AZ Court of Appeals, Solar Decision

Following five years of litigation, Arizona courts have upheld residents’

right to install solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels. When residents of an Avondale, Arizona master-planned community installed solar panels to heat their swimming pools, Garden Lakes Community Association retaliated by filing a lawsuit requiring removal of the panels. The panels should be hidden, the Association contended, by patios or screens—measures which would be prohibitively expensive and render the solar systems less efficient. In

Garden Lakes Community Association vs. Madigan/Speak, an appeals court upheld a lower court’s earlier decision in favor the homeowners, finding that the guidelines violated the state’s public policy as expressed in Arizona Revised Statute Section 33-439.