By Alesha Capone
A WILLIAMSTOWN home-owner has won the right to leave solar panels, visible from the street, on a house located in a Williamstown heritage area.
Hobsons Bay City Council recently took the resident to VCAT after he erected solar panels on his Twyford St house’s north and west roof lines, without a permit.
However, the resident did ask the council to retrospectively grant permission for the panels.
The council issued a permit but included a condition requiring seven panels on the north side of the roof to be relocated, so they were not visible from the street.
Twyford St is classified as part of the ‘Government Survey Heritage Precinct’ and the house with the solar panels dates from the 1880s, but has been renovated and extended since then.
The homeowner applied to VCAT for the solar panels to be left on the roof where he installed them, saying the “northern orientation contributes to the efficient operation of the panels and is therefore needed to achieve an environmentally sustainable outcome for the dwelling”.
The VCAT tribunal decided in favour of the homeowner, after inspecting the site.
“I have concluded that the solar panels do not adversely affect the significance of the place and I have therefore directed that the permit be varied by removing the condition,” VCAT arbitrator Laurie Hewet said in his verdict.
“Council submits that the location of the solar panels on the north roof slope of the dwelling, where they are very visible from the street, is not supported by the council’s heritage policies, and adversely affects the significance of the heritage place.
“The solar panels are clearly visible from the street but this fact is not of itself sufficient to conclude that the panels have an adverse affect on the significance of the heritage place.
“The solar panels, while clearly visible, are not visually dominant.”
At last Tuesday’s Hobsons Bay City Council meeting, Cr Angela Altair asked what this meant for future planning applications in the area.
The council’s planning and environment director, Peter Gaschk, said each application would be dealt with on a “case-by-case basis” according to its merits.
