LA HABRA : Law Would Limit Hanging Laundry

Carmen Reyes washes at least two loads of laundry a day and hangs the clothes to dry on the chain-link fence and clothesline beside her Grace Avenue home.

Her daily routine soon may be disrupted.

The City Council tonight will consider adopting an ordinance that would prohibit people from hanging laundry in public view.

“I hope the government will let me continue drying our clothes out here,” Reyes said on a recent morning while placing damp bedsheets and children’s clothes on her fence. “I wash a lot of clothes for seven of my children, my husband and myself every day and I don’t have enough money to dry them at the Laundromat. I can’t afford a dryer and even if I could, there’s no room for one in the house.”

The proposed ordinance was drafted in response to years of complaints about unsightliness. The law also would prohibit storage of vehicles or any household goods including furniture, fixtures and appliances on yards.

“We don’t want a car parked on somebody’s front lawn,” Mayor David M. Cheverton said. “We don’t want knee-high weeds. We want properties to meet a certain standard and, by putting this (ordinance) in place, I think we’re doing what the people of La Habra want.”

But Reyes’ neighbor, Maria Gomez, says she has no inconspicuous place to dry her clothes. So she hangs them from two ropes connected to trees in her front yard.

“I always pick up the clothes as soon as they are dry, so I can’t see what the problem is,” she said. “You have to dry your clothes, and you can’t put clotheslines inside the house. . . . I think the city should worry about real problems like gang violence.”

Another part of the ordinance worries the Rodriguez family on Olive Avenue, who live with two other families and park their cars on their front yard.

“We have no place else to put our cars,” Maria Rodriguez said. “We can’t afford to buy a bigger house. I think the city is just trying to get rid of poor people.”

Under the proposed ordinance, graffiti also would be banned and paving more than 60% of a front yard to park vehicles would be prohibited. Also, residents would be required to make sure the exterior paint on their homes wasn’t peeling and that lawns are no taller than six inches. Violators could be cited.

City officials and homeowners associations applaud the proposed ordinance, saying it’s about time the city cracked down on residents who don’t keep their homes and neighborhoods in shape.

Homeowners associations in Irvine, Brea and Santa Ana also prohibit clotheslines that are visible from a public street.

But Craig Bird and others circulated a petition against the ordinance, saying it discriminates against poor people and Latinos. They collected more than 50 signatures Monday.

“I can understand the weeds being a safety concern,” Bird said. “But forcing people who can barely make their house payments to make sure their house paint isn’t chipping is wrong. And I don’t see how a clothesline is an eyesore. We’re not Irvine.”

Cheverton said the ordinance is an attempt to curb blight in the city.

“I don’t see this as discriminatory against anybody, any place in town,” he said. “I think it’s just common sense, and it’s going to work out just fine.”