Lancaster, CA Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

Chapter 8.70 of the Lancaster Municipal Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 1063 in April 2019 and amended by Ordinance No. 1114 in March 2024, phases out gas-powered lawn equipment used by the professional landscaping trade. Section 8.70.010 defines "landscape equipment" to include lawn mowers, leaf blowers and edger-trimmers used to maintain lawns, gardens, sidewalks and driveways, and defines "gasoline powered" as any internal combustion engine that runs on gasoline, diesel or other volatile fuel. Section 8.70.020 sets the operative date: effective April 1, 2027, a landscape maintenance business, defined by cross-reference to the city's general business license chapter (Section 5.04.010), may not use gasoline powered landscape equipment anywhere within Lancaster city limits.

Section 8.70.030 narrows who the ban reaches. It exempts departments, agencies or contractors of the federal government or the State of California, local public entities and their contractors, and, critically, any person or entity performing landscape maintenance on property that person owns, rents or leases. That carve-out means a homeowner or renter can still run a gas mower or blower on their own yard after April 1, 2027; only paid landscaping businesses working other people's property are covered. The chapter does not set a decibel limit or restrict hours of use for permitted equipment; it is a fuel-type ban tied to who is operating the equipment and where.

Section 8.70.040 makes a violation a misdemeanor rather than an infraction, distinguishing it from most other Title 8 nuisance chapters that route first through administrative citations. Section 8.70.050 is a standard severability clause preserving the rest of the chapter if any part is struck down.