My solar panels trump your trees, so there

I found this is an interesting story; first heard about it on NPR this morning (driving back from NH where I was buying smokes). This account is from the New York Times.

Trees — redwoods, live oaks or blossoming fruit trees — are usually considered sturdy citizens of the sun-swept peninsula south of San Francisco, not criminal elements. But under a 1978 state law protecting homeowners’ investment in rooftop solar panels, trees that impede solar panels’ access to the sun can be deemed a nuisance (my emphasis) and their owners fined up to $1,000 a day. The Solar Shade Act was a curiosity until late last year, when a dispute over the eight redwoods (a k a Tree No. 1, Tree No. 2, Tree No. 3, etc.) ended up in Santa Clara County criminal court.

It seems that some of the redwoods blocked more than 10% of the sun that rightfully belonged to a neighbor's rooftop solar panels. At least according to California law. As can be seen in the image accompanying the NY Times story, at least one of the trees was "trimmed" down to the trunk. Lovely. The trees, by the way, were there first (it doesn't say so in the piece, but it looks as if to block the neighbor's house, a scant 17 ft. away); but they also put the neighbor's yard almost entirely in shade.

Take out the 'green' aspects of the story and it's just another typical neighbor-on-neighbor dispute, motivated by self interest and fueled by lack of communication.