Invade in the Shade

Trees win in California solar panels vs. redwoods dispute

Posted at 10:40 AM on 23 Jul 2008

Trees have emerged victorious in a California dispute that pitted redwoods against solar panels. Six months ago, Silicon Valley residents Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett were criminally convicted because their redwoods shaded the 10-kilowatt solar system on neighbor Mark Vargas' roof. Ultimately, Treanor and Bissett were forced to trim their trees and paid $37,000 in legal fees. To avert future disputes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed a new law that holds that if trees were planted before solar panels were installed, the solar-panel owner cannot force the trees to be trimmed or chopped. If the solar panels came first, a civil lawsuit can be filed, but the law disallows criminal prosecution of folks with foliage. The original incident ain't over yet, though: Vargas has sued Treanor and Bissett again, alleging not only that their trees shade his solar panels, but that the trees' roots damage an underground storm drain and that their row of redwoods violates state laws that disallow spite fences.

sources: Sacramento Bee, The Mercury News, Palo Alto Online, The New York Times

ADVERTISING POLICY

Comments: (9 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

lack of sunshine for my "SOUL"AR panels

i looked into solar panels last year and after a lot of online and person to person interviews found that as of yet solar panels were still not economicaly viable. but aside from that if your going to put up the panels dont you think you might go outside and look at your roof and see if the area in question is sun worthy these units are not cheap. Now you have an angry neighbor and some expensive solar panels that wont get as much sun as they might have gotten if you had planned it differently. you might have started by talking to your neighbor as people would do in any community. you know try to work something out I dont think he will cut any of his trees down for a long time NOW

flying under the radar

by treestump at 1:24 PM on 23 Jul 2008

put solar panels in the trees!

My neighbors have tall douglas fir trees that shade their house. They hired a tree climber to install the panels in the trees using hardware designed to build tree houses. Problem solved!

Check out my ecothriller novel Primal Tears at amazon.com and other booksellers.

by Kelpie at 3:09 PM on 23 Jul 2008

Would you bet

Would you bet that Kelpie and treestump missed the memo that requires you to call a lawyer whenever some dispute arises?

People who know how to work together can get quite a bit done without their lawyers. Imagine if Treanor, Bisset and Vargas worked together to solve their problem. Those beautiful redwoods, solar panels installed, would enrich all three and maybe Treanor and Bisset could have installed some of their own and that would have enriched the rest of us, too.

by catman at 5:46 PM on 23 Jul 2008

My Nirvana

A world where alternative energy nuts and tree huggers come to blows!? It's a win-win situation as far as I'm concerned. I say plow down both of them and put in town homes with coal fired boilers.

by jabailo at 6:44 PM on 23 Jul 2008

Kind odd...

...they knew the trees were there, they (should've) known that the tress (bein' redwoods) would grow tall...why put solar panels in their shade?

Kinda reminds me of the people who plant palm trees down here around their power lines to make 'em look nice...but then ten tears later, the palms grow into the lines and ruin 'em the first storm that passes through.

by Tasermons Partner at 6:49 PM on 23 Jul 2008

dear catman

didnt miss the memo just thought they may have taken a more evolved stance toward the planning aspect of their solar panel project.

flying under the radar

by treestump at 8:19 PM on 23 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

Look before you leap

There's an excellent tool that would have prevented this unneighborly behavior: the Solar Pathfinder. GreenEngineer discovered it when he was working with solar, and it's continued to be useful in our gardening ("Hey, if we plant this cherry tree a foot over, it will get sun from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and November through January and then 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. February through October!" "Get the shovel.")

It's also very good at it's first purpose, figuring out where to put your solar panels and how much sun they'll get when you put them there. It's a little tricky to learn to use, but it's well worth it. Of course, if you hire a good solar outfit they'll check for you.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

by PermieWriter at 9:57 AM on 24 Jul 2008

I wonder how Judge Judy would rule on this case

Probably would tell the guy with the panels to grow up and get a life! Nature should never pay the price for human stupidity, nor should our animal brothers and sisters, but we live in a world with idiots like this guy.

To quote "Love Boat Captain" by Pearl Jam

Is this just another phase? earthquakes making waves,...
Trying to shake the cancer off? stupid human beings,...
Once you hold the hand of love,.. its all surmountable.

Wow, isn't that true!

"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva

by mtvyfan at 1:13 PM on 24 Jul 2008

Litigation happy

Even though he "won" Vargas is now suing them a second time for "spite fencing" and underground storm drain damage... this isn't about shade, trees or alternative energy - this is about a vindictive person using the legal system to get back at his neighbors. Having gone through a similar suit myself, when people don't get their exact way, they can be ultra-litigious just to get 'revenge.' This is obviously what Vargas intends with the multiple suits. Makes me sad, especially considering the trees were there long before the solar panels. He deserves a whap upside the head.

by daisyalea at 2:15 PM on 24 Jul 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?