最新杏吧原创

He realized that if he really wanted to make a difference in reducing his carbon footprint, he should also add solar panels to his Chesterfield house. It would help provide energy when he plugged in his car. So he did the research on that.

By spring 2022, he had decided to add the solar panels. There were state and federal tax credits available to help reduce the cost, as well as incentives from Ameren Missouri. Kean put a plan together and filed a proposal with the architectural review committee where he lives.

The Stonehill Village C Homeowners Association denied his application.

鈥淚 was absolutely surprised,鈥� Kean said.

The panels were proposed for the back side of the house only, which faces south. No other homeowners in the subdivision would see them.

Kean is friends with the trustees on the board 鈥� he used to be one 鈥� so he asked why he was denied. It wasn鈥檛 so much about his proposal, the president of the board allegedly told him, but that the trustees were afraid an approval would set off the 鈥渨ild west of requests, and such requests would be a pain for trustees to manage.鈥�

The phrase in quotation marks comes from a lawsuit Kean filed against the homeowners鈥� association (HOA) in August. By then, after several back-and-forth letters with the HOA, he had decided to install his solar panels. The HOA, in turn, threatened Kean and his contractors with a lawsuit and started issuing daily fines. Kean filed a lawsuit in 最新杏吧原创 County Circuit Court, seeking a declaration that his solar panels are legal.

The lawsuit comes at a time when solar panels in Missouri 鈥� and what HOAs and municipalities can do to regulate them 鈥� have become hot topics. Kean called me after I wrote a series of columns about homeowners in nearby Wildwood, who have been battling with the city over denials of solar proposals. Residents eventually got the city to back off of a plan to effectively ban most solar panel installations. They got help in their quest from Frances Babb, who won a solar-panel lawsuit against the adjacent city of Clarkson Valley in 2012.

Kean鈥檚 situation is a little different than the ones in those disputes.

After he raised questions about his denial, the Stonehill Village C Homeowners Association passed a rule that bans solar panels on roofs in the subdivision. The action came last summer, after the Missouri Legislature had passed a law to limit the ability of an HOA to stop solar installations. Babb helped lobby for that law.

The law, though, contains an exception for HOAs with shared rooftops, where the association either owns or maintains the roofs of homes that are connected to their neighbors. Such is the situation in Stonehill. Also, the new state law didn鈥檛 take effect until this year.

After Kean installed his solar panels and filed his lawsuit, the association and its trustees asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the subdivision is exempt from the state law. No rulings have been made in the case.

The solar panels have done their job, Kean says. His utility bills have been cut by at least half. But the dispute will have to play out in court before he knows if they鈥檒l stay in place.

鈥淚 really struggled with filing a lawsuit,鈥� Kean says. 鈥淭hese are my neighbors. I felt backed into a corner. I didn鈥檛 know what else to do.鈥�

He鈥檚 not sure why there seem to be so many west 最新杏吧原创 County disputes over solar energy, which is increasingly being adopted by homeowners and businesses, in part because governments and utilities have made it a priority.

鈥淪olar energy is a property right,鈥� Kean says.

He doesn鈥檛 understand why HOAs and municipalities would battle homeowners trying to improve their properties and lower utility bills.

鈥淚鈥檓 hoping it鈥檚 just a matter of needing education,鈥� he says.