Assessor moves to grant 20-year exemption for residential rooftop solar in Gardner City
March 03, 2026 | Gardner City, Worcester County, Massachusetts
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An assessor at the Gardner City Board of Assessors meeting on Feb. 24 said the board would move to exempt most residential rooftop solar from local property taxation for 20 years.
The assessor said, "We do not tax residential solar. It's not part of the assessment. There's no personal property tax on it," and then read a motion that "the Gardner City Board of Assessors hereby approve and grant an exemption pursuant to General Laws Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 45 to all rooftop residential solar facilities in Gardner not capable of producing more than a 125% of the annual electricity needs of the real property upon which it is located, including both contiguous or noncontiguous real property within the same municipality in which there is common ownership interest." The motion was presented as the recommended action from the state.
The assessor said the board has received abatement applications from solar companies in recent years and that staff has asked one recurring filer to withdraw pending applications to avoid an appeal to the ATB, which the assessor described as an undesirable route for what they view as a nonissue. "I wrote to him and said, listen. We do not, you know, assess them. So could you please send me a formal withdrawal? Because I don't want to deny it because denying them gives them the opportunity to go to the ATB," the assessor said.
The motion text, as read into the record, sets a production cap (125% of a property's annual electricity needs) and a 20-year exemption period. The transcript records the motion and a second but does not include a recorded vote tally or final outcome in the provided segments.
If the board finalizes and records the exemption, the change would formalize the town's treatment of residential rooftop solar and could reduce the need for routine abatement filings by solar companies. The board did not provide immediate details in the transcript about implementation steps, timeline for a signed vote record, or whether the exemption will be posted to the town assessor’s office website.
The assessor said, "We do not tax residential solar. It's not part of the assessment. There's no personal property tax on it," and then read a motion that "the Gardner City Board of Assessors hereby approve and grant an exemption pursuant to General Laws Chapter 59, Section 5, Clause 45 to all rooftop residential solar facilities in Gardner not capable of producing more than a 125% of the annual electricity needs of the real property upon which it is located, including both contiguous or noncontiguous real property within the same municipality in which there is common ownership interest." The motion was presented as the recommended action from the state.
The assessor said the board has received abatement applications from solar companies in recent years and that staff has asked one recurring filer to withdraw pending applications to avoid an appeal to the ATB, which the assessor described as an undesirable route for what they view as a nonissue. "I wrote to him and said, listen. We do not, you know, assess them. So could you please send me a formal withdrawal? Because I don't want to deny it because denying them gives them the opportunity to go to the ATB," the assessor said.
The motion text, as read into the record, sets a production cap (125% of a property's annual electricity needs) and a 20-year exemption period. The transcript records the motion and a second but does not include a recorded vote tally or final outcome in the provided segments.
If the board finalizes and records the exemption, the change would formalize the town's treatment of residential rooftop solar and could reduce the need for routine abatement filings by solar companies. The board did not provide immediate details in the transcript about implementation steps, timeline for a signed vote record, or whether the exemption will be posted to the town assessor’s office website.
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