This past week State Sen. Mike Barrett and environmental activist Peggy Brace of Concord testified in support of a new “right to dry” for Massachusetts citizens. At Brace’s initiative, Barrett introduced the bill, which would extend the right to hang laundry on clotheslines to all state residents.
Many condo associations and other gated communities bar the practice. Environmentally speaking, that’s unfortunate, Barrett believes. “22% of all energy use in the US is residential,” Barrett says. “Using old fashioned clotheslines in place of automatic dryers is a beautifully low-tech way to cut energy use, reduce pollution and save on energy bills.”
In response to feedback, Barrett is amending his bill to make it subject to local acceptance. “In any given town, condo owners may have legitimate concerns -- the potential obstruction of scenery enjoyed by all residents, for example -- but most of these can be taken into account by the wording of local bylaws,” Barrett says. “The final bill will make the clothesline right subject to discussion and local approval, and will authorize local action to accommodate the time, place and manner of clothesline use.”
Find out what's happening in Lexingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In 2010, led by Brace, Concord passed the first local “right to dry” measure in the state. The Attorney General’s office then overturned the action, citing a conflict with contract law. A statewide enabling statute, similar to what already exists in the states of Vermont and Maine, would allow Massachusetts communities to adopt the practice.
At the end of her comments to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, Peggy Brace paraphrased Bob Dylan, advising her fellow citizens concerned about energy conservation, “The answer, my friends, is clotheslines blowin’ in the wind.”