At their regular HDC meeting held on Wednesday, approval was given to install solar panels on the roof of the annex building at St. John’s church.
The original proposal from St. John included solar panels on the entire roof area. However, as a compromise, the HDC approved the arrays facing the “less visible” side of the structure facing Chapel St.
Until now, HDC’s guidelines for property owners within the historic district who desire to install solar panels was they may do so “IF” they are not visible from the road.
As the picture clearly shows, the roof is visible on the side of Chapel St. This picture was taken on June 6th, across the street from the church. And yes, those panels will be quite visible.
St. John’s church is one of only six properties in the downtown area listed in the National Registry of Historical Places nevertheless, this designation was not significant enough for the HDC to deny approval for this project. So, what are we to expect next? Solar panels at the North Church?
Our historic district is only two percent of the total area of Portsmouth but we seem to be losing appreciation to preserve it.
This decision makes it clear that we need to get our priorities straight rather than caving-in to pressure from several members of the council to have zero restriction when it comes to solar panels in the historic district.
