The Radnor Township Board of Commissioners met on March 9, 2026, at 6:30 PM in the Radnorshire Room. The meeting included presentations on a proposed gas-powered leaf blower phase-out and a transition to pay-by-plate parking, public comments, approval of a consent agenda, and several resolutions and reports. Key actions included approving a liquor license transfer, minor subdivision and land development plans, tabling an eminent domain ordinance, funding a trail access project, and adopting a fee reduction policy for the Responsible Contracting Ordinance. The meeting also received a biannual update from the Willows Park Preserve.
March 9th, 2026 at 645 p.m. Would everybody please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you everybody for coming. We're going to start off with a couple presentations. The first ones from the EAC presentation pros and cons of gas powered leaf blowers phase out. Hello, everyone. This is Dan Burnham. I'm chair of the Environmental Advisory Council. I'd like to thank the medical liaison or medical liaison, our board liaison, Kathy Agnew, and the Board of Commissioners for inviting me to give this proposal. What I am going to be proposing is really not unique to this township. There has been a long standing decades long concern about the extreme air pollution and noise caused by gasoline powered leaf blowers. And this concern has resulted in restrictions and total bans on the use of these machines across the country in the past several years. Notable examples are in New Jersey, which has a similar natural environment and climate as us, such as Princeton, Maplewood, Millburn, and Montclair, and I'm pleased to announce Lower Marion Township in our state is the first in Pennsylvania to pass a phased-in ban on gasoline leaf blowers. So what is the premise of our proposal? This is stemming from the Radner 2035 goals that were set out in the recently approved Radner Township Comprehensive Plan. Amongst these goals is the statement the township will work to reduce pollutants, including but not limited to air, water, sound, and light pollution, as one of the five many community driven goals that should be the guide to the township's policy decisions. So based on this, based on this premise, the EAC proposes that gasoline-powered leaf blowers be banned in the township because the air pollution and noise they generate are a particularly serious threat to the health and peace of our community and the environment. So what am I talking about? I'm talking about handheld gas blowers and backpack leaf blowers. But these machines can generate up to 200 miles per hour of wind coming out its nozzle. That's akin to an EF5 tornado. So how are they being used in our township? Well, as you may well know, the heaviest use of gas leaf blowers is during the spring and fall for collecting leaves and debris. Excuse me. Yes. The lightest use is in the summer and the winter for clearing lawn clippings and light debris from paved surfaces and in the winter clear light snow from walkways and even straight lights. In the fall, actually, you can hear more than one gas leaf blower on a property working to gather leaves. So the noise is doubled in that case. So why ban them? Well, these are all reasons are from matter of health. First of all, air pollution. Gas leaf blowers pose a disproportionately greater health risk due to the fact that they burn only 70% of the gas oil mixture. The rest is emitted as an exhaust containing high concentration of particulate matter, volatile organic chemicals, and nitrogen oxides. The particular matter is divided into those that are smaller than two and a half microns in size, that's fine particulates, and those bigger than 10 microns. The smaller end of this range, you cannot even see the particulate matter. So you may be well breathing fine particulate matter now, and in fact, I'll show you data that we are at an unhealthy concentration. The amount of these pollutants is almost four times that emitted by a commercial lawnmower during an hour period of work, and 15 times that of a passenger car. We can thank the catalytic converters largely for the reason that they burn so clean. The second reason is the high decibel noise. Again, the high rotational speed that generates this high volume of airflow causes high high decibel noise, but also a low, excuse me, a high decibel noise and there is insufficient muffling of it. The reason is these gas blowers have to have free flow of fuel air mixture into the combustion chamber and then exiting during its one cycle, a two-cycle series. Thus the result is these machines are two to four fold louder than a riding gas mower. I'll go into more detail on this in a minute. On contrary, electric powered leaf blowers for those who wish to blow material are cleaner because they run on electricity and they're quieter. They don't rotate quite at the high rate of speed, and they don't have a gas engine with combustion. So fine particulate matter is a leading health risk factor. This is recognized by a study done in 2021 called the Global Burden of Disease Project. Fine particulate matter, because it is so small, penetrates deep into the lungs and delivers toxic materials such as heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the bloodstream. The result is short-term exposure can lead to acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks, hospital admissions in infants and children, and in older adults with pre-existing heart or lung disease. Thus, there are susceptible members of our community who are at risk of serious health consequences of these machines.