If government demands for "green energy" keep clashing with government demands for "historic preservation," somebody's head's gonna explode. In Lunenburg, Novia Scotia, Charlie Farquharson wants to add solar panels when he replaces the roof of the 116-year-old house he bought six months ago. But the town won't let him because the house in an area known as Old Town, a heritage conservation district where a bylaw restricts the changes a homeowner can make.
The bylaw also says utility structures must be hidden by landscaping, a board fence or lattice if they are visible from an adjacent street.
But Farquharson said covering the solar panels defeated the reason for having them because screens prevented the sun's rays from getting through.
That wasn't the funniest line in the piece, though. It's this one, although the mayor obviously doesn't realize it: "In an interview following the hearing, Mayor Laurence Mawhinney said council will debate how to allow green technology into heritage homes."
Old and green. Isn't that how we used to describe money?
