Shantytown or tidy town? Sydney’s clothes line dilemma

BY NICOLE COOPER
Unit and townhouse residents in NSW will soon no longer face $5500 fines and up to a year in prison for doing the environmentally responsible thing ‘ hanging out their washing to dry on balconies.
But some see the decision to drop the regulation as opening the gates to another kind of environmental sin ‘ visual pollution.
Owners, tenants, agents and environmental groups were encouraged to email their thoughts and opinions on the new law to the Department of Fair Trading. The NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge is assessing their feedback.
Some Sydneysiders feel the current law is warranted, and by changing it, the city has the potential to look like a shantytown. Rose Bay resident Graham Gilovitz is one of those against the proposed change.
“It makes the place look like a youth hostel rather than a nice apartment building,” Mr Gilovitz said.
Stephen Goddard, chairman of the Owners Corporation Network ‘ the peak body representing owner’s corporations ‘ told the Sydney Morning Herald he is sympathetic to those residents wanting to do the right thing environmentally, as long as it’s aesthetically pleasing.
He hangs his washing on a balcony in the unit he rents on Macquarie Street, but it is hidden from view by plantation shutters.
“We don’t need a Singapore washing pole experience in Sydney,” Mr Goddard said. “An owner’s corporation has to be mindful of aesthetics.” He said hanging your washing in public view is a form of visual pollution.
Moves by judge to review the current regulation labelled the ‘state’s most ridiculous law’ have been welcomed by Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
Dr Kaye acknowledges that not everyone shares his view on the proposed change but believes that aesthetic considerations should not come before the future of the planet.
“We have to go for the environmentally sensible and economically rational option to allow strata title residents to hang out their washing.”
The current Office of Fair Trading strata title by-law bans the hanging of washing on balconies or anywhere that is visible to the public.
The rule states: “An owner or occupier of a lot must not, except with the prior written approval of the owners corporation, hang any washing, towel, bedding, clothing or other article on any part of the parcel in such a way as to be visible from outside the building other than on any lines provided by the owners corporation for the purpose and there only for a reasonable period.”
Owners’ corporations (formerly known as bodies corporate) can amend the by-law if they wish but most uphold it and force residents to use electric clothes dryers rather than make the street look untidy.
“It’s outrageous,” said Dr Kaye. “There are huge greenhouse problems associated with this”.
Dryers in Sydney units produce an estimated 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of over 18,000 cars.
CBD resident Daniel Sloane suggests there are other ways to be environmentally friendly without causing the visual pollution. “People don’t necessarily need to use a dryer; they can hang clothes on communal clothes lines or an internal clothes rack”.
It seems that with the current state of the environment this is not just a local issue but a global one. In the United States the Connecticut’s General Assembly Energy and Technology Committee were considering a law giving homeowners the right to use clotheslines despite neighbourhood fears that displays of underwear would undermine property values. But the reformers failed and the bans stay in place.
And Rose Bay real estate agent Marcello Pose will be rooting for the same result in NSW. “We are a developed country, not a third world nation, at the end of the day it doesn’t look very nice to have clothes and underwear hanging outside,” Ms Pose said.
“From a selling point, you want to project a certain image. It will make it a lot more difficult to sell a block; I know a lot of agents that will not be voicing the change”.