West Des Moines, IA Noise Ordinances: Leaf Blower Rules (2026)

Section 4-7-8(A)(11) of the Noise Control Regulations exempts the emission of sound from the use of lawn and garden equipment and chain saws from the maximum permissible sound levels that section 4-7-7 otherwise sets for a receiving land use. Lawn and garden equipment is not separately defined in the noise chapter, but on its plain terms the category covers mowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers used to maintain a yard. As with the chapter's other equipment exemptions, this one carries a time-and-distance limit: where the sound originates within three hundred feet of a residential land use or a noise-sensitive land use, the exemption applies only between seven o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock at night.

Running lawn or garden equipment near a home outside that window forfeits the exemption, and the noise is then measured against the ordinary maximum permissible levels of section 4-7-7, which cap unamplified sound reaching a residential or noise-sensitive property at 65 dBA by day and as low as 55 dBA overnight. Section 4-7-8 groups this exemption with a parallel one for snow removal equipment, which carries no time restriction at all, and with separate time-limited exemptions for stationary trash compactors, parking lot maintenance, and private compactor trucks.

The city clerk and chief of police enforce the noise chapter under section 4-7-15, and section 4-7-16 makes the maximum-permissible-level standard in section 4-7-7 enforceable only through a municipal infraction, not a criminal charge.