During the March 17, 2026, Sullivan’s Island Town Council meeting, council members directed town staff to draft an ordinance banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers on the island.
The issue began more than a year ago under a previous council, which formed a “Leaf Blower Ad Hoc Committee” made up of residents and representatives from the commercial lawn care industry. The committee met twice in 2025 to examine the environmental, health and livability impacts of the equipment.
“In addition to the annoyance of the noise, decreasing the quality of life, polluting the surrounding air, interference with workers who work from home, exacerbation of asthma and allergies, and interruption of beneficial insects that live in our leaves, there’s an increased risk of hearing loss,” a member of the public said during the March council meeting. “It is generally agreed that a safe decibel level is less than 70 dB; anything greater than 85 dB is considered damaging. Gas blowers generally run 80 to 100 dB.”
Decibel levels are measured on a logarithmic scale, meaning a gas-powered leaf blower emitting 30 dB more noise than an electric alternative produces 1,000 times more sound energy and is perceived by the human ear as about eight times as loud.
Many municipalities across the United States have considered the impacts of gas-powered landscaping equipment and developed regulations to mitigate those effects. Kiawah amended its noise ordinance to ban two-stroke gas blowers for commercial entities, with that prohibition set to take effect a year before a potential Sullivan’s Island ban.
Opposition to the proposed ban includes concerns about government intrusion into residential life and the possibility that landscaping companies will pass the cost of upgrading equipment on to customers. Landscaping company The Greenery is voluntarily transitioning to electric equipment and noted that while the shift required a large upfront investment, it has resulted in cost savings of about $6,000 per crew per year.
Town staff have been instructed to draft an ordinance, which will then be considered at a future council meeting. The measure would require three readings before becoming law, and only after codification would a transition phase begin ahead of a full ban.
Some residents expressed concern that the phase-out timeline may be too long and said they would like to see a ban take effect sooner. Mayor O’Neil said the reduction in noise will likely begin earlier as contractors transition to electric equipment during their normal replacement cycles. He added that the town wants to give both commercial operators and residents adequate notice and time to adapt.
Councilmember Novak suggested drafting separate sections of the ordinance — one for commercial entities and another for residents. Councilmember Latham agreed, saying, “I would hate to negate the commercial ban because we lumped it in with the residential ban that some people had an issue with.”
“People are pretty much squarely in favor of doing something to minimize or reduce this problem,” Mayor O’Neil said. A survey found that about two-thirds of Sullivan’s Island residents support eventually phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers.