Houses Cast into Shadow

Solar access is the ability of one property to continue to receive sunlight across

property lines without obstruction from another’s property. --Wikipedia

One of the issues that Ordinance 033 addresses is "solar access." As larger houses are being built in Old Town, the residents in the smaller houses beside them are finding that they have lost all sunshine into their homes during the winter months. Less sun falling on the house can lead to increased heating bills, problems with ice dams on the roof, and for some, problems of depression due to loss of natural light, especially for those with seasonal affective disorder.

In the photo above, the house on the left was built in 1918. The building on the right was put up in 2012. In addition being 4 times as large as the older house, the urban styled new house also blocks sunlight from the older one. Note that even though the sun is falling across the roof of the house, none is reaching any of the windows. 

The older house on the left is currently owner occupied. The residents bought the house a few years back when the neighborhood was almost entirely small houses. Since then, not only have two large houses gone in to the north of them, but one of the largest houses in old town was built just across the street from them. If they moved to this street because of its cute older houses, their experience is a far cry from that at this point. The folks that own the new house on the right are listed on the county assessor records as living south of Prospect Road in Fort Collins.

On Grant street, the owner occupied home shown here to the left is overshadowed by an urban styled house that was added in 2010. The current owners of the new property live in Steamboat, but their love of the sun is reflected in the way their new house was built. It butts up as close to the northern property line as possible to allow for as much southern exposure for their house and porch as possible. They effectively block the sun from the smaller house that was built in 1900. Note that the shadow from the newer house not only keeps sun from the windows, but past noon in the spring it was keeping sun from a part of the roof as well. If the solar access is at this level on March 28th, imagine what it must have been like for the home owners in late December, when the sun is at its lowest angle from the earth. 

One of the protections that Ordinance 033, the "Good Neighbor Ordinance," provides is a rule that limits the height of new additions and buildings so that they allow for a reasonable amount of solar access in the winter months. Even when these rules are followed, neighbors to the north may still lose some solar exposure, but the damage will be mitigated by the new rules.

The solar access rules only affect 2-story houses over 2,500 square feet that are located on north-south streets. So houses built or added onto on east-west streets don't have to follow these new rules at all. Though being considerate of neighbors and how your new building will affect them is always a good rule, no matter what street you're located on.


Sources
Information about house sizes and building dates came from the county assessor's records online.

The diagram explaining rules for preserving solar access came from the "Overview of Potential Mass and Scale Standards" discussion draft given out on January 15, 2013. It was put out by the consultants who assessed community input and helped use that to write the recommended changes presented in the ordinance.