I live in a backwards town. If I had known 11 years ago what I know today, I would live somewhere else. No question. I'm not even going to get into what I pay in taxes and how few services we receive. Unfortunately, I love our house and our property. It's finally getting to where we've been trying to get it. We started putting an addition on in 2007 - blew out half of the back and tore the roof off. This gave us space for an expanded kitchen, a laundry room/back hallway, and a master suite upstairs. It was quite a process, we ended up with a bonus room we hadn't planned on, which was good. There were many bad things that happened along the way too. We had to deal with an incompetent architect and town inspectors who were not the brightest in addition to the normal bumps in the road that come with a construction project of this magnitude. We had no kitchen for 3 years. Yup, you read that right. 3 years. I need to get around to writing a full post about the whole addition experience. For now, suffice it to say, I love my new kitchen, bedroom, closet and bathroom and am not moving anytime soon. Or ever.
Days like today make me rethink that. When we did the addition we also put solar panels on our roof. They are great. We are doing the right thing for the environment and get the added bonus of great savings on our electric bill. The way they are installed, most people don't even notice them, they blend right into the roof. They have worked out so well that we decided to go a step further and investigated solar hot water systems. We found one that will be great for us and we decided to move forward with it. It will really help us in the summer especially, as we don't have a traditional hot water heater. Our water is heated through our furnace, thus in summer, our boiler can't be shut off and cycles on periodically throughout the day to maintain the supply of hot water. The new system would produce enough hot water to enable us to shut off the boiler during the summer and reducing the amount of oil we burn.
All good things, right? One would think that local government would want to encourage homeowners to be green and to improve their properties. In my town, one would be wrong. Our permit application came back three weeks after submission, marked with a denial. The denial simply states, "Solar panels cannot extend more than 8 inches beyond rooftop. Variance required" Being an attorney, I want more. Give me an ordinance citation at least. I also have anecdotal evidence in addition to my own experience that there is almost nothing that you can do in this town that does not require a variance. My view on this is that the town is trying to get more money out of its homeowners. In addition, this town requires permits for projects that most other towns do not. Really, a zoning permit for residential solar panels in a residential neighborhood? We didn't need a zoning permit for the first solar installation. Ridiculous. So my husband ventures down to the zoning office to acquire more information on the specific ordinance and what options are open to us from here. The information he walks away with is astounding. I was glad I was sitting down when he called me to share it. Drum roll, please. The ordinance that caused our permit to be denied is not even in effect yet. It's proposed, but hasn't been adopted. The mayor is really pushing it though, because apparently my town has an issue with unsightly solar panel installations. Seriously!?!
I've never even heard of a situation where someone tried to enforce a statute or ordinance before it was in effect. I wasn't aware that enforcing laws that don't exist was possible. We also learned that the town's attorney specifically reviewed our application. My question upon hearing this tidbit is this: Is he stupid or is he trying to pull a fast one, figuring that a naive homeowner won't question the denial and will just pony up the extra $$ to apply for a variance and put out the effort that such an application requires? I'm not sure, but I suspect the latter. It may be because I am emotionally invested here, but I feel like my town is out to squeeze every dollar they can out of me while providing the lowest return on investment possible.
Unfortunately for the town, we are not naive homeowners. We've gone a few rounds with the town in the past, we have brains and mouths and aren't afraid to use either in situations like this one. My husband began asking more questions about our options after the denial. Both options (appeal or application for variance) require a significant investment of both time and money. Weighing these and determining that the variance will likely be less onerous in the short term, he asked what the wording on the required notice will be, since the town provides it and it has to include the variance citation. Unable to answer his questions, they indicated they would investigate and get back to him. Happily, when the clerk called him back, she let him know that the decision had been made to rescind the denial of our application. Sadly, now they have to send it to the building department and they have 3 weeks to act on it. Sigh. We won this battle, but I have a feeling the war is not yet over. Fingers crossed that the application gets approved without further obstacles.
Oh, yeah, and way to be green, Mr. Mayor. I'm glad you're looking out for what is really important long term for the residents of our town.
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