Town of Somers, NY

Initial Status: Have customized and adopted the form

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Permit application forms, including new solar permit, are online

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Original, hard copies are currently required in person

Guidance: Allow email submittal of permit application forms for standard, qualifying projects.

Initial Status: Only a single submittal is required.

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Permit process information including point-of-contact and fee schedule is available online

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Permit turnaround is within 3 business days residential, 5 days commercial

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Fixed cost structure. $150 for permit plus $60 for Certificate of Occupancy.

Guidance: Though permit fee is fixed, the fee is low and not prohibitive to solar.

Initial Status: Fixed cost structure. $150 for permit plus $100 for Certificate of Occupancy.

Guidance: Though permit fee is fixed, the fee is low and not prohibitive to solar. Town currently at best practice.

Initial Status: Typical turnaround time from request to inspection is 3 to 5 days, though longer for some commercial

Guidance: Current turnaround times are reasonable. Some systems appear to take longer - need to verify details. Consider expedited process of 48 hours for standard, qualifying systems such as flush mounted rooftop installations.

Initial Status: A 4 hour window is provided

Guidance: A half day window is reasonable, though not optimal from the contractor's perspective. If contractor is required to be on site for inspection, consider a method for alerting contractor of the inspector's status, such as a phone call or text when the inspector is headed for the site.

Initial Status: Separate final inspections for structural and electrical

Guidance: Though 2 inspections are required, the electrical inspection is outside of Town jurisdiction. Only a single inspection is required by the Town.

Initial Status: Survey response indicated a checklist is in use, but did not see online. Need to verify.

Guidance: Utilize a standard inspection checklist for PV systems. The checklist serves as a guide for inspectors and installers containing points of emphasis and common issues. Ideally this is a regional document.

Initial Status: A structural PE stamp is currently required for both residential and commercial systems.

Guidance: For qualifying residential systems on code approved residences meeting certain criteria, consider allowing an exemption from structural analysis or structural PE stamp requirements. This follows the guidance in the Unified Solar Permit, where an exemption from the PE letter is allowed if checklist questions #11-13 are satisfied and if the installation uses an engineered racking system.

Initial Status: Staff has adopted NY Unified Permit, is aware of solar-related code requirements.

Guidance: Town currently enforces the 2010 Residential Code of New York State and the 2008 National Electrical Code. Though a couple code cycles behind, building officials are knowledgeable on current solar standards. For ongoing education, see the links under the 'Take Action' button at right.

Initial Status: State law allows for creation of solar easements and solar access provisions in local zoning code

Guidance: Consider creating local ordinances which would protect solar access by ensuring property remains shade-free and establishing a process for creating, registering, and enforcing solar easements.

Initial Status: No solar ready standards in place currently, though solar access considered during site plan review

Guidance: Section 144-8-C-4 directs the Planning Board to consider solar access when approving site plans. This is a great start. Consider enhancing property owners ability to installs solar by creating municipal ordinances which require new homes and buildings to be built solar-ready. See examples under the 'Take Action' link at right.

Initial Status: Participated in NWEAC Climate Action Plan.

Guidance: Town has taken some steps in long term planning for solar. Town participated with other NWEAC members on a joint Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Climate Action Plan process (2011-2012). Consider furthering these efforts by publishing the Climate Action Plan on the Town website. Also consider including solar development goals in the Comprehensive Plan update currently underway; the Solar Roadmap team can help develop content on solar-friendly development standards for this document.

Initial Status: Solar PV not specifically addressed. Allowed in all districts by default, subject to existing rules.

Guidance: Existing rules do not unduly restrict solar

Initial Status: There is a Business Historic Preservation District around the Elephant Hotel

Guidance: Town has stricter review in the Historic Preservation District, requiring solar systems to minimize visibility from street frontage of properties in this zone. This is a reasonable standard for PV systems in this relatively small zone.

Initial Status: Unknown whether local HOAs have any restrictive policies. To be determined.

Guidance: Work with condo owner and homeowners associations to ensure that their covenant, conditions, and restrictions and bylaws do not create undue barriers to solar installations.

Initial Status: Town is an EIC member, which allows EIC to offer financing for local projects

Guidance: Town currently at best practice

Initial Status: Local vendors offer 3rd party finance, and NYSERDA Green Jobs Green NY offers low interest loans

Guidance: Effective finance options are offered in the region.

Initial Status: Some awareness exists within the community currently

Guidance: Publicize the availability of local solar finance options and solar evaluation tools for potential buyers. Consider doing this via an update to the existing Solar Energy page on the Somers Energy & Environment Committee website. See related suggestion under Roadmap Goal [M8].

Initial Status: Town participating in new NYSERDA funded intiative which may lead to solarize program

Action Taken: Somers was one of the selected communities for Round 2 of the Westchester County solarize campaigns

Guidance: Solarize Somers-New Castle is a unique discount buying program that uses a tiered-pricing structure, town-supported education and outreach and one competitively selected installer to dramatically reduce the cost of solar. Learn more at http://www.solarizewestchester.com/solarize-somers-new-castle/

Initial Status: Town joined the Municipal Solar Buyers Group

Guidance: Town currently at best practice. The Buyers Group is an aggregation effort to allow public sector building access to solar installations via power purchase agreements.

Initial Status: Town has installed a 50kW roof mounted system at the local high school

Guidance: Town has installed solar. The ASTI team can help evaluate the feasibility of additional municipal sites as desired.

Initial Status: Energy and Environment Committee has a Green Somers website

Guidance: Town has taken great strides via participation in NWEAC and via the Energy and Environment Committee, which has a webpage featuring some solar-related information. Consider working with the Solar Roadmap team to add new content to this site, focused on providing information and resources for citizens looking to go solar.