Clothes flap: Lawmaker pushes 'right to dry' outdoors
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Shelly LaPlante takes laundry off the lines outside her home in Randolph Center on an April afternoon. STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS FILE |
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By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: February 21, 2009
MONTPELIER – Should Vermonters have a "right to dry?"
Sen. Richard McCormack, D-Washington, thinks so. For nearly 20 years, McCormack has been pushing a proposed new law that would make it clear that Vermonters have the right to dry their garments on outdoor clotheslines.
For McCormack and other right-to-dry supporters the bill just makes sense: Hanging wet clothes out to dry in the sun is more energy efficient than using an electric dryer, a step forward in conserving energy that most families can easily tackle.
Alexander Lee, the founder and executive director of New Hampshire-based Project Laundry List, a nonprofit group dedicated to expanding the use of clotheslines, said people can save upwards of 15 percent off their electricity bill by drying their clothes the old-fashioned way.
"We understand that not everyone finds clotheslines beautiful," Lee told members of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Friday morning. "There are some snobbish objections to this. But the benefits of using clotheslines are clear."
McCormack's proposal was included in a larger energy bill approved by the Vermont Legislature, but Gov. James Douglas vetoed that bill when it came to his desk (his objections did not include the clothesline portion of the bill).
The new version this year would prohibit Vermont municipalities from passing local laws or ordinances banning the use of outdoor clotheslines – and take an extra step to also include solar panels to the list.
McCormack said Friday that the new version of the bill is modeled after an existing law in Florida. Research by legislative staff found few, if any, problems in that state with law, he said.
Karen Horn, the director of public policy and advocacy for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, said Friday that she does not know of a municipality in the state that prohibits outdoor clotheslines.
Cities and towns in other states seem to have some regulations to control clothesline drying, she said, and there are a handful of planned communities and condominiums that do restrict its use.
"We would prefer not to have something like this clog up our state statutes," she said.
James Knapp, a Vermont attorney with experience in housing contracts, told lawmakers that depending on how the bill is phrased it could bump up against a host of problems with contracts between residents of planned communities and condominiums.
These contracts between condo residents, for example, complicates the situation because the roof of the building, where solar panels might be installed, are considered "shared space" and owned by everyone in the agreement, Knapp explained.
It's a similar situation with planned communities, he said. The green space outside of the homes in a planned community is also owned by everyone there and its use is often dictated by contracts.
If lawmakers went forward with a bill mandating that these contracts be changed to allow for the use of clotheslines or the installation of solar panels, Knapp said he could see the issue heading to court.
"It would throw a great question out there that I couldn't answer until a half dozen cases land before the Supreme Court," he told lawmakers.
Count the well-known Vermont Country Store in Weston as a supporter of the right-to-dry movement. In an online editorial posted on its Web site last fall, the owners encouraged people to engage in civil disobedience by hanging their wet clothes on outdoor lines – even if it is prohibited in their area of residence.
"It's a beautiful thing to see clothes drying in the sun and wind, letting nature do the job for free, without any energy being used or lint accumulating," the editorial read. "Do my tighty-whities hanging on the line really shock and embarrass anyone?"
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com.
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