City of Richmond clears up leaf collection confusion

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -In Richmond, some neighbors are confused about leaf collection.

Complaints are coming in about people raking their leaves to the curb, believing that the city will vacuum them up. That is not necessarily the case.

When it comes to leaf collection, city residents have four options. No matter what you choose, the resident’s responsibility is to get rid of the leaves on their property.

The city won’t just drive up to your house and get rid of the leaves for you. Even if the tree that those leaves are coming from isn’t sitting on your property.

“If there’s a tree adjacent to your property and the leaves fall into your yard, you’re going to be responsible for them, even my neighbor’s tree if it’s right on the border of our property line and it falls into my yard or vice versa then we’re to be good neighbors and rake the leaves collect them,” said Richmond City Councilor Mike Jones.

You can pack up to 10 bagfuls of leaves to be collected on trash day or get rid of them by turning them into mulch or compost. You can also pay 30 dollars to schedule the city to come out and vacuum up your leaves or wait until the designated days for your section of the city when you can get rid of an unlimited number of bags of leaves.

“Please don’t leave them in your ditch or in your drainage areas because that’ll cause flooding when we get heavy rains, but again get it out to the curb. DPW has traditionally done a pretty good job in getting those leaves picked up,” Jones said.

If you don’t remove your leaves, you could get a citation from the city. They say it can overwhelm street sweeping equipment and create problems for drivers and pedestrians.

“Do we want someone turned in for that? Definitely not, but we want individuals to be good neighbors, get your leaves to the curb, call the service,” Jones explained.

The city’s vacuum leaf collection program ends on March 13.

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