Representative Town Meeting on Tuesday night heard the latest “first reading” of the leaf blower ordinance, proposed legislation that’s now vastly different from what was first proposed months ago.

Gone from the measure are detailed enforcement provisions, including proposed fines, which would be replaced by educational letters sent to violators by the Conservation Department.

The original measure, intended to lessen harmful noise and air-pollution impacts, has been discussed, reviewed and debated for more than a year. Some RTM members have wondered privately why the measure, so stripped of its teeth, is still in play.

“Thank you to all of you who for sticking with us what has been a very long and complex process,” primary sponsor Kristin Schneeman of District 9 said at the meeting in Town Hall.

“I think we started this more than 18 months ago,” she said. “It’s been now through eight committees, I think I counted, and a whole bunch of other meetings and conversations. We’ve gotten a lot of great input and feedback from all the members of the public from inside and outside Westport.”

“So, I just wanted to say, thank you all, we will be voting on it in January if nothing else goes wrong between now and then,” Schneeman said.

RTM Moderator Jeff Wieser, District 4, detailed a list of the committees that discussed and voted on the earlier version of the measure.

“I think all of the issues that are in this most recent draft have been discussed in those committees … as a result I don’t think there’s a need for further committee meetings,” Wieser said.

He said if any committee chair would like to have a committee meeting, that’s within their purview.

Wieser said he encouraged all stakeholders, including landscapers, to review the latest draft of the proposal

Highlights of those changes include:

• Phasing in, over the course of a year, the full force of restrictions on when gas-powered leaf blowers can be used, including the times of day and months of the year.
• Exemptions on gas-powered leaf blowers are granted for town- and state-owned properties, as well as properties larger than 20 acres, but not to “residential communities,” such as condominium or homeowner associations. An exemption is also given to utility companies’ work. Early in the process, both town public works and parks and recreation officials strongly objected to any plan that would restrict their staffs’ use of gas-powered leaf blowers, arguing the electric devices are not as effective.
• Enforcement of the ordinance has been watered down to an educational initiative overseen by the Conservation Department, which would be called on to “provide written information and educational materials” about the rules to anyone reported to have violated the ordinance.

Other business

Also Tuesday, the RTM unanimously agreed to:

• To not reject the agreement between the Westport Intermediate Administrators Association and the Board of Education for the period covering July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2026.

• To approve a request by the superintendent of schools for an appropriation of $831,000 for schools’ capital projects in the fiscal year 2022-23.

Thane Grauel, executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.