OLDNBPT

Preservation / Do I need approval?

Solar panels and rooftop equipment

Out of sight, rooftop equipment is excluded from the demolition delay outright. In view of the street, the answer depends on where the building is, and in one case the ordinance doesn’t say.

Last reviewed against the ordinances September 30, 2026

Or read the part for your area: Fruit Street district · Downtown · Rest of the historic district · Elsewhere in the city

Your building is here

Fruit Street Local Historic District

Fruit Street and a few neighboring lots on High and Prospect Streets, sixteen buildings in all. Its own commission reviews any exterior change seen from the street.

  1. Fruit Street Historic District Commission decides

    Panels seen from a public way are an exterior change; panels out of sight are not reviewable. Before any building or demolition permit, you need one of three certificates: of appropriateness (the work suits the district), of non-applicability (nothing reviewable is involved), or of hardship. The Commission decides within 14 days whether the work is reviewable, holds a hearing within 45 days, and decides within 60 days of filing; if it doesn’t act in time, a certificate of hardship issues automatically. It looks only at what can be seen from a public street, park or the river, never at interiors.

    Code ch. 16 §16-2; Code ch. 16 §§16-6–16-8; M.G.L. c. 40C

  2. Design guidelines guidance

    The 2008 guidelines allow solar where the building’s architectural features are left unchanged, with at least two feet of roof showing around the array, and discourage panels that hide the roofline or dominate the view.

    Code ch. 16 §§16-6–16-8; M.G.L. c. 40C

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Downtown Overlay District (DOD)

The downtown part of the Newburyport Historic District. The Planning Board reviews work on historic buildings and all new construction.

  1. Planning Board decides

    Solar panels on a historic building downtown are an alteration. On a historic building (individually listed on the National Register, or contributing in the 1984 nomination), this needs a Downtown Overlay special permit before any building permit, judged against the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. Before applying, the owner gives the Historical Commission photographs, the inventory forms and the plans at least 30 days ahead; the Commission sends the Board an advisory report.

    Zoning §XXVII-D.8, §XXVII-F.7; §XXVIII-D.3, §XXVIII-E.7; Zoning §XXVII-D.2, 13; Zoning §XXVII-C, E, F; §X-H.7–8; Zoning §XXVII-F.4.b–c, F.5.a.iii; ch. 2 §2-104

  2. Design rules what the Board looks for

    Panels placed to keep them as little visible as possible, installed without any irreversible change to the building.

    Zoning §XXVII-C, E, F; §X-H.7–8

  3. Zoning Administrator determines

    Downtown review doesn’t reach everything. Excluded, on a written determination: ordinary maintenance or replacement in kind (no change in design, material or appearance; a new paint color counts as in kind); work on a building or feature that isn’t historic; and alterations (not demolition, not new construction) of a one- or two-family house whose lot is in one of the residential (R-1, R-2, R-3) pockets downtown. Work excluded from downtown review falls under the demolition delay ordinance instead, if it is “demolition” of a building 75 or more years old.

    Zoning §XXVII-C.3, §XXVII-E; §X-H.5

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Demolition Control Overlay District (DCOD)

The rest of the Newburyport Historic District, outside downtown and Fruit Street. The Zoning Board reviews major demolition of contributing buildings; the Historical Commission keeps roof changes.

  1. No review excluded

    Equipment out of sight of any public way is excluded. The DCOD itself doesn’t reach panels; roof work stays with the Historical Commission under the demolition delay ordinance.

    §5-307 exclusion (i); Zoning §XXVIII-C.3; art. X

  2. Zoning Administrator ask

    Panels in view of the street: as elsewhere in the city, ask whether the array counts as a roofline change.

    §5-307; Zoning §XXVIII-C.3; art. X

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Everywhere else

Outside Fruit Street and the two overlays: most of the city, and a few lots at the edges of the historic district. Only the citywide demolition delay ordinance, for buildings 75 or more years old.

  1. No review excluded

    Antennas and other unroofed mechanical, electrical or electronic equipment that can’t be seen from a public way (on a rear slope, say) are expressly not demolition.

    §5-307 exclusion (i)

  2. Zoning Administrator ask

    Panels in view of the street on a building 75 or more years old: the demolition delay ordinance covers unroofed features that project above the existing roof, and doesn’t mention solar panels by name. Whether a flush-mounted array counts is a question for the Zoning Administrator.

    §5-307; §5-307 exclusion (i)

Wherever the building is

  1. Zoning Administrator first stop

    Every project starts with a zoning determination. The Zoning Administrator says which of the reviews on this page apply to your building and your plans, and whether the work also needs zoning relief. The site can tell you what the ordinances say; only that determination tells you what applies.

    §5-308(A); Flowchart

  2. Holder of a preservation restriction consents

    If a preservation restriction is recorded on the property, whatever it covers needs the holder’s consent, on top of everything else here. The City lists the restrictions it holds; the building pages on this site say when the state inventory records one.

    M.G.L. c. 184 §§31–33; the recorded restriction

Repair first

Guidance