Oregon Public Broadcasting

Environmentalists are angry that a bill to allow clotheslines in planned communities -- as a way to save energy --  has stalled in the Oregon Senate and may be watered down.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.

Susan Taylor: “This is absolutely a gorgeous neighborhood.”

Susan Taylor lives in the Awbrey Butte neighborhood of Bend. She’s  giving a tour of her home.

Susan Taylor: “We’ve got incredible views to Mt Jefferson and Mt Hood on a clear day. And we’re going out now to the east, and we have a clothing rack here where I am drying my underwear and socks, because I ran out of room on my clothes racks.”

But Taylor’s next-door neighbors didn’t like the view – and complained.

According to the Awbrey Butte homeowners association bylaws, Taylor was breaking the rules. She still is.

Susan Taylor: “It’s kind of a civil disobedience.”

Clotheslines are against the rules in Taylor’s neighborhood -- as they are in hundreds of communities across the state, and country.

The homeowners association may even start charging Taylor penalty fees next week.

Along with a group of green advocates in Portland, Taylor started working the halls of Salem to change that.

Eli Spevak is a developer of green buildings.

Eli Spevak: “I’ve developed several condominium projects. And usually an attorney hands over the documents: ‘these are the documents we used for the last one.’  That’ll just get adopted – and so developers say, ‘yep that worked last time let’s just use them this time.’ And somehow, certain restrictions, like banning clothes drying tend to just recur.”

In May, the house overwhelmingly passed a bill to strike down the bans on laundry lines in the state.

But the bill has stalled in the Senate. 

Senate Democrats say they don’t have enough votes to pass the bill, even though they control the chamber.

There is no organized opposition to the measure – but individual critics say it weakens existing contract law and would result in more unsightly clotheslines in upscale neighborhoods.

Senator Joanne Verger is from North Bend.

She acknowledges that dryers use lots of energy – but she thinks homeowners should be able to ban clotheslines.

She has some ideas as to how clotheslines could damage property values.

Joanne Verger: “Oh, prevent a view. Put a clothesline up that would interfere with a condominium guest being able to see the ocean, for instance.”

Senators who support the bill say they have found a compromise, that could go up for a vote this week.  It would outlaw clothesline bans in the future , but  would allow current bans to stand.

Back in Bend, Taylor says any bill that exempts her homeowners association is second-rate.

Susan Taylor: “If they don’t make it retroactive, it does nothing: for me, for this subdivision, for all these people living in subdivisions. So it’s an incredibly weak bill. Why even bother?”

But she’s found something that works better for her – she’s moving out.

That’s one of the reasons she's showing her home. She’s making a sales pitch, though not to people who want to dry their clothes in the backyard.