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Nancy Smith

City of South Miami: Solar in, Riff-Raff out?

July 12, 2017 - 8:00am
South Miami City Hall and Mayor Philip A. Stoddard
South Miami City Hall and Mayor Philip A. Stoddard

At least in the past four decades, the tool of choice for elite Florida communities to keep the riff-raff out has been unaffordable housing.

You create policies that drive up the cost of homes, turn your back on low-income housing, and little by little, the folks in steerage go back below deck, so to speak, and you don't have to deal with them.

Is this, I wonder, what's happening in the city of South Miami?

South Miami, population 12,000, is due Wednesday to vote on an ordinance that would make it the first incorporated community in Florida to require every new residential home, building, or apartment complex to install solar panels.

Mayor Philip Stoddard -- green energy-minded, a Ph.D. and a full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University -- is full-throttle behind the new ordinance. 

Trouble is, this will add between $18,000 and $25,000 to the price of a new home -- in a city already listed as one of the costliest places in South Florida to live. According to Zillow.com, the median home value in South Miami is $495,400. That's right now, pre-solar mandate. The value has gone up 8.9 percent over the past year and Zillow predicts it will rise 1.2 percent within the next year.

In addition to a Miami-level mortgage, this solar mandate can raise monthly costs beyond whatever electrical savings the panels might provide. 

Only four similar ordinances exist in the whole of the U.S., and every one is in high-priced California. Which should, but apparently doesn't, say something about the wisdom of this city quest.

Even local builders couldn't get through to city officials. At the last City Commission meeting, Vice Mayor Robert Welsh blew them off. “The Builders Association of South Florida sent a letter saying this ordinance will make South Miami unaffordable. Well, guess what?" Welsh chortled. "We're unaffordable already ... I hate to burst your bubble, but South Miami is unaffordable.”

The local chapter of Washington, D.C.-based Family Businesses for Affordable Energy (FBAE) has also tried to slow the ordinance down, get questions answered for residents wondering how this solar mandate will affect them and the city as a whole. But Stoddard has largely ignored this lobbying group, telling the Miami New Times FBAE is a kind of extension of "the electricity industry," and might even have been the ones behind a robocall campaign against the city's solar ordinance. 

FBAE has denied any involvement in the robocalls and claims all it's doing is fulfilling its mission -- "working to secure ordinances and legislation that keep energy costs low and protect consumers and family businesses."

FBAE points to the absence of an impact study on the ordinance. Without a reliable assessment of how the ordinance will affect future home construction and costs, particularly for lower-income residents, how, they ask, can anyone reasonably assess how the proposed law would impact the city?

Oh, wait a minute. South Miami is "unaffordable already." I forgot. So, apparently there's little interest in low-income housing.

FBAE volunteers from South Miami sent a letter to the commission -- a last-ditch plea for reason. They hope it will be considered at Wednesday's meeting. It makes these basic points:

  • Remove mandate on all new, single family homes under 2000 square feet: The South Miami Commission should work to ensure that residents have access to affordable housing. ... 
  • Provide residents with educational materials on preferred vendors and benefits of the ordinance as well as town halls to secure community buy-in. ...
  • Provide residents with actual costs and benefits of solar panels in South Miami. The city has provided payback models and financial benefit for the solar ordinance, but those models are based on California energy prices and do not take into account Florida’s energy costs or the higher costs of insuring the panels using high costs of insurance in Florida.  We would like a specific study done by the city on the costs and benefits to South Miami homeowners -- we do not think you should rely on a California cost and benefit model to justify the financials in South Miami.

Whether Mayor Stoddard and the South Miami City Commission care to acknowledge it, I'm not the only one bothered by the practice of elite-creep in towns and cities that once were economically and culturally diverse. 

Affordable housing is a disappearing commodity across the U.S., according to the Summer 2017 edition of The Housing and Mortgage Market Review, published by Arch Mortgage Insurance Company. The publication is hot off the press, released Tuesday.

Over the past two years, home affordability has deteriorated the most in San Diego, Miami  (my emphasis) and the San Francisco Bay area, the Review claims.

Ralph G. DeFranco, global chief economist of mortgage services at Arch Capital Services Inc. said, “I expect prices and rates to rise, meaning affordability will only worsen from here. In fact, once mortgage interest rates reach 5 percent, home ownership in high-cost areas ... could be out of reach for many people who qualify now.”

This just seems strange to me. Here's South Miami, a community so progressive with its emphasis on green energy, but so reactionary in its attraction to economic diversity.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith


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Comments

AMAZING article. Will save as a resource. Thank you! https://gosolarprogram.com/

Well guess what!? The next hurricane coming thru will BLOW AWAY those roof panels!! Guess what else!? They'll have to wait MONTHS for new panels to come from a slow boat from China!! LOL

There are "Approved" systems that are Hurricane resistant and incorporate solar PV and Solar Thermal.... See: www.artezanoshybrid.com

Ditto to Phillip's comment. A home with a solar energy system may sell at a higher price, but 1) Installing the equipment during construction and through large contracts with developers will decrease the cost of installation, and 2) a solar energy system will decrease the cost of actually living in the house for the next 25 - 30 years. Why can't people see that spending $16k more for a house that will save you $35k on electricity is pro-homeowner?

Mike, You also can factor in the (7%) Florida Sales Tax Exemption and 30% federal tax credit over the whole cost of a new roof if it "integrates" "Qualified Solar Electric Property" and/or "Qualified Solar Water Heating Property" as per IRS Form 5695 with no cap limitation till December 31, 2019. This is 30% off of everything you spend on a Solar Roof people! Plus you could get additional savings in building material expense because of the size of the solar system you integrate. See: artezanoshybrid.com

There may well be "elite-creep" in Florida, but there's a whole lot more ignorant-creep that is destroying Florida and the US. After all, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. PUTNAM 2018!! TRUMP 2020!!)

AMEN to that!

Solar costs are ultra-low ($6200 for a 1600 sf house) and low-income families benefit the most (http://www.lowincomesolar.org). Cost-benefit analysis shows it benefits the home-owner (www.nrel.gov/solar/assets/docs/sir.xlsx). Studies show that builders and realtors benefit from solar too ( https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/energyoffice/atom/35466 https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/selling-sun-price-premium-analysis-0) In fact everybody benefits except executives and shareholders of utilities and oil companies, which are spending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting consumer-owned solar energy. Congrats, Nancy, you have been co-opted by propaganda from big utilities and oil companies.

This article is pathetic, probably done intentionally. The truth as you know is solar is becoming ridiculously "affordable"...

Thank you Mr. Stoddard for those FACTS. Opinions and diatribes are like piss on public restroom floors.

Man!!! The po juss cant get a break. Rich crackers!! How I gonna get outta they projects when green hate me!?!?

Daniel, Solar is the best solution for the poor....

What??? Nancy - this is a stretch. We have to have an environment left. Why is Florida the last place to become solar. When I visited Israel in 1987 EVERYONE had a solar water heater - 1987. What is Florida thinking????? reply

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nancy smith
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