Report Title:
Clotheslines; Residential Dwellings; Household Energy Demand
Description:
Allows for the use of clotheslines on any privately owned single-family residential dwelling regardless of a contrary provision in any instrument or contract. Allows for restrictions. (SD2)
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2933 |
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TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008 |
S.D. 2 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO HOUSEHOLD ENERGY DEMAND.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that electric clothes dryers can consume over ten per cent of a household’s energy demand. Reducing the use of clothes dryers could substantially decrease the amount of fossil fuel electricity that Hawaii’s households require.
Simple clotheslines make efficient use of the sun and wind, two resources Hawaii is naturally blessed with, to dry clothes. For aesthetic reasons, however, many homeowner associations use bylaws, covenants, or contracts to prohibit or render ineffective the use of clotheslines to dry clothes. While such an aesthetic condition might have been acceptable twenty years ago, it makes no sense today to restrict smart energy-saving behavior given what we now know about global climate change.
The purpose of this Act is to allow for the use of clotheslines on any privately owned single-family residential dwelling, with limited restrictions.
SECTION 2. Chapter 196, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§196- Use of clotheslines for energy efficiency; placement. No person shall be prevented by any covenant, declaration, bylaws, restriction, deed, lease, term, provision, condition, codicil, contract, or similar binding agreement, however worded, from installing and using a clothesline for the purpose of drying clothes on the premises of any single-family residential dwelling that the person owns; provided that the reasonable regulation of the location of clotheslines is allowed for the purpose of:
(1) Enabling access to buildings;
(2) Providing for the evacuation of buildings in case of fire or other emergency; and
(3) Screening drying clothes and clotheslines from view from neighboring streets."
SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2050.