solar energy

The city's codified ordinances provides standards for accessory-use solar panels and commercial solar farms, allows for solar access easements, and offers parking lot landscaping flexibility in exchange for solar canopy construction. It provides design and development standards for rooftop and ground-mounted systems (§1165.02.g) while granting of solar access easements in accordance with state statutes (§1165.02.g.4).

The regulation also provides standards for commercial renewable energy systems ("solar farms"), which are permitted as conditional uses in C-1, C-2, and C-3 districts if standards are met. Minimum lot size is set at 2 acres; setbacks of 25 feet for panels and undergrounding of power lines if possible are required (§1153.05.ff).

In the regulation's landscaping section, planting provisions for parking lots may be waived with an alternate landscape plan that uses trees and auto canopies,including areas for solar-powered electric auto recharging stations, that shade at least 50 percent of the paved surface (§1166.06.c.7).