Snowmass Moves to Ban Gas Leaf Blowers Amidst $175K Fleet Cost

Kevin Von Ohlen didn’t just hear the draft ordinance coming. He says it blindsided him.

The owner of Cmz LLC stood before the Snowmass Town Council on Monday and laid out the bottom line: switching his entire fleet to electric power will cost $175,000. That figure doesn’t even include the cost of a portable generator to keep those batteries charged in the field.

It’s a steep price for a small business already bracing for impact. Von Ohlen and his partner are looking at $800 to $,000 per battery. The transition isn’t seamless. It’s a financial shock.

The council is listening. But they’re treating this as a "learning session," according to Mayor Alyssa Shenk. Town Attorney Jeff Conklin called it a way to "get the temperature of council."

Don’t let the soft language fool you. This is the first concrete step toward a ban on gas-powered lawn and leaf blowers for commercial operators, homeowners associations, and government entities, starting in 2028. A general public ban would follow.

The push comes from a citizen initiative petition originally filed by longtime resident John Wilkinson. Wilkinson argues the noise is "very disturbing" for neighbors and their pets. The emissions are the other half of the argument.

But the people doing the blowing aren’t just worried about noise complaints. They’re worried about fire risk.

Von Ohlen and Chessie Stokes of Mighty Mouse made a specific case: gas-powered blowers are currently the only reliable tool for clearing dry leaves from lawns. If you compromise that ability, you compromise fire mitigation.

"This fire mitigation purposes on the fall leaf cleanup is very important for this town," Von Ohlen said. "It needs to be done with gas-powered blowers at this moment."

Stokes added the timing is brutal. Small businesses are already recovering from a slower winter. They are staring down the 2027 airport closure, which is expected to further squeeze local commerce. Asking these businesses to absorb a $175,000 fleet overhaul on top of that uncertainty is "terrifying," she said.

The town isn’t acting in a vacuum. Colorado adopted a regulation in 2024 for Front Range communities that restricts state agencies and contractors from using gas-powered equipment between June 1 and August 31. Carbondale and Aspen have effectively banned gas leaf blowers through noise ordinances.

Boulder tried. They made a "considerable effort" to adopt a similar ban. They failed. The business community pushed back hard, and the ordinance died.

Snowmass is betting it can succeed where Boulder couldn’t. The draft ordinance defines the equipment broadly: lawn and leaf blowers powered by gasoline, diesel, or oil fuel.

The council directed staff to return with this draft on June 1. Now they’re taking public comment. The goal is to see if the political will holds up against the economic reality of the folks actually turning the leaves.

Von Ohlen’s $175,000 question remains: Can the town afford the transition, and can the businesses afford the town’s decision?

The short version is that the ban is moving forward. The question is whether the blowers will still be able to do the job when the leaves start falling.