We did it!

Yesterday afternoon, the Santa Cruz City Council voted 7-0 to phase out gas-powered leaf blowers in the city. The ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2025.

Santa Cruz joins over 50 other cities across the state which have done so already. The city will continue reaching out to landscapers and inform them of the ordinance as well as the LEEP trade-in program which provides new battery equipment and extra batteries at discounts up to 80%. You can help by sharing that info with your landscaper or ones you see working in your neighborhood. Santa Cruz C.H.A.S.E. will continue our outreach efforts and help landscapers and residents access the LEEP funds, understand enforcement, etc.

The policy that passed includes some temporary exemptions, including non-residential parcels over 10 acres and the larger city parks. The text calls on these exemptions to be lifted in two to three years.

Thank you to Councilmember Kalantari-Johnson for sponsoring the policy, Councilmembers Brunner and Watkins for working on it, and Councilmember Brown for working on the funding component. Most of all, huge thanks to all of our supporters who helped make this happen by writing letters, attending meetings, posting signs, and spreading the word–community action really does make a difference!

Also, the County Supervisors voted 5-0 on the same day to move their parallel ordinance forward! Their policy would take effect July 31, 2025. Thank you to Supervisor Manu Koenig for sponsoring it! We expect a vote in August.

Stay tuned for news on the County’s developing ordinance and info on the city’s as we get closer to roll out!