Emily Hays Photo
Ruth Swanton: On a mission.
Ruth Swanton helped establish City Point as a historic district in 2001 to save the neighborhood from being swallowed by highway, she said. Now she’s worried that designation will prevent the neighborhood from switching to solar power, and helping to save the planet.
Swanton made a plea to the New Haven Historic District Commission (HDC) recently (right before the pandemic started) to exempt solar panels in City Point from its review. The formal agenda item was her own application to add solar panels to her house on Howard Avenue.
“I’m asking you to start to look at a policy. We do need to be kinder to our Earth. We’re on the water, so we’re the ones who are going to take the brunt of” climate change, Swanton said.
New Haven passed a climate emergency resolution last fall, partially out of concern for the rising sea levels, flooding and extreme weather events projected with climate change. As a coastal neighborhood, City Point would likely have a front seat to those events.
Swanton’s house in City Point, a block away from the Long Island Sound.
Swanton said that she would love to see the whole neighborhood switch to solar power to lower individual carbon emissions – and the cost of electric bills.
“My thinking is we could be so much more green,” Swanton said. “We have a lot of sun.”
HDC Chair Trina Learned told Swanton at the meeting that the commission considers solar panels as an addition to historic houses but not a permanent change to the house itself.
“I think I can put your mind a little bit at ease. We have all come to a point where we’re looking favorably at solar panels,” Learned said.
No Red Flags
Swanton said her house dates back to around 1850, when an oystering family lived there.
The commission did, in fact, rule in favor of the two Howard Avenue solar panel installation projects on the agenda that evening.
Swanton formally applied to install 16 solar panels. In person, she told the group that she needs only eight, based on her low energy usage. (Her house is well-insulated and does not need much heating or cooling, she explained.)
Swanton called herself “a bit obsessive” about sustainability, from recycling to conserving the natural world.
“I would like it to be here for my daughter to have children and for them to have children,” she said.
Swanton is also a former HDC member and cares deeply about the history of City Point.
On a walking tour of the neighborhood, she described its history of oyster farming. She pointed to the houses where business owners and workers lived. Her dog Honey (pictured above) pulled at the leash, less concerned with the past century than with scents left by other dogs in the last few hours.
Swanton does not want her solar panels to be visible from Howard Avenue. She said that she likes seeing the row of historic roofs and plans to upgrade to solar panel shingles or paint when that technology exists.
The commission asked Swanton and the solar company agent, Lisa Burke of Sunrun, for more details about the installation. Would any components be installed on the front of the house, next to the meter box, for example? How much of a gap would there be between the panels and the roof?
“We just don’t want to approve something massive floating above the roof,” Learned explained.
Swanton explains where the solar panels would go to the commissioners. From back to front: Karen Jenkins, Tom Kimberly, Trina Learned and Doug Royalty.
Commissioner Karen Jenkins pushed back after a few minutes of listening to the other HDC members discuss these questions.
“It seems to me we ought to put red flags up, so everyone can see the panels and everyone will put panels on their houses,” Jenkins said.
Commissioner Doug Royalty said they were just trying to get the information in the application straight. After a few more minutes, he read out a motion to approve all 16 solar panels, in case Swanton eventually needs more.
The second solar panel project was also for a house on Howard Avenue, and the commission took less than three minutes to approve it.
As Zachary Nerod of Venture Solar explained outside of the commission room, he and his client Henry Everett had won approval of their solar panel project at a previous meeting for the wrong address. They were back just to fix the mistake. He assured Swanton and Burke that he and Everett had experienced similar questions about their solar panels during that meeting.
To See Or Not To See
Sunrun Permit Coordinator Lisa Burke (left).
Historic commissions have become part of a debate about whose history gets preserved and what progress – like a more sustainable electric grid or more affordable housing – that preservation might be stifling.
Burke said that Sunrun had seen its fair share of historic commissions opposed to solar panels. In the past year, Wethersfield commissions had denied her requests to add solar panels to houses there twice.
“This is the first positive I’ve had,” she said.
Burke’s ideal situation is still no commission review. She said that Stratford approves her solar panel permits in three hours and Bristol does it in one. Burke estimated that getting on the agenda for the HDC’s monthly meeting delayed the solar installation by six weeks.
Swanton, for her part, said she worries that other houses in City Point would have a tougher time getting through the commission’s review. She said that houses closer to the water have more sides visible to the public than her own.
Benches on the City Point shore.
From the chair’s perspective, the review process still matters. Learned said the commission will continue to check the appearance of the panels.
“Not everyone performs the installation in quite such a respectful manner as you,” Learned told Swanton.
What a selfish point of view. You can't allow progress or change because I don't want it.
But wait....actually I want this type of change, so you should definitely allow it for me, and probably for other people also.
Hard to believe people like this exist, but unfortunately New Haven is a nexus.