Solar Energy

The Business and Industry Element of the city's Master Plan includes an action to create policies that enhance sustainability and support the growth of local green industries like the solar industry (1.15.2).

The Energy and Energy Distribution Element includes an action to perform energy efficiency retrofits on energy-intensive municipal buildings and illustrates solar panels on local high schools (2.1.2).

The Utilities and Infrastructure Element includes strategies to expand the use of distributed resources and generation technologies such as solar photovoltaic panels (Strategy 2.5) and explore opportunities for generating renewable energy including solar energy (Strategy 3.4).

The Urban Design Element outlines a framework for the growth of the city and articulates design standards and guidelines that will regulate future development. Many of these standards and guidelines relate to solar including those providing that the massing of all buildings should be considerate of solar access to neighboring properties and that windows should be oriented to make the best use of passive solar heating (p. 56). Solar panels may exceed building height limits if appropriately screened (p. 65). The plan also encourages environmentally friendly construction including solar powered water heating or solar panels (p. 72). Solar panels should not be visible from the street (p. 72). Parking garages are encouraged to incorporate solar panels (p. 82).