SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - In an unusual battle of shade trees vs. solar panels, California lawmakers are standing up for the redwoods.
The state Senate passed a bill Monday that would settle a neighborhood quarrel in the San Francisco Bay area community of Sunnyvale.
A judge earlier this year had ordered Richard Treanor and Carolyn Bissett to cut down two of their eight redwood trees. The couple's neighbor, Mark Vargas, said the trees were blocking sunlight to his solar panels.
The case hinged on a 1978 state law that protects a person's right to sunlight.
But the bill before lawmakers would change the law to exempt greenery planted before installation of a solar collector. The legislation now heads to the Assembly.
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