City Might Revise High Solar Fees

Sierra Madre city officials have issued a response to a Sierra Club study and subsequent news coverage regarding high permitting fees for solar panel installation projects in the city. A PDF version of the city's statement is attached to this article.

In a statement posted to the city website titled "City Sets the Record Straight on Solar Fees," the city says that they have "received a number of inquiries as a result of news articles that list Sierra Madre as having among the highest fees for solar projects in the County of Los Angeles."

Those news articles to which the city refers include a recent story here on Sierra Madre Patch titled "."

Based on a study conducted by the Sierra Club, the article cites Sierra Madre as having the third-highest fees for commercial solar installations among the cities surveyed. Furthermore, the article says that the city's flat fee for a residential solar project is $515.00.

In their response, the city makes note that the residential flat fee, which is not based on the valuation of the solar project seeking permit, was reduced by $42 at the June 14, 2011 city council meeting. That new fee structure will take effect on July 1.

Regarding the fees for commercial solar power projects, the city argues in their statement that the sample project on which the survey was based "is not representative of a project that could exist in our commercial district," due to the size of the project and lack of commercial roof space in the commercial district to hold such a project.

Nevertheless, Sierra Madre still charges for commercial solar installation permits using a valuation-based system instead of a flat fee, something that the authors of the Sierra Club study argue is unreasonable.

“Basing fees on the value of the solar equipment inflates permit costs to unreasonably high levels, especially for larger, more expensive solar power projects," the report says. "To recover costs, therefore, permit fees should be based on specific review times and billable hourly rates and not on PV project valuations.”

Despite the two revisions to residential project fees in the past few years, no revisions have been made to commercial ones.

In our , Planning Director Danny Castro said those commercial fees had not been studied or adjusted by the city because there had been no applications for commercial solar projects in the city, a statement which is essentially repeated in this latest release from the city.

But the end of the statement offers something new.

In addition to a statement encouraging local businesses interested in a solar installation to contact the city to obtain an "accurate, site-specific" estimate, the statement also says that city staff is now "compiling information for the development of a flat commercial solar permit fee."