Somerville, MA Solar Energy: HOA Restrictions (2026)

Chapter 40A, Section 3 is the same statute Massachusetts uses to carve a long list of uses out of local zoning control entirely, covering agricultural and horticultural use, religious and educational use, child care facilities, accessory dwelling units, and manufactured homes after a fire, each addressed in its own paragraph. ' The operative words are 'prohibit' and 'unreasonably regulate': Somerville's Zoning Board of Appeals cannot deny a building permit or special permit for a rooftop or ground-mounted solar array on the theory that solar panels are simply not a listed use, and it cannot impose a blanket ban in any zoning district.

What the city retains is the narrow health, safety or welfare exception, which is why Somerville's Inspectional Services Department can still apply the state building code, 780 CMR, to structural loading, wiring and fire-access clearance for a solar installation, and can still apply ordinary dimensional standards such as height and setback limits in the Somerville Zoning Ordinance, so long as those standards are not a pretext for keeping solar off a roof altogether. The statute binds public zoning bodies only. A private condominium's declaration of trust, recorded under Chapter 183A, or a homeowners association's covenants, are contract documents between owners, not a 'zoning ordinance or by-law,' so Section 3 does not strike down an HOA's architectural-review clause or its own solar-panel placement rules the way it strikes down a municipal zoning bar.

An owner in a Somerville condominium facing an association restriction has to look to the association's own governing documents and to Chapter 183A, not to this statute, for relief.