It may have just gotten a little easier to install solar panels and heat pumps in Marblehead’s historic neighborhoods. The Old and Historic Districts Commission has updated its guidelines to be more open to eco-friendly changes to homes and buildings, averting a Town Meeting vote forcing them to do so.
“What are we preserving old town for if it’s going to be ravaged by climate change?” asked Mark Adams with Sustainable Marblehead, who proposed the Town Meeting warrant article and will now withdraw it. “We’re facing an existential threat … it’s especially important in a coastal community like Marblehead that’s going to feel the impact of rising sea levels.”
Adams’ warrant article would have required the OHDC (which approves changes to buildings in Marblehead’s Old Town and Gingerbread Hill neighborhoods) to update its
guidelines for heat pumps and solar panels. Instead, Adams met with the OHDC and came to “an agreement that changes the guidelines in two places,” he told the Marblehead Current.
“Solar panels were strictly forbidden in the district if any part of any component was visible from a public way,” Adams said. “That’s no longer the case. The guidelines now say solar panels will be evaluated and will be allowed at the discretion of the committee.”
The OHDC has also updated its guidelines regarding heat pumps, Adams said.
“Most people use air-to-air heat pumps, which require a refrigerant line and that line has to go up to the second and third floors,” he explained, adding that it’s most convenient and affordable to run those lines on exterior walls.
“There is no longer a ban on line sets on the exterior of the house,” said OHDC Chair Charles Hibbard. “We will consider it. But it’s going to be challenging to find a historically-appropriate solution to that.”
Hibbard emphasized that projects with solar panels and heat pumps still need to respect the historical nature of any property.
“If they [solar panels] are large, flat panes of reflective glass and sit on a metal framework which is bolted on top of an asphalt or wood-shingled roof, the commission is going to say, ‘I don’t see how that is a historically-appropriate appearance. I don’t see how that respects the original architecture of your 18th- or 19th-century house. Is there another way you can approach this?’
“The door is always open,” Hibbard added, ‘but the path to success depends very much on the specifics.”
Adams said he’ll monitor decisions made by the OHDC, to make sure members are approving reasonable sustainability projects.
“We’ll just have to see how it plays out,” Adams said.
Also, the Marblehead Green Committee, commissioned by the Select Board, is “coming out with a report that says changes have to be made within the historic district to meet our 2040 goal of net zero,” Adams said. Town Planner Becky Curran said she has consulted with the OHDC and plans to apply for a grant to explore ways buildings in the historic district can become more sustainable.
“We want to find out what other towns do and how this can be done without degrading the character of the historic district,” Curran said.
“That should result in new guidelines that confirm balancing the preservation of historic properties with making them more energy efficient,” Adams said.
