We were never told. Now we are all paying for it.
On November 19, 2025, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners passed a sweeping gas blower ban that affects all 64,000 of us. The notice ran on a township website almost nobody checks. No postcard. No mailer. No knock on the door. Most of us only learned about it after the vote.
Now the bill is coming due, and it lands on the people who can least afford it.
Your landscaper will charge you more
Every family landscaping company in the township is being forced to replace its equipment with electric blowers and the batteries that power them, at a cost of $5,000 to $15,000 per crew. The batteries die within an hour, take longer to recharge than to use, and need to be replaced every season. Those costs do not vanish. They show up on your invoice. Seniors on fixed incomes are already getting letters about higher prices.
Some landscapers will disappear
The small family run and immigrant owned companies that keep our lawns and trees beautiful cannot absorb this. Many will close. Many will lay off workers. The ones that survive will service fewer homes.
The leaves will pile up. And pile up.
When fewer lawns get cleared, leaves drift onto your property and into the streets. Then late fall arrives and the rain comes. Wet leaves on a sidewalk are as slick as ice. Seniors fall. Children slip. Cars slide on covered roads. Storm drains clog. The township has no plan for any of this.
Our neighborhoods will look neglected, and property values will follow
Curb appeal is not vanity. It is value. When a block starts to look unkempt, every home on it sells for less. Lower property values mean lower tax revenue for the township at the moment we need it most.
We support clean air. We do not support this
We are not asking the Board to undo its commitment to the environment. We are asking them to fix three things before the first phase begins on June 1, 2026:
- Exempt properties over one acre, where electric equipment cannot yet do the job.
- Give working landscapers a longer transition so they have time to adapt without closing their doors.
- Protect fall use through 2030, until the technology truly works.
Fourteen people made this decision for 64,000 of us. Add your name below. Stand with your neighbors. Make sure every Commissioner hears from every one of us.