Tradesmen, residents sound off on new HDC green building guidelines

Solar panel applications are starting to appear on the Historic District Commission's weekly agenda almost as frequently as pools and air conditioning.

Certainly a sign of the rocky financial times the island is experiencing and Nantucketers' growing belief in the change they think they can effect on global warming-induced climate change, the Historic District Commission is deliberating on a proposed addendum to its guidebook, "Building with Nantucket in Mind," called Sustainable Preservation.

In it are new guidelines for windows and doors, both solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies, wind energy conversion systems, alternative building materials, rain collection barrels and permeable paving blocks. These guidelines are designed to help property owners, their attorneys, designers, architects and builders successfully submit applications for using these green and energyeffi cient technologies and obtain approvals.

On Sept. 1, the HDC opened the public hearing on these guidelines seeking a critique of the addendum that was cooperatively produced by the Nantucket Energy Study Committee, Sustainable Nantucket, the HDC and a hybrid of these and other groups, the Historic/ Green Committee.

"The intent of the guidelines is to encourage people to minimize the impact of their installations, but there's nothing in these guidelines that prevents people from framing an application any way they'd like to," stressed HDC member David Barham. "It's really meant to be an aid in putting together your applications."

A follow-up to this meeting will be held on Sept. 15, but already there are plenty of comments and suggestions, mostly dealing with solar and wind energy generation installations. For wind turbines, the talk so far is coming from property owners in close proximity to the new wind turbine erected at Bartlett's Ocean View Farm this spring and centers on where not to put them and how many should be allowed in a given location depending on the environmental and residential sensitivity of the area.

William Duane, of 1 Caroline Way, said that in addition to not siting wind turbines in residential areas, that such installations do not belong on the island's conservation land.

"In the summer of 1992, eight windmills were erected on Bartlett Farm property, and shortly

thereafter, some of these windmills

went awry in terms of being kept properly and caused a real annoyance to the people who lived there, even with all their doors and windows closed," said Duane. "It drove some people to the psychiatrist, practically. The point being that we feel that in certain areas of Nantucket, particularly in the moors, the open spaces where perhaps would probably be the most logical places to be erected; we feel that that is not a good thing at all."

Reacting to his understanding of the proposed green guidelines addendum, electrician and solar panel installer Bobby King told the HDC that tax credits of up to 30 percent are being offered to property owners who install solar power and heating systems. He is worried, however, about what he views as the commission's restrictive siting policy for solar panels canceling out these savings. With the island being a great location for solar panel use — an average of 4.5 hours of sunlight hits the island daily — Nantucketers should not be prevented from collecting that power because the HDC would rather see the panels on the ground out of public sight, said King.

"To strictly put all these PV solar system panels on the ground, it's going to hurt the technology that yes, is ever-changing, but right now the rebate levels and incentives are through the roof," said King.

The placement and design section of the proposed guidelines for solar panels currently recommends ground placement and that should building owners have to put their panels on their structures, that they go on garages and sheds instead of the main roof plane of the primary building. Because of this, King said this guideline would make solar almost not worth it.

"An example is a job I'm doing right now where it added another $4,000 to the cost," said King. "We're talking dollars and cents. I understand it's aesthetics, but to sit there and prohibit a perfectly southerly facing roof outside the core district, outside 'Sconset and to force it on the ground kind of defeats the purpose and solar is going to get a bad name." I