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Portland Mayor Sam Adams agrees with a group of homeowners who say solar panels should receive a full exemption from the city’s historic design review process, according Amy Ruiz, planning and sustainability policy advisor for the mayor’s office.

The mayor’s office held a meeting this week with several homeowners frustrated by the review process for installing solar panels within historic and conservation districts. Under current city code, solar arrays visible from the street are required to go through a Historic Landmarks Commission review, a process that costs around $1,300.

The city this summer approved a series of changes to its development code as part of its Regulatory Improvement Code Amendment Package, an ongoing program to improve the city’s building and land use regulations. One change was an exemption to allow solar panels to be installed on the non-street-facing part of a historic home’s roof without being reviewed by the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission. But some homeowners are now lobbying for a full exemption, Ruiz said.

“The mayor has always supported a staff proposal for a full exemption for solar in historic and conservation districts,” Ruiz said. “There’s room to take a look at whether we can more carefully craft regulations to allow more solar while still respecting the goals of historic and conservation districts. To do so, however, would take four to six months and cost money that is not currently in our budget.”

Ruiz said a change to the code before the end of the year is unlikely and that the mayor’s office is also talking to the Landmarks commission about what a middle-ground solution might look like. Any changes to the development code would have to get a majority vote from Portland City Council.