Southfield, MI Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

Southfield City Code Sec. 9.11(6), captioned Blowers, is part of the Sec. 9.11 list of specific noise offenses that flow from the general nuisance declaration in Sec. 9.10. It makes unlawful the discharge into the open air of air from any noise-creating blower or power fan unless the noise from that blower or fan is muffled sufficiently to deaden the noise. The section covers leaf blowers along with other power blowers and fans; it does not set a curfew or a decibel ceiling the way the amplified-sound and radio provisions in the same section do, so the operative test is whether the equipment's noise has been adequately muffled, not what time of day it runs.

Because Sec. 9.11 as a whole is designated a municipal civil infraction under Sec. 1.704, a complaint about an unmuffled blower is enforced civilly. The Southfield Police Department holds general Code enforcement authority under Sec. 1.18, and the general nuisance-abatement remedy in Sec. 9.2 lets the city seek a court order to abate the nuisance in addition to any civil fine.