Laundry line hangers of the Village of Great Neck may have reason to rejoice: the village board of trustees is considering loosening its recently passed restrictions on the placement of clotheslines in residents’ yards.
“We may have inadvertently been overbroad, unintentionally,” said Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
The reconsideration of the law was spurred by a letter from resident David Capruso, who advocated for allowing clothes drying in side yards and within two feet of property lines. The current law prohibits the hanging of clotheslines within 10 feet of any property line and closer to the street than the rear of a building.
“My concern is that the new law is too onerous and restricts the outdoor drying of clothes to an unreasonable degree,” Capruso wrote in the letter.
Kreitzman said the ban was a legitimate reaction to the behavior of an unnamed resident who ignored village requests to stop drying clothes in front of his or her home.
“The way it came up was the person was told not to do it,” Kreitzman said. “The person told our building inspector to go to hell.”
Though Kreitzman and the board indicated they could support Capruso’s proposed changes to the clothesline restrictions, the board was divided on Capruso’s third proposal – to set a maximum fine for a violation at $50.
Village code sets a generic maximum of $1,000 for violations.
Kreitzman spoke in favor of keeping the current fine, arguing that residents would receive warnings before any summons was issued and the village judge could exercise discretion in setting penalties.
Trustee Barton Sobel disagreed, and came out in favor of the $50 maximum.
Capruso and resident Elizabeth Allen voiced fears at the meeting that overzealous prosecution could lead to residents paying large fines for what they described as a minor incident.
“You could protect the population by setting a modest fine for what is a modest violation,” said Allen.
The ban, passed in early December, drew sometimes smirking media coverage from local and regional news outlets and blogs.
Trustees said in December they were driven to act by complaints against the public drying of undergarments in a resident’s front yard.
The board set a public hearing for Feb. 5 to discuss the changes to the law.
Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
