BEVERLY, Mass. (AP) - A large, ground-mounted solar panel array that rotates all day in the front yard of a Putnam Street home is generating a buzz here, and it’s not just electricity.
Neighbors forced to look at it from their homes and gardens are furious, but so far there’s nothing they can do about it.
“I’ve dubbed it ’The Solar Monster,’” said Ward 5 Councilor Don Martin, who represents the area. “Fenway (Park) has its Green Monster, Beverly has its Solar Monster on Putnam Street.”
The solar array is owned by Richard and Lola Eanes, who reside at 28R Putnam St. The property is L-shaped, with a long, narrow driveway running back from Putnam Street. The house is set back a distance from the road, and the solar array sits to the side of the driveway, close to neighboring homes on either side. The Eanes did not return a request for comment.
Mary and Ted Downing, who live a few houses down from the array, can see it from their deck.
“It rotates around and at night it lays flat, so it follows the sun through the entire day,” Mary Downing said. While the Downings can’t see the panels from inside their home, other neighbors can, they said. One neighbor told the Downings she can hear the array rotating while she’s working in her garden.
The solar panels were installed just after last Christmas, Mary Downing said.
“That’s when they started digging,” she said, referring to the Eanes.
Next door, Connie and Louis Servizio have a long driveway next to the Eanes. They built their home in 1982 and have lived there ever since. The front of their house overlooks the solar array.
“That thing almost faces us,” Connie Servizio said. “We didn’t know anything about this. … We just should have been notified ahead of time.”
Martin says there was no public notice about the solar array - something he wants to see changed for any simily projects in the future.
“The lack of communication on this project was unacceptable,” Martin said. “I really believe in cases like this the abutters should be notified, because it affects them.”
Neighbors are even limited in what they can do to block their view of the rotating solar panels, because city zoning forbids planting or building anything that could block a solar array’s access to the sun. The law indicates that the array cannot be shaded between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. “by a hypothetical 12-foot obstruction located on the lot line.”
The city’s planning department is working on an ordinance that would permit any future ground-mounted solar arrays to be installed only in a side yard or backyard. But that wouldn’t affect the Putnam Street array, which would be grandfathered in the zoning regulations.
The city currently has no regulations regarding ground-mounted solar arrays. Homeowners merely need to obtain a building permit.
City planner Aaron Clausen said the new zoning would not affect more popular, and less noticeable, roof-mounted solar panels.
The way the new zoning ordinance is worded, it will “guarantee” that what happened on Putnam Street will not be repeated, Clausen said.
City planners will reintroduce the zoning change next year for another public hearing in light of the fact that the current City Council session will end soon and new councilors will be inaugurated in January.
City officials and neighbors all say they’re not opposed to solar panels - they view them as beneficial - but say they need to be installed in appropriate areas.
“I think solar is a great idea,” Martin said, “but when you get these stand-alone structures, it’s not like you’re popping it on your roof.”
The homes on Putnam Street are very close together, he said, and the ground-mounted solar system is “inappropriate” for this location.
Neighbors worry that the spinning solar array will decrease their home values. City assessors visited the site earlier this year and said it’s too early to determine that, according to Martin.
“It certainly doesn’t help,” he added. “I can personally tell you that I wouldn’t want to look out my back window and see that.”
For the neighborhood, there are bad feelings between the array owners and their neighbors. Both the Downings and Servizios have hired attorneys to appeal the building permit for the solar array. However, residents have only 30 days to appeal a building permit after it is issued.
They missed that deadline - a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting in late August determined that much.
“It was a very tense ZBA meeting,” Martin said. “It was just really unfortunate. There’s extremely bad blood between the neighbors now.”
Connie Servizio said she used to be friends with the Eanes - no longer.
“Everybody’s all upset,” she said. “It’s too bad it had to be like that.”
The Downings say they wish the couple had put the zoning in ahead of time.
“The city of Beverly absolutely, totally let us down,” Ted Downing said. “This is a travesty.”
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Information from: The Salem (Mass.) News, http://www.salemnews.com
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