Iowa Code 564A.5 – Decision
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1. After the hearing on the application, the solar access regulatory board shall determine whether to issue an order granting a solar access easement. The board shall grant a solar access easement if the board finds that there is a need for the solar collector, that the space burdened by the easement was not obstructed by anything except vegetation that would shade the solar collector at the time of filing of the application, that the proposed location of the collector minimizes the impact of the easement on the development of the servient estate and that the applicant tried and failed to negotiate a voluntary easement. However, the board may refuse to grant a solar access easement upon a finding that the easement would require the removal of trees that provide shade or a windbreak to a residence on the servient estate. The board shall not grant a solar access easement upon a servient estate if the board finds that the owner, at least six months prior to the filing of the application, has made a substantial financial commitment to build a structure that will shade the solar collector. In issuing its order granting the solar access easement, the board may modify the solar access easement applied for and impose conditions on the location of the solar collector that will minimize the impact upon the servient estate.
Terms Used In Iowa Code 564A.5
- Dominant estate: means that parcel of land to which the benefits of a solar access easement attach. See Iowa Code 564A.2
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
- property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
- Servient estate: means land burdened by a solar access easement, other than the dominant estate. See Iowa Code 564A.2
- Solar access easement: means an easement recorded under section 564A. See Iowa Code 564A.2
- Solar access regulatory board: means the board designated by a city council or county board of supervisors under section 564A. See Iowa Code 564A.2
- Solar collector: means a device or structural feature of a building that collects solar energy and that is part of a system for the collection, storage, and distribution of solar energy. See Iowa Code 564A.2
2. The solar access regulatory board shall grant a solar access easement only within the area that is within three hundred feet of the center of the northernmost boundary of the collector and is south of a line drawn east and west tangent to the northernmost boundary of the collector.
3. The solar access regulatory board shall determine the amount of compensation that is to be paid to the owners of the servient estate for the impairment of the right to develop the property. Compensation shall be based on the difference between the fair market value of the property prior to and after granting the solar access easement. The parties shall be notified of the board’s decision within thirty days of the date of the hearing. The owner of the dominant estate shall have thirty days from the date of notification of the board’s decision to deposit the compensation with the board. Upon receipt of the compensation, the board shall issue an order granting the solar access easement to the owner of the dominant estate and remit the compensation awarded to the owners of the servient estate. The owner of the dominant estate may decline to deposit the compensation with the board, and no order granting the solar access easement shall then be issued.
4. When the order granting the solar access easement is issued, the owner of the dominant estate shall have it recorded in the office of the county recorder who shall record the solar access easement and list the owner of the dominant estate as grantee and the owner of the servient estate as grantor in the deed index. The solar access easement after being recorded shall be considered an easement appurtenant in or on the servient estate.