Property rights: Drying al fresco

In subdivisions across the country, homeowners are forbidden to use clotheslines outside. Such bans are often among the aesthetic rules enforced by snooty neighborhood associations. Fortunately, lawmakers in Vermont and Connecticut are considering legislation protecting residents’ ability to air-dry clothes. The measures are an environmental boon, for drying al fresco requires no fossil fuels. A spokesman for the Community Associations Institute complains that too many clotheslines could affect ‘‘the curb appeal, and probably the home values’’ of a neighborhood. But if the real estate market is so fragile that the sight of wet sheets can send values plunging, then clotheslines are just about the last thing neighborhood associations need to worry about.