City of Santa Rosa, alternative-energy contractors at odds over rules aimed at firefighter safety

"We look different because we're doing it and that aggravates the contractors," Pedroia said.

Complaints continue

Fire officials said they have done their best to explain the reasons for the rules, but many installers remain unconvinced.

Solar firms across Sonoma County continue to complain about the new regulations in general and the way they are implemented in Santa Rosa in particular.

"The general consensus among all of us has been that the setbacks are bad for us and honestly they aren't particularly necessary," says Noah Hallett , an designer with Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions in Petaluma. He also is a member of Solar Sonoma County, the nonprofit consortium that promotes solar energy and efficiency programs in the county.

"This particular case is one where we're really butting heads," he said, referring to Santa Rosa.

One solar designer, Michael Eschenbach of Solar Works in Sebastopol, was so frustrated that when he heard the Fire Department wanted to increase its fees for the new reviews, he denounced it at a City Council meeting in June as as "adding insult to injury."

The department had proposed increasing its portion of the permit fees from $11 to $270 for residential solar installations.

The fees, which the department says brought Santa Rosa in line with other communities, were approved by the council in June and went into effect July 1.

Eschenbach said that roofs in the city are often chopped up into so many smaller surfaces that adhering to the setbacks reduces the usable space for solar on a typical roof by 35 to 50 percent. This reduces the size of solar systems, revenue to the company and taxes to the municipality, and makes going green less attractive for many homeowners.

"There is no doubt that we have lost jobs because of these regulations," said Solar Works CEO John Parry.

But Pedroia said he's not aware of any project that wasn't able to be modified to successfully to meet the setbacks. People haven't withdrawn applications or contracts because of the regulations, he said.

System designers acknowledge that in most cases projects are getting done. But they say the setbacks increase costs because of the need for more efficient — and expensive — panels to maximize the energy generation from the smaller area.

Permit data shows the city approved 126 solar permits between January and July, compared to 111 for the same period last year, a 14 percent increase. All but five this year have been residential installations.

That's a far smaller increase than the prior year, when permit applications rose by a rate of 40 percent.

"Working very well"

Interim Fire Chief Mark McCormick said there was a learning curve on the part of the city and the installers when the new regulations went into effect, but most of the kinks have been worked out.

"It's a good concern and we should address that and we did address it, and it's currently working very well," McCormick told the council in June.

There is value in having consistency in how the various cities in the county implement the rules because agencies often assist one another in fires, McCormick said. It's safer, particularly in a chaotic environment like a hot, smoke-filled roof, if firefighters know what conditions to expect, he said.

The department allows minor exemptions to the rules in certain cases, and has an alternative process designers can go through to get more significant exemptions to the code if they can demonstrate fire safety concerns can be resolved another way, he said.

That process costs an additional $250. Pedroia said he's processed just one such application and it was for a project that ran into trouble because work was started without permits.

In response to some of the criticism, the Fire Department has examined its turnaround time for permits. It found that 33 percent were approved the same day, 53 percent within two days, and 14 percent took more than a week, Pedroia said.

Different in Sebastopol

What really seems to burn some installers, though, is that in other communities, fire officials don't get involved at all in the permitting of solar systems that conform to the guidelines.

Sebastopol, for example, leaves its solar permitting in the hands of its building official unless some exemption is required. "There's no reason for me to look at it if he says it meets the code," Fire Chief John Zanzi said.

And when Zanzi is asked to sign off on an exemption, the city doesn't charge extra and installers say reasonable requests are often granted.

In one case, Zanzi said he allowed panels to fill an entire surface of one side of a steep section of roof because just on the other side was an open roof face with a gradual incline that the firefighters could use instead.

"We try and look at each situation because we realize the solar guys have demands," Zanzi said.

In Santa Rosa, however, fire marshals tell designers that the city doesn't waive the setbacks, even when there are large swaths of open roof nearby. Nor do they waive them on uninhabited spaces, such as garages.

The city even requires both a plan review and inspections for solar arrays that aren't mounted on the roof, but on the ground near the home, to ensure the panels are not too close to vegetation.

Julie Carlton, a clean energy advocate for Santa Rosa, said the city helped organize one meeting between fire officials and the solar industry to improve communication about the new rules. A similar forum will be held later this month at the North Bay Builders Exchange, she said.

"It's not just an issue for Santa Rosa," Carlton said. "It's an issue that all the cities are struggling with."

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.