Streetsboro’s proposed one-year moratorium on residential, business and large-scale solar electric generation facilities has hit a snag, with city council sending the legislation back to the committee level.
Ward 4 Council Member Lisa McDaniel urged council to exclude homeowners from the moratorium, submitting a proposal to exempt roof-mounted solar panels intended to power single residences. McDaniel’s proposal would also exempt solar electric generation facilities that are located on the same parcel as the homeowner’s property.
“From what I had gathered, this has not been an issue in the city of Streetsboro, and I think it would be most appropriate to have the moratorium placed on anything that is apart from personal use, private use,” she said. “We do have some neighbors who have ground-mounted panels. I just think that allowing the residents to proceed with installing these if they want to, and obviously it’s not a mad rush to do it, is most appropriate while we figure out regulations.”
The city’s main focus, McDaniel noted, is to prevent “outside entities coming in to establish solar farms and having no care for what we have going on in Streetsboro. That’s a separate issue.”
Council Member Justin Ring said he agreed, but favored limiting the McDaniel amendment to rooftop arrays.
“What limits them from putting 200 ground units on their property if they have it and creating essentially a solar farm? What stops somebody from putting their entire backyard just covered in units, and I live 10 feet away from them?” he asked. “If we allow any panel, including ground, there’s nothing to stop 100, 300, 400 panels going up on a piece of property. There’s not, and I think that’s one thing we do want to avoid.”
Supporting McDaniel, Council President Steve Michniak said moratoriums are put in place to stop a rush of something the city doesn’t want, and solar does not meet that standard.
“There may be two or three or four who squeak by, but if you put a bunch of panels in your yard, one, you better have a bunch of money because they’re expensive and, two, you’re never going to sell your property. I don’t know that anybody’s going to do that,” he said.
He also expressed concern at what could happen if Streetsboro does approve a moratorium on solar facilities.
“I don’t want to be the town that you can’t put solar in, and it sits there a year, and then a year and a half, and then there’s new council members, and it withers on the vine, and then eventually somebody sues us, and then, I don’t know. It seems like we’re trying to fix a problem that isn’t there,” he said.
After discussion regarding if solar installations generate noise, and concluding that any noise is minimal, Mishniak reminded his colleagues where they live.
“They charge a lot to put these in. This is Streetsboro. We’re not real eco-green crazies, and we’re not flush with money that we’re just going to altruistically throw up a bunch of panels in our yards when a salesman comes by. If you’re going to sell somebody solar panels, you’re going to have to save them money on their monthly electric bill.”
City council’s service committee will meet Aug. 12. The committee also continues to wrestle with updates to Streetsboro’s nuisance ordinance, with another work session slated for 6 p.m. July 29.
Also on Monday, Streetsboro Council tapped Cavanaugh Building Corp. as construction manager for the new city hall, with work slated to begin in short order.
The $7,685,818 contract includes $7,052,739 for construction and $633,079 for owner’s costs, with funds to be drawn from Streetsboro’s capital fund. Streetsboro’s new city hall will be erected on the site of the old one, in the City Center space near the fire station.
Cavanaugh has set a 14-month timeline for the project.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.