‘Solar monster’ sparks suburban scrap
BEVERLY — It’s not easy being green.
A retired couple might echo that lament after installing a ground-mounted grid of energy-soaking panels — dubbed “the solar monster’’ by one city councilor — that has pitted neighbor against neighbor and sparked a vitriolic war of words.
“It’s a foreign body, basically,’’ said Mary Downing, scowling as she looked at her neighbors’ carbon-friendly tower. “We don’t want to be out on the deck in the summer, by the pool, and see that thing.’’
“That thing’’ is a stack of 20 solar panels that turns with the sun each day and powers the four-bedroom home where Lola and Richard Eanes live.
It hums rather than rumbles, moves a foot or two several times a day, and shuts down for the night.
“We have grandchildren, and we’ve been thinking about climate change and what has to be done to reduce energy,’’ said Lola Eanes, a former private investigator who unveiled the unit last December. “It’s a plus for the environment.’’
But on Putnam Street, a thickly settled stretch of older homes 20 miles north of Boston, neighbors have railed against the eco-friendly structure as if it were a landfill, saying its unsightly appearance offsets any environmental gains.
“It’s a gross injustice. I couldn’t be more upset about it,’’ said Ted Downing, echoing his wife’s objections. “It’s so unresidential.’’
Neighbors have complained to Beverly officials, who say the tower does not violate any city regulations. And they have brought their complaints to the Eaneses, who have been taken aback by the angry reaction.
“They ganged up on me,’’ Lola Eanes said. “It’s a new thing, and maybe they don’t like change.’’
Eanes said the complaints have ranged from the expected to the outrageous, including fears that the panels might emit cancer-causing radiation, cause massive erosion, interfere with Beverly Regional Airport, and emit a blinding glare.
Nonsense, Eanes said.
“What right do they have to call this an eyesore? Even the state wants everybody to go solar,’’ she said. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’’
And it’s a boon for the budget. The couple paid for electricity only from June through September, four months when they turned on the air conditioning and circulated the water in their pool, Eanes said. Even then, the bill was far lower than the $350 to $500 a month they had paid before.
But neighbors condemn the tower as an out-of-place blemish that will depress property values and tarnish the neighborhood’s character. Going green is great, they say. Just find another way to do it.
“It’s not that we’re against solar, but it belongs on the roof,’’ Mary Downing said.
Neighbors also complained that they weren’t warned about the plan.
The Eaneses “didn’t say one word about what they were doing and how they were doing it,’’ said Bill Soares, whose bedrooms face the panels. “One day I came home, and there were surveyors poking around, and I asked them, ‘What are you doing?’ ’’
He didn’t like their answer. They were laying the groundwork for a 21-by-16-foot gray, metallic grid supported by an 11-foot tower wrapped in faux-greenery. It’s only the second residential solar tower in Beverly, but its placement is what irks neighbors most.
“It is located physically closer to four other homes than the owner’s home,’’ Soares said. “I hold both the city and the Eaneses accountable for that callousness, lack of concern, and unsympathetic attitude toward the neighbors.’’
City officials said no notification or public hearings were required, but neighbors argued that common courtesy should count for something.
The dispute is linked to the odd layout of the Eanes property, a “pork-chop’’ lot with a narrow strip of land that runs hundreds of feet from the street to the couple’s home. The tower stands on that strip.
Some of the neighbors, once friendly, no longer speak with the couple. The rift might be permanent.
“We have a place in New Hampshire and get up there on weekends, so we really don’t have much to do with them,’’ said Richard Eanes, a former plaster contractor.
Compared with his exasperated neighbors, Eanes was diplomatic.
“I’m stuck with the property value diminished. I’m stuck with looking at the thing. And I’m stuck with a neighbor who paints the other neighbors as obstructionists,’’ Soares said. “It’s infuriating.’’
For her part, Lola Eanes said the real eyesore is the drooping telephone poles that line the streets.
“None of them stand completely straight. Some of them have large transformers on them. Some of them have coils of tangled wires attached, and they are all sagging,’’ Eanes said. “Can these opposing neighbors really say that my sleek solar array with underground wiring to my home is less attractive?’’
Sleek solar array or solar monster, the tower may be the last of its kind in Beverly, said city planner Aaron Clausen. The City Council is expected to review draft regulations early next year that could prohibit large, ground-mounted panels from front yards.
Whatever the outcome at City Hall, the “solar monster’’ of Putnam Street is here to stay, Lola Eanes said.
“We’re not fighting anymore. It’s there, it’s done,’’ she said, waving away the criticism with a flick of her hand. “It’s really been quite a ride.’’
