Los Gatos orders solar panels hidden
But council also asks staff to examine rule changes

source: Paul Rogers San Jose Mercury News 2003.8.06

The public had a loud and clear message Monday night for Los Gatos city leaders: When it comes to solar power, cut the bureaucracy and let the sun shine in.

Speaker after speaker -- from environmentalists to tech entrepreneurs -- appeared before the Los Gatos Town Council to urge city leaders to allow the owner of a Los Gatos solar power company to leave solar panels on his roof -- even though some are visible from the road below.

Late Monday, by a 5-0 vote, the council turned down the solar entrepreneur, and directed its planning staff to come back in six months with some draft rule changes to ease barriers to construction of solar-power systems, even if it means relaxing rules requiring they be hidden.

``I have to sleep on it and think about it,'' said Barry Cinnamon, president of Akeena Solar[more on the project here], on University Avenue. ``This creates a problem for our system, but for other solar customers next year in Los Gatos, there seems to be some hope.''

The vote means Cinnamon will have to build a wall around the top of his roof to hide the panels.

Cinnamon ran afoul of Los Gatos town planners earlier this year when he installed solar panels on the roof of his new business. Because three of the 18 panels were visible from the road, Los Gatos Community Development Director Bud Lortz refused to give final approval of the building permit, declaring that the panels are ``roof mounted mechanical equipment.'' That put them in the same category as industrial air conditioners, which have to be shielded with a wall or latticework under town rules.

Monday, more than a dozen members of the public urged city leaders to ease up on Cinnamon and change city regulations to make solar panels less expensive and less cumbersome to install.

``This is embarrassing to us as citizens,'' Los Gatos resident Darrell Miller told the council. ``The impression given is that you are impeding people who want to help solar energy. Solar energy is special to us. It shouldn't be put in the same category as air conditioning units.''

Miller, a former Novell vice president, said he hopes to put solar panels on his house.

``You should be giving this guy the key to the city, and let him put panels all over his roof so Los Gatos is at the forefront of this technology,'' Miller said.

City leaders, however, argued that Los Gatos, an upscale village of 28,000 known for Victorian homes and its quaint downtown, deserves architectural excellence. They said they were trying to find balance.

```We're about as solar-friendly as they come,'' said Los Gatos Mayor Sandy Decker. ``But we're asking to keep the aesthetics intact in this town.''

Cinnamon's offices are in a commercial area surrounded by auto shops and metal Quonset huts.

``It's very important to me that whatever goes up there improves the neighborhood,'' said councilman Mike Wasserman.

Lortz, the town's chief planner, said Los Gatos has approved more than 1,000 solar-power systems. The city requires they not be visible from the road and that they follow the same pitch as the roof.

But Cinnamon said he already has spent more than $4,200 in permits for his $15,000 solar-power system. To build a wall around it will cost more, he said. He wants the city to change its rules so solar panels will not have to be hidden from streets.

If the city insists on shielding solar panels, Cinnamon said, he asked that he be allowed to do so by installing other solar panels around his roof.

``Aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder. I'll admit a certain amount of bias,'' he said.

The council turned him down.

Dozens of California cities are making life difficult for people trying to install solar-power systems, according to the California Solar Energy Industries Association, in Sacramento.

The trade organization has sponsored a bill, now headed for Gov. Gray Davis' desk, that would ban cities from imposing restrictions on solar-power systems that add more than 20 percent to the cost or reduce efficiency by 20 percent. Cities that violate the restriction would not be eligible to receive state assistance for municipal solar-power systems.

Some speakers Monday took a wider view.

If Los Gatos thinks solar panels are ugly, said Kurt Newick of Campbell, aren't oil derricks, nuclear power plants and coal mines uglier?

``Solar systems are a benign way to create electricity,'' Newick said. ``It is important the town support them.''

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Los Gatos, Calif., Cracking Down on Installed Solar Panels Visible from Street
By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. -- Aug. 3

Town planners in Los Gatos are cracking down on a project they say threatens to make their upscale Silicon Valley village an ugly place.

A proposed copper smelter? A cattle feed lot? An auto wrecking yard?

No. Solar panels.

Concerned about "design impacts and architectural compatibility," the Los Gatos Planning Department has ordered the owner of a small solar power company to remove or cover up 18 solar panels he installed on his office roof because three are visible from the street.

Barry Cinnamon, president of Akeena Solar on University Avenue, says he and his 20 employees are dumbfounded. They plan to appeal to the Los Gatos Town Council when it meets Monday night.

"If we support the environment, and we support renewable energy, we should be supporting solar power," he said. "Not inhibiting and restricting it."

Evidently, however, Cinnamon is not alone. Dozens of other cities across California are making life difficult for people who want to install solar panels on roofs and businesses, even as state leaders are trying to encourage renewable energy with millions in tax credits and rebates.

Some cities require that solar panels can't be seen from roads. Others say they must be installed at the same angle as roofs, which can limit the electricity they generate.

"This is an increasing problem," said Jan McFarland, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, in Sacramento.

"I don't think building inspectors are out to kill solar power. But there are some outrageous stories, and these are the ones we have to stop."

McFarland's group has heard tales of zealous local bureaucrats raining on solar power in Santa Barbara, Glendale, Palm Springs, Lakewood, Yorba Linda, Cerritos, Long Beach and Fresno County.

The irony, she notes, is that last year, Gov. Gray Davis signed a law requiring 20 percent of California's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2017. Currently about 12 percent comes from those renewable sources.

The problem has become so pronounced the solar industry is pushing for a new law.

A bill by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Vacaville, would ban California cities and counties from imposing unreasonable restrictions on solar power. Any change that increases costs by 20 percent or reduces efficiency by 20 percent would be considered too extreme.

The bill, AB 1407, has sailed through the Legislature, passing the Senate and Assembly unanimously. It is expected to reach the governor's desk by the end of the month.

"This doesn't prevent restrictions, it just says that they can't be unreasonable," Wolk said. "Some people seem to be losing sight of the larger picture. We're blessed in California with the opportunity to use solar energy. We ought to be encouraging that. Some of these restrictions are misguided."

Wolk's bill contains loopholes, however, that she says were needed to stave off opposition from cities. Rather than simply banning overzealous zoning of solar power -- which has been in effect for California homeowners associations since 1978 -- Wolk's bill says cities and counties violating the law won't be eligible for state grants for their own municipal solar projects.

In other words, cities could continue restricting solar if they turned down, or had no plans to apply for, state solar power grants to build city solar projects.

"It's a good start," Wolk said. "If we need to do more, we can come back next year."

In Los Gatos, city officials say they aren't unreasonable.

"The town of Los Gatos seeks architectural excellence," said Bud Lortz, director of the Los Gatos Community Development Department.

Lortz denied final approval of Cinnamon's building permit for the 18 solar panels.

"The town totally supports use of renewable energy," he said. "We approve solar panels all the time. It's just when they become visible that we run into a challenge."

Lortz said homeowners who want to install solar power cannot have panels visible from the road. They also must follow the pitch of the roof. For commercial buildings, he cited a section of the city general plan that requires "roof mounted mechanical equipment shall be screened."

Solar panels, said Lortz, are "mechanical equipment," just like big air conditioning units.

Cinnamon, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, disagrees.

"This isn't mechanical equipment. There are no moving parts," he said. "It's like a light bulb."

Cinnamon also notes that if the 5-by-3 foot panels are required to be shielded from the sun, they won't work. After he applied for a permit in December, he said, he grouped the 18 panels in the middle of his roof so they would be nearly invisible from University Avenue.

He faced them east and west, instead of the most efficient direction, south, cutting about 10 percent of the electricity they would generate.

Ironically, Akeena Solar's 3,400-square-foot building sits surrounded by auto body shops and corrugated metal buildings in a commercial section of town. Nearby buildings have air conditioning units and antennas atop their roofs.

"Every single person I've talked to says 'I can't believe the city is putting you through this,' " he said. "We haven't had a single complaint. The neighbors love it."

Lortz said Cinnamon can satisfy town planners if he builds a small wall around the top of his roof. But Cinnamon says he's already spent $4,300 in planning fees on his $15,000 system, and that to build the wall would cost $8,000 more. He's proposing that he be allowed to put other solar panels on top of the building to screen the 18 panels in question.

But planners said that would be a violation of the town's sign ordinance, because even though no words would be on the panels, they would be advertising his solar business.

On May 28, the Los Gatos Planning Commission voted 6-1 to deny Cinnamon's compromise. So he's appealing to the council. The day the planning commission voted, California grid operators declared a Stage 1 power alert.

Similar solar showdowns have occurred in San Jose.

In April, architect Marvin Bamburg applied to place 54 solar panels atop his Willow Glen office. The San Jose Planning Department said no.

"I thought they'd just rubber-stamp it," he said. "They immediately turned us down. They said very loudly it was ugly."

Bamburg sought the help of San Jose Vice Mayor Pat Dando. Two days later, he had a permit. He removed six panels to make the array less visible from Lincoln Avenue. The project should be up by October.

"These planners are trying to do what they perceive is their job," Bamburg said. "But for the good that solar panels do, maybe a slight bit of ugliness, in their opinion, should be allowed. And I don't even think solar panels are ugly. They're handsome."

The Los Gatos Town Council will consider Cinnamon's case at 7 p.m. Monday at Los Gatos Town Hall, 110 Main St. in Los Gatos. [See article above Aug. 6th]