Tigard, OR Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

The City of Tigard has no stand-alone leaf blower ordinance and no separate ban on gas-powered blowers. Leaf blowers are named inside the noise chapter of Title 6, in the exceptions list of § 6.02.450. Subsection H protects sounds from air-, electrical- or gas-driven domestic tools, and the printed examples are lawn mowers, leaf blowers, lawn edgers, radial arm, circular and table saws, and drills. Tools used for vehicle repair are carved out of the exception. The protected window is 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, so Saturday and Sunday use gets the same hours as a weekday.

Outside those hours the exception does not apply, and the ordinary limits of § 6.02.430 govern. At the boundary of or within a property that holds a noise-sensitive unit, sound cannot exceed 40 dB between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. or 50 dB between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Sound that is plainly audible between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. inside a noise-sensitive unit that is not the source is also unlawful. Tigard defines a noise-sensitive unit to include a residence, place of overnight accommodation, church, day care center, hospital, school or nursing care center.

The exception has a ceiling. Under § 6.02.460, noise from an activity covered by subsection E, F, H or I of § 6.02.450 that exceeds 85 dB measured on property where a noise-sensitive use is located, for more than five minutes in any calendar day, is a violation even during the permitted hours. A crew running blowers continuously next to a home can cross that line at noon. Professional landscapers and homeowners are treated the same way, because the provision regulates the sound and not the operator.