Green- energy proponents at odds with purists as solar panels hit historic districts
Retired and soft-spoken, Joanne Leussing and Jeff and Lucy Caswell don’t appear to be radicals.
Yet in the world of housing, they are breaking down barriers.
Leussing is thought to be the first homeowner to install solar panels in Old Worthington, and the Caswells are the first to receive approval for solar panels in German Village.
Their experiences dramatize a growing debate between architectural preservationists and environmental activists over how much historical buildings can or should be modified to accommodate technological improvements.
The drama is far from over. Leussing’s battle and the efforts of neighbors who also received approval for solar panels have prompted Worthington to declare
a temporary moratorium on solar panels while the City Council attempts to clarify the policy.
In German Village, the Caswells’ solar panels were approved only “as a test case” for the neighborhood.
Experts expect the battles to get more heated.
“Solar panels on existing buildings in historic districts have not been a big request item, but they’re coming now, and I expect to get more requests in the future,” said Columbus Historic Preservation Officer Randy Black.
Columbus has no solarpanel guidelines for its 18 historic districts, including German Village, but all requests must be approved by the appropriate district’s commissions. The city leans on National Park Service guidelines for solar panels on historical properties; those guidelines permit panels when they can’t be seen and don’t interfere with the building’s architectural integrity.
“It’s not unlike skylights,” Black said. “A low profile and visibility from primary elevations will be issues. It’s a site-specific, case-by-case look.”
The Caswells plan to install panels on an addition they are building behind a home they are remodeling.
“We are philosophically committed to making the house we’re renovating in German Village as green as possible,” said Lucy Caswell, the retired curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University.
“This was one component that we felt was important to try to do.”
The panels won’t sit on an original part of the building and won’t be easily seen
from the street, but the German Village Commission is still curious to see how they look once installed, said Commission Chairman Jay Panzer.
“As we do with all new materials, we’re looking to see the results,” he said.
Some Ohio municipalities, including Bedford, Bexley, Glendale, Hudson, Springboro, Worthington and Wooster, prohibit solar panels on fronts of buildings either citywide or in historic districts, according to a survey of guidelines prepared by Lee Brown, Worthington’s director of planning and building.
Worthington’s policy, however, allows for exceptions if the panels don’t have an adverse effect on the architecture of the building.
Leussing sought to put panels on her home’s front, which receives more sun than the rear. After considerable debate, the city’s Architectural Review Board approved the request, in part because Leussing’s home, a 1958 ranch, is not considered architecturally significant even though it is in the historic district.
“I can understand wanting to protect the historic appearance of the area, but I feel very strongly that global climate change is the foremost problem we have for the entire planet, and we’ve got to do something,” Leussing said.
She spent about $15,000 to install the panels in February 2016. Last year, with the panels in place for 10 months, Leussing’s annual electric bill was $338, compared with $612 and $604 the two previous years. (She heats with gas.) In April, May and June, she generated more electricity than she consumed in her 1,554-square-foot home.
Instead of prompting complaints, the solar panels
have generated compliments and queries, Leussing said.
A block away, Joanne Dole and Allen Eiger received approval in December to install 17 solar panels, sparking the moratorium.
“I’ve traveled a lot in Europe, where there are lots of examples of solar panels integrated into buildings that are much, much older than ours in Worthington,” Dole said. “It’s just a different mindset, one I embrace. ... For us to pretend we haven’t moved into the 21st century doesn’t make sense.”
The Worthington and German Village debates highlight a broader issue of how historic districts accommodate technological changes. A wealth of building materials, such as roofing, siding, windows and foundations, don’t line up with historical building practices yet are widely considered improvements over traditional materials.
Although many new materials, such as doublepane windows, are allowed because they can mimic the look of original materials, others, such as skylights, are typically prohibited in historic districts.
Just as changing technology created the solar-panel debate, technology might remedy it. A growing number of companies have introduced solar panels that are thinner than conventional panels or even resemble roof shingles. The effort received a huge boost last year when Tesla founder Elon Musk bought SolarCity with a plan to produce panels that resemble slate, tile and shingles.
So far, the products are not widely available and cost more than traditional panels. The Caswells, in fact, originally considered solar panels that could lie flat between the seams of their metal roof, but they abandoned the idea when their supplier said the technology wasn’t as effective as traditional panels.
Worthington City Councilman David Norstrom opposes allowing visible solar panels in the district, for now. He fears they detract too much from the city’s historical architecture.
“There are two things very important — sustainability and architectural history,” he said. “I think both can exist with changes in technology.”
Opposite Norstrom in the debate is Worthington Councilwoman Rachael Dorothy, a mechanical engineer who specializes in sustainable building design. She argues that the council’s current policy of allowing panels only where they can’t be seen effectively prohibits half of Old Worthington’s homeowners from properly installing the panels.
“Solar panels are highly dependent on location,” Dorothy said. “To be able to have a solar system function, you’ll sometimes have to see it from the right of way.”
She dismisses concerns about the panels damaging the architectural integrity of the district.
“We’ve already allowed modern-day conveniences to be in historic places — cars, air conditioners, electricity lines, utility poles — all of which detract from the historic character,” she said.
“Worthington was founded to be sustainable to begin with, to be forward-thinking, to be independent,” she added. “I think the early settlers would definitely have incorporated solar panels if they had them.”