Menlo Park is enforcing ban on gas-powered gardening equipment
Menlo Park is now enforcing its ban on gas-powered leaf blowers and string trimmers under the City’s Zero Emission Landscaping Equipment (ZELE) Ordinance. The use of these gas-powered tools is prohibited in all residential, commercial and public spaces to reduce air and noise pollution and support a healthier environment.
Property owners will be held responsible and may be cited for the use of gas-powered equipment on their property. Fines start at $50 and may increase up to $500 for repeat violations.
To report active use, call the Menlo Park Police Department’s non-emergency line at 650-330-6300. Citations require officers to directly observe the violation. Warning letters are no longer being issued, and the ACT Menlo Park reporting tool has been deactivated.
For ordinance details, compliance tips and equipment resources, visit menlopark.gov/zele.
Ole Agesen August 17, 2025 at 9:08 pm
When I go on my daily bicycle ride and I see a gardener using a gas leaf blower I often stop and ask him (rarely her, but even if it is her, I stop) if s/he knows about the Menlo Park ordinance that now bans gas powered leaf blowers and soon shall ban gas powered lawn mowers.
More often than not, the gardener and I will talk for a few minutes and he explains that he did not know, or did not find property owner insisting on electrical gardening tools. Then I remind him why gas fumes are especially bad for pedestrians, cyclists and gardeners. In fact, anyone who is not in a car is harmed by gas powered equipment exhausts. The gardener is the most vulnerable, since he is exposed for way more hours a day than anyone.
It is, in my experience, perfectly fine to talk with any gardener who is using outdated gassy (!) non-electrical garden equipment. My comments always seem welcome; yours will be welcome too if you ask a gardener on your walk about the future of battery-powered gardening.
And it is good to close conversation by reiterating how the person to be harmed most by gas-powered garden equipment is the gardener himself, not the property owner.
As noted, in the end, it is the home owner’s responsibility to make sure that whoever works on his property has the right (legal) equipment. But when we are out there bicycling or walking,
perhaps with a dog, in my experience, the person we meet, the gardener, very much welcomes the message.
Talking with our neighborhood gardeners is an affordable, healthy, and neighbor-friendly *and* gardener-friendly move to take towards better air in Menlo Park? And towards a better community in which we care for the best of each other, gardeners, renters, dog walkers, cyclists and home owners.
What’s not to like? Meet the gardener, make a friend.
Ole, Allied Arts