HOA Put 60 Solar Panels on My Land — Then the Utility Asked, “Who Authorized This?”
Chapter 7
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He considered the request. "You can look at the site plan while it's on the truck. I can't hand over the project file."The plan showed six neat rows of ten panels on a rectangular parcel labeled HOA COMMON ENERGY PARCEL. A thick boundary line ran along the north side of the array, though no line on the drawing matched the position of my actual fence. The field itself had been simplified into blank space, stripped of its watering lane, contour changes, and use as pasture. A person reading only the drawing would think the ground was available because the drawing did not show the life already depending on it."Who put those words on the map?" I asked.Lewis pointed at a revision box in the corner. "This came from engineering. Ryan Keller is the project manager. The association selected the site.""Does Ryan know there are cattle in this field?""He knows the installation is near agricultural property. I don't know what he was told beyond that."I photographed the plan with the real fence in the background. That photograph became one of the most important images in my folder, not because it proved who held title to the land, but because it proved there were two competing descriptions of the same place. Under one description it was active grazing pasture. Under the other it was association property waiting for an energy project. The distinction had been made in an office before a single auger arrived.I called Ryan that afternoon. He sounded about my age, with a measured voice and the weary patience of a man who had spent the day solving scheduling problems. When I explained that his crews were installing on property I owned, he did not accuse me of lying. He asked which side of the northern boundary I meant and whether I had a parcel reference number.I gave him both, then described the fence, water lane, and drilling positions. He said the association had represented control of the site through its project package, and he believed a board representative had confirmed the location during final coordination. I asked whether he had received a signed agreement from the landowner. He paused long enough to check something on his screen."Not that I'm seeing in the file in front of me," he said at last. "I will need to review the project records.""Will you stop work while you do?""I'll escalate it. I can't give you an answer before I talk to our management and the client.""If you were in my position, would you be comfortable watching a crew bury equipment while everyone escalated?"There was another pause. "No," he said. "I wouldn't."That answer did not stop construction. The next day there were fewer workers, but the new rows kept taking shape, and electricians began marking a cable route uphill. I could tell Ryan had spoken to somebody because Lewis approached me before starting and said the work had been narrowed to tasks his office regarded as already authorized. To him that was a responsible compromise. To me it meant each morning brought a new set of irreversible-looking improvements to land still in dispute.