Leaf Season in Fairview: 10 Bags a Month, One Brush Pile, and the Burn Ban That Never Passed

In July 2025, Fairview's Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an ordinance that would have ended most open burning inside city limits. Three weeks later the same ordinance died without a vote. A commissioner moved to approve it, and nobody seconded.

That second meeting gets less attention than the first, so it's worth saying plainly before leaf season: the burn ban did not pass. The rules for burning, brush and leaves this fall are the ones that have been in the city code since 2019.

The quick answer, inside city limits:

• Burning: get a permit from the Fairview Fire Department. For homeowners it is free. Fire pits, campfires, fireplaces and grills need no permit.
• Leaves: biodegradable bags only, 10 per home per month, at the roadside no more than 14 days before pickup.
• Brush: one pile at a time, no taller than 3 feet or larger than 10 by 10 feet, no limbs over 4 inches. (See the storm caveat below.)
• Chipper service: kept. A repeal was drafted this summer and pulled before a vote. The service is seasonal; this year's ended in late October, and it returns in April.

The burn ban that wasn't

Ordinance 2025-11 came from the Fire Department. At the July 17, 2025 meeting, Fire Chief Scott Hughes told the board it would require an air curtain for commercial burning on developments larger than 20 acres, bar burning on anything smaller and set burns 500 feet back from structures and property lines. In effect, he said, it would end open burning in the city except for campfires and fire pits, according to the minutes. The board passed it on first reading 5-0.

The ordinance text went further than the summary. It would have charged $50 per calendar day for every burn permit. It would have banned burning when winds top 12 mph, during droughts and under red flag warnings. And it would have let the Fire Department declare citywide burn bans that could cover fire pits and recreational fires.

On Aug. 7, 2025, the mayor pulled the ordinance off the consent agenda for its own vote. One resident spoke against it during citizen comments. When it came up, Commissioner Carolyn Roberts moved to approve it, and "no second was made, motion failed for lack of a second," the minutes record.