Village of Croton-On-Hudson, NY

Initial Status: Have customized and adopted the form

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

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

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

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

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

Initial Status: Only a single submittal is required.

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

Initial Status: Permit process info including point-of-contact and fees is available online

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

Initial Status: Residential processed within 3 days, commercial takes over 3 weeks due to site plan review

Guidance: Current turnaround time is good for residential. Village is considering amending local law to allow commercial solar to undergo a minor site plan review which would shorten turnaround time.

Initial Status: Fixed cost structure. $200 up to 4kW and $400 up to 10kW.

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

Initial Status: Fixed fee with escalator. $400 plus $25 per kW over 10kW.

Guidance: For larger commercial projects, permit fee may become prohibitive. Consider capping the fee or basing on cost recovery.

Initial Status: Within 48 hours of request for residential. Commercial takes over 2 weeks due to Design Review Board

Guidance: Residential inspection turnaround time currently at best practice. Considering shortening the turnaround time for commercial roof mounted systems which meet qualifying criteria, such as installations on flat roofs which are not visible from the street or rooftop installs which are flush-mounted.

Initial Status: A set time is provided

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

Initial Status: A preliminary inspection for roof penetrations is required in addition to final electrical and structural inspections

Action Taken: Only a final inspection is required

Initial Status: No inspection checklist currently in use

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: No structural PE stamp currently required

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

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

Guidance: Village 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

Guidance: Explore creation of municipal ordinances which require new homes and buildings to be built solar-ready.

Initial Status: Conducted community-wide GHG inventory, developed Climate Action Plan.

Guidance: Village currently at best practice; Croton was the lead collaborator with 6 other NWEAC members on a joint Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Climate Action Plan process (2011-2012). If there are future versions of this document, consider including solar-specific implementation provisions. Also consider publishing the Climate Action Plan on the Village website.

Initial Status: Solar allowed in all districts, with no restrictive provisions on height, setback, visibility, etc.

Guidance: Village currently at best practice

Initial Status: Unknown whether local HOA, Half Moon Bay, has 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: Village is an EIC member, which allows EIC to offer financing for local projects

Guidance: Village currently at best practice. Croton was the first Village in New York State to join the Energy Improvement Corp for the purpose of promoting PACE financing for energy-related improvement.

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 Village website, possibly via the current page for the Sustainability Committee. See related suggestion under Roadmap Goal [M8].

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

Action Taken: Croton was selected in Round 1 of the Solarize Westchester campaign

Guidance: Solarize Cortlandt-Croton was a unique discount buying program that used a tiered-pricing structure, town-supported education and outreach and one competitively selected installer to dramatically reduce the cost of solar. The Residential portion of this program ended June 1, 2015. The program website is here: http://www.solarizewestchester.com/solarize-cortlandt-croton/

Initial Status: Village joined the Municipal Solar Buyers Group

Guidance: Village 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: There is a 6kW install on a Village firehouse.

Guidance: The Village installed solar at a firehouse in 2009; monitoring data is available here: http://bit.ly/Croton_Firehouse_SolarPanels. The ASTI team can help evaluate the feasibility of additional municipal sites as desired.

Initial Status: Village has a Sustainability Committee and Conservation Advisory Council with associated info online

Guidance: Village NWEAC leadership and participation in the EnergizeNY program shows commitment to EERE and has resulted in additional homeowner participation in EERE upgrades. Solar-related info for consumers is available on the EnergizeNY website and on the Sustainability Committee page of the Village website. Consider working with the Solar Roadmap team to build out the solar-related resources on the Village website further to provide more information for citizens interested in going solar.