MorganHillTimes.com | Litigation threatened as district seeks to save with solar

Litigation threatened as district seeks to save with solar

Dec 23, 2009
By Natalie Everett - Staff Writer

As the school district's high school carport solar project hums along, Ann Sobrato High School's neighbors are threatening to sue.

Steve Salvador and three of his neighbors hired local land use attorney Bruce Tichinin to fight Morgan Hill Unified School District's plans to install solar panels atop carports at Ann Sobrato and Live Oak high schools.

Salvador lives on Bauman Court, east of Sobrato. He said the district didn't take he and his neighbors seriously until they'd hired a lawyer.

"It completely blocks our view as the neighbors on that street," he said of the proposed project. "We tried in vain to get them to listen, and once we hired an attorney, all of a sudden they want to talk with us. I'm out a lot of money, so are a lot of others.

"I'm all for being green and solar and everything. But for one, the timing couldn't be worse. And, I don't see why they can't put them behind the school."

But Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini said for the project to pencil they need one megawatt of energy to be produced, and to do that, they plan to fill Sobrato's student parking lot on the north side of the campus - behind the school - and some teacher spaces on the east side.

The district will use part of a $25 million bond won in a lottery to pay for the panels. Officials plan to pay back the bond with interest in about 15 years using the money saved from the panel's energy production.

In October, the district approved entering into a public-private partnership with Chevron Energy Solutions and determined through an environmental consultant that the project would not create any potential significant environmental impacts.

But Tichinin's clients beg to differ. In a Dec. 4 letter to the Board of Education, Tichinin said the project is "fatally vulnerable to lawsuit challenge." He said his clients oppose the project but would support it if the board "will be so reasonable as to relocate the proposed solar panels ... out of the viewsheds of my clients' homes and yards." Tichinin listed the roofs of school buildings and several areas in the north school grounds as alternative locations.

Tognazzini said Superintendent Dr. Wesley Smith will talk about the issue with the school board during its Jan. 8 meeting.

Natalie Everett

Natalie Everett
Natalie Everett is the education and city reporter for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106, ext. 201, or neverett@morganhilltimes.com.