Shade found illegal in California?
A seven year dispute between two neighbors in the Silicon Valley town of Sunnyvale recently resulted in a criminal conviction for casting too much shade on a neighbor’s property. The facts of the case were as follows: Neighbor A (who drives a Prius) planted a series of redwood trees in 1996. Within 5 years, or so, those trees had grown so tall that they cast a large shadow over the house next door, owned by Neighbor B (who drives an electric car).
Neighbor B did not appreciate the shade, and asked Neighbor A to replace them with a smaller alternative. Neighbor A apparently refused. Fortunately for Neighbor B, he received creative legal counsel, which appears to have advised him of the details of the California Solar Shade Act of 1978, which makes it a criminal offense to block more than 10% of a set of solar panels’ access to the sun. Consequently, Neighbor B installed panels on his property and made a demand to Neighbor A to trim the trees or face criminal prosecution. Neighbor A again refused and was subsequently hauled into court to face a charge of criminal violation of the Solar Shade Act.
Neighbor A was convicted of violating the Act and, while apparently not sentenced to jail or a fine, was ordered to trim their trees so that no more than 10% of Neighbor B’s solar panels were shaded. Apparently this was the first conviction under the 1978 Act.
This conflict is interesting because it pitted two pro-environmental public policies against each other (tree growth vs. solar power). However, of course, neither of these policies were really at issue in this case. It was most likely just a good old fashioned feud between neighbors that took on the appearance of a green policy debate merely because environmental laws provided the plaintiff with a weapon to wield in the dispute.
- Similar Posts:
- An interesting addition to our post about solar energy yesterday…
- New anti-reflective coating invented for solar cells
- Huge potential for solar energy generation in outer space
Comments
2 Comments on Shade found illegal in California?
-
Dennis Freifeld on
Mon, 7th Apr 2008 11:49 am
-
Jacob on
Mon, 7th Apr 2008 12:35 pm
I have a question: since the solar panels were installed after the trees grew, is the law still applicable?
[Reply]
Yes, the law, as it currently stands applies to trees that were planted before the solar panels were installed. However, there is a bill that has been introduced in the state legislature to remove this seemingly unfair application of the law.
[Reply]
Please contribute to the discussion. No need to agree with the post or other commenters, but please be constructive and respectful.
-
Private Leaders
