Installing rooftop-mounted solar panels is a growing trend among homeowners looking to save money on their electric bills or be environmentally conscious. 

But seeing the most savings largely depends on placing the panels where they’ll receive maximum sunlight. That can mean visibility from the street, which is why Smithfield’s Board of Historic and Architectural Review has yet to approve any in the town’s historic district – even though the district guidelines technically permit them.

BHAR, a Town Council-appointed body tasked with issuing or denying a “certificate of appropriateness” for exterior changes to historic district homes, has twice denied applications for rooftop-mounted solar panels over the past three months. In December, BHAR rejected homeowner Jesse Midgett’s proposal to place 18 panels on his home on Riverview Avenue. Two months later they voted to deny homeowners John and Kelly Payne’s request to place 21 panels on their Grace Street home.

Smithfield’s Town Council voted 6-1 on April 1 to uphold the latter decision after Kelly Payne appealed BHAR’s denial.

Payne contended her proposal called for panels on the side- and rear-facing sections of roof on her three-story, circa-1909 home. The panels would have been installed by Utah-based Ion Solar, whose representatives say they install between 300 to 400 solar panels on homes across Virginia per month.

“I’m not asking to put panels on the front-facing porch,” Payne said. “I’m asking to put them on the rooftop, which you can see does not face the street.”

But several council members contended the areas she’s proposing to install panels can still be seen from the street, particularly by pedestrians.

“That side roof is extremely visible from the street, perhaps not for cars coming down on the inside lane but Grace Street is our most walked street by our visitors and as a historian preservationist, I think it’s incredibly important that we do everything we can to maintain the historical integrity of our downtown historic area,” said Vice Mayor Bill Harris.

Members of BHAR had raised concerns over setting the “precedent” of allowing the historic district’s first solar panel at its December and February meetings, a concern Harris shares.

“Once we begin this, we dilute the history a little bit more,” Harris said. “We’ve already lost significant historical structures in Pierceville and barns and other historical buildings over the years.”

Pierceville, a dilapidated 1730s-era farmhouse, was razed in 2020 by developer Joseph Luter IV and his father, former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph Luter III, along with the former Little’s grocery store on Main Street to clear 57 acres for the proposed Grange at 10Main development slated for the west end of the historic district. In 2024, Smithfield Foods tore down a dilapidated late 19th century barn on company-owned land behind Cure Coffeehouse on North Church Street after the town’s anchor employer persuaded a prior Town Council to overrule BHAR’s denial of permission for the demolition.

Councilwoman Valerie Butler cast the lone dissenting vote. She said her support for Payne’s application was rooted in the town’s recently revised historic district guidelines, which state solar panels “may be installed on historic buildings under certain circumstances.”

The Town Council voted in February to adopt new guidelines advanced by BHAR that replaced circa-2005 guidance.

The new guidelines were developed by Colorado-based Chronicle Heritage, formerly PaleoWest, which the town retained as a consultant. The solar guidance in particular is largely based on guidelines adopted by Arlington County, which also has a historic district.

There were around 620 solar home systems as of 2022 in Arlington, which operates a public-private partnership with the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors to subsidize the installation cost, according to the online news outlet ArlNow.com. The report did not include a breakdown of how many were in Arlington’s multiple historic districts.

Best practices for installing solar panels on historic buildings was one of the additions to the new guidelines. The revised guidance document states roof-mounted utilities, satellite dishes, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units and solar panels “should be located on the side or the rear of a building” and “as a general rule, solar panels should be installed in a location not visible from the ground or the public right of way.” Another less noticeable option is solar shingles, which more closely resemble conventional roofs but act as solar panels. Town Planner Mark Kluck told BHAR at one of its recent meetings that he knew of only one solar shingle project in town, which isn’t in the historic district.