How serious is City Hall about making the latest energy technology more easily available to residents?
At the next City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15, an ordinance will be introduced that expedites the often complex permit process for obtaining residential rooftop solar energy systems.
No living person can recall the last time government simplified the multi-directional paths for gaining permits for anything.
The unique shortcut perks up Meghan Sahli-Wells, the City Council’s leading solar power advocate, who described the backstory to this encouraging development. “Two years ago,” she said, “representatives from the Sierra Club who live in Culver City approached me about a solar grading system that another non-profit, projectpermit.org, had created. They told me Culver City had a rating of ‘worst,’ and they said ‘Let’s improve that.’ I said ‘You bet.’”
Typically, Ms. Sahli-Wells did not hesitate, promptly swinging into course-changing action.
“We met with city staff, including the city manager, the Community Development director and the Public Works director,” she said, “along with members of the Sierra Club. We wanted to see how we could bring up our grade.
“What was nice was, just through having this conversation, we were able to get up to a ‘B’ grade. We were doing something right that had not been captured in the grade. One was that we had the very first solar voltaic ordinance – I believe in the country (https://www.culvercity.org/en/Environment/AlternativeEnergy/Solar.aspx).
“It requires developers to provide a certain formula, two kilowatts of solar electricity for every 10,000 square feet in new and rehabilitated buildings,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said.
(To be continued)
