Entry tags:

environmentalism, oddities, ontario, urban note

[URBAN NOTE] Let our clotheslines be free!
Over at blogTO, Jerrold writes about his first-time experience with a clothesline.

In typical last minute style, I made a trip out to Home Depot to pick up a few things needed to put the final touches on the outdoor summer gazebo my brother and I built for my mother this morning (Happy Mother's Day!). I was pleasantly surprised to find that Toronto Hydro was there, giving away free clotheslines as part of their energy-saving promotion (a timely promotion that comes on the heels of a province-wide lifting of all municipal clothesline bans). I filled out the short survey, chatted briefly about CF light bulb recycling with the rep, and was on my way, free clothesline in hand.

They had to lift a ban on clotheslines? I couldn't believe it when I first read it, but the bans were all too real.

When Edmontonians Pam and John Northcott bought their new home in Sherwood Park six years ago, they signed a lengthy restrictive covenant that aims to prevent unsightly additions to the neighbourhood.

No big TV dishes on the front lawn, no air conditioning equipment on the roof -- and no clotheslines.

"No outdoor clothes-hanging device shall be erected on any lot and no laundry, bedding or other such item shall be hung within any lot in any manner in which it is visible from any other lot," states the developer's covenant.

That bugs Pam, who sees clotheslines as an environmentally friendly and cheap way to dry clothes. In the summer months, she defies the covenant and discreetly hangs her washing under her deck to dry.

Taken literally, the developer's restriction wouldn't allow a homeowner to dry a beach towel outside or air a duvet, she said.

"I couldn't even shake my hanky out the window."

These bans have, as the blogTO article points out, very recently been lifted in light of environmental concerns--apparently dryers are responsible for between 5 and 6 per cent of Ontario's household electricity demand.

In a bid to curb the use of energy-sucking dryers, the new regulation will overrule neighbourhood covenants – part of the mortgage agreement between many developers and homebuyers – that outlaw clotheslines because they're considered unsightly.

The regulation, to take effect today, will not only prohibit new bans but also wipe out most that already exist, a provision that angered the province's building industry.

It will apply to free-standing and semi-detached homes and most row houses.

Highrise condos and apartments won't be affected for now. The province wants more consultation about them to deal with safety and other concerns.

The housing industry is upset at the government's overturning of these covenants, but it seems to be reduced to saying that it expects that with today's busy lifestyle few people will use clotheslines.