Solar Panel Being Installed On Roof

Can you put solar panels on the roof of your HOA townhouse?

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Probably not.  Also, take your flower pots in for the winter, and get rid of that hockey net, and no way are you putting holiday lights out after January 15th, buster!

(Oh, and don’t get me started on lawn signs.)

Home Owners Associations (HOAs) are notorious bastions of often dictatorial rulemaking, and much of that may be for good reason. But some of it is not, and some of it is not keeping up with the times. Right now we are in a climate emergency, and overcooked proclivities of controlling HOA boards should be gently but firmly moved aside to make way for a sun-drenched future.

There are two bills in play in the Minnesota Legislature that may help with this:  HF0357(Rep. Ami Wazlawik, DFL-White Bear Township) and its companion SF2267 (Sen. Karin Housley, R- Stillwater). A truly bipartisan effort.

The Strib has an opinion piece by Nancy Simmit, of Solar United Neighbors.

This legislation would allow HOAs to place reasonable restrictions on solar arrays but not block them outright…

Twenty-seven other states have similar legislation in place, including neighboring Iowa and Wisconsin. We have 7,725 HOAs in our state, making us 15th in the country for number of HOAs. There are 1.5 million Minnesotans living in these HOAs, just over 1 in 4 Minnesotans. Many HOA homes like mine are perfect for solar arrays, with large, flat roofs with no shading from trees.

… This legislation will immediately make more solar possible to meet our clean energy needs. It would mean more jobs for solar installers. I believe in renewable energy and that the consequences of not moving forward are real.

Read: A homeowner’s right to go solar