City Council: Leaf Blowers Banned After 7 p.m.

The voted this week to ban the use of leaf blowers and other noisy landscaping equipment after 7 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends. The vote was unanimous.

The action was part of a wide range of business during the lengthy meeting this week, which also included a call to further clarify rules pertaining to parking recreational vehicles on residential properties and an appeal of a Planning Commission approval for a hillside development project.

LANDSCAPING NOISE ORDINANCE

In a unanimous vote, council members chose to limit the use of landscaping equipment from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Previously, such equipment was allowed up to 9 p.m. on some days.

The decision fine-tuned the recommendation of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily as the allowable time to operate lawn mowers, leaf blowers or other landscaping machines that don't exceed 65 decibels of volume as measured from an adjacent property line.

R.V. PARKING

The council directed Community Development Director Robert Stanley to take an in-depth look at developing specific guidelines for deciding which La Cañada Flintridge properties can have parking. Currently the law leaves it up to the director to decide which residential property can accommodate an R.V.

During the public comments portion of the hearing, resident Otis Hutchins shared why he supports R.V. parking in residential areas.

"Our motor home is our emergency fall-back in case of fires, power outages, earthquakes or other disasters," Hutchins said. "This vehicle could in such an emergency take care of not only ourselves but several neighbors ... providing shelter, water and toilet facilities. ... Should an earthquake hit, having an R.V. in some storage area miles away is of no use whatsoever."

David Hodgkin, also an LCF resident, took an opposing view.

"I think [R.V.s] just have too many detrimental effects," Hodgkin said. "They really don't do anything to enhance the value of our neighborhoods, there's just no way to hide them and though the current ordinance maybe is well intended, ... no matter what you do for side or rear when you're talking about for the front of the house a 6-foot sight-obscuring fence simply does not hide an R.V."

HILLSIDE DEVELOPMENT APPEAL

The council blocked a Planning Commission and staff recommendation to proceed with developing a hillside property at 2048 Lyans Drive. The Lyans family, which lives adjacent to the property in question and formerly owned the lot, sold it to Norm Peters, who now seeks to build a two-story house there.

The Lyans and other neighbors oppose the proposed home design, claiming the size of the proposed house is too large and too tall. The neighbors claim Peters' current plans will obscure views of the surrounding Verdugo Mountains and create other concerns such as headlights shining on their property due to the planned location of the home's garage.

Citing the view-obscuring height of the house as their main concern, council members voted unanimously to grant the appeal and send the project back to the Planning Commission for another round of review.