Dear E-Activist, We need your help today! The City of Santa Monica has traditionally been at the forefront of sustainable energy initiatives—it was the first city in the country to purchase green power. The City's current goal is to have 25% of its electric power come from renewable energy sources by 2010.
Unfortunately, a proposed ordinance amending Santa Monica Municipal Code 9.04.10.02.220 -- Solar Energy Design Standards --would blemish that record and create a disincentive to install solar power. The ordinance establishes subjective design standardsthat will create a new barrier to solar installations and make it more difficult to meet the city's renewable energy goal. Specifically, sub-section (e) imposes improper requirements mandating that:
"solar collector panels, their necessary support structure, and conduit, shall be installed in the location that is the least visible from abutting streets directly facing the subject property."
 By imposing this aesthetic design consideration, the City would embrace a counterproductive message that solar panels should be hidden rather than embraced as bringing economic and environmental benefits to the city, while creating an unnecessary bureaucratic hurdle for architects and developers to to jump over, while increasing costs for both the City and the applicant and discouraging the growth of solar energy usage in our community.
This ordinance is going to be voted on in the next two weeks so immediate action is crucial! You can help -- if you are a Santa Monica resident, or have a business in Santa Monica, please sign our petition here. It will be emailed directly to the Santa Monica City Council. If you have friends that live or work in Santa Monica, please forward them this message.Thank you so much for your support. Sincerely, Mary Luevano
Director, Policy & Legislative Affairs
Global Green USA  |
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