Woodbury wanted to think green.

But now, it is having to think again.

The city's ambitious plans to promote renewable energy are hitting a wall that is blocking green efforts coast-to-coast - homeowners' associations.

The associations are fighting city efforts to allow solar panels and wind turbines.

The associations are not anti-green - but the appearance of a neighborhood is critical, said Brad Winterle, a member of the Wedgewood association, who spoke at a Woodbury Planning Commission meeting last week.

"If your neighbor had a fuel-efficient car, that is not an aesthetic assault," Winterle said. Solar panels and wind turbines, he said, would be.

In Woodbury and across the country, homeowner associations loom as one of the biggest obstacles to green practices, such as solar panels. To overcome that resistance, "solar guarantees" - regardless of association rules - have been passed in 18 states, according to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency.

Woodbury resident James Dailey said Minnesota would have to pass a similar statewide guarantee before associations would permit solar panels.

"It is not like we are cutting down a grove of redwoods, for crying out loud. We are trying to cover up shingles on a roof," he said. Yet he predicted that his own association - Evergreen Countryhomes Association - would not change its ban of the panels.

At the meeting, senior planner Melissa Douglas said the possibility of a wind turbine at the East Ridge High school was raised last fall. There were no city rules regulating such a turbine, and it highlighted the need for a new alternative-energy ordinance.

Officials had drafted an ordinance giving any homeowner the right to install solar panels, regardless of association rules.

But at the meeting, Douglas said the city attorney had given an opinion that the city could impose pro-solar rules only on associations formed in the future - not existing ones.

Because associations control about 70 percent of the homes in Woodbury, the resistance of the associations could cripple alternative-energy efforts.

'You Can't Do It' / Homeowners give up some freedoms when they join associations, said Paul Hanscom, assistant director of the Minnesota chapter of the Community Associations Institute.

He said associations seek to boost property values by tightly controlling the appearance of a neighborhood. They regulate everything from house color to shrubs to mailboxes.

"You can't develop as you want to as an individual," Hanscom said. "Let's say you want to put a widget on the side of your building. Well, I don't care what the widget does. You can't do it."

Those rules are why no one sees pink houses or walleye-shaped mailboxes in association-controlled neighborhoods - consistency is everything. And associations have decided the panels and turbines are, as a rule, ugly.

Another problem? Too much work.

Dailey said the all-volunteer association boards don't welcome the extra labor that managing the systems would entail.

"They are comfortable doing things like getting the lawn mowed and shoveling driveways," Dailey said.

Alternative energy "is not an interesting or easy thing to manage," he said. "They hate the friggin' phone calls: 'My cat is scared by the solar panels.' "

'We Walk A Fine Line' / John Wood's request to install solar panels was turned down by the Wedgewood association last spring.

He disputes the notion that association members must always obey anti-green rules.

"I think that is baloney," Wood said. "The whole idea of associations is to fight any sort of change whatsoever."

Wood knew the association banned solar panels but planned an array of panels he thought was attractive, fitting his roofline. He had contacted 12 of his neighbors, who had no objections.

He said he offered to install a smaller number of panels.

"I said: 'Give me a number. It can be configured any way you want, a perfect square, whatever you want,' " Wood said.

Association president Al Rudnickas said the panels would have been too obtrusive.

"I don't think anyone is against solar," Rudnickas said. "But you have to find a way to do solar and satisfy aesthetic concerns."

The associations are democracies, he said, where members pick their leaders to fit their views.

"Those (anti-solar) guidelines could be changed by a vote," he said. "Our members say, 'I bought a house here, expecting things to stay the same.' We walk a fine line."

Gerardo Ruiz has a different viewpoint.

"People have a fundamental right to clean energy," said Ruiz, founder of Minneapolis-based FreEner-G, which he said is the first company in the Midwest that leases solar-energy systems.

Ruiz said solar panels only increase property values. He said association boards are following rules that are outdated and out of sync with public opinion.

"Those boards have a responsibility to ask their members: Is this really what you want?" Ruiz said.

Across the state, the controversy over anti-solar rules is building, said Christopher Childs, board member of the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society.

"If you asked the people in associations, 'Can I come in and do something that will harm your grandchildren?' They would say, 'Of course not,' " Childs said.

He said that's what's happening because of associations' slowness to adopt green technology - which is contributing to global warming and America's dependence on foreign oil.

"The option of putting solar into a home must be given. It is so important," Childs said.

City planner Douglas said she wasn't discouraged by the setback, however. She said several associations were tinkering with language that would allow the panels.

Rudnickas said his group might be open to new technologies, such as solar panels that look like shingles.

However, associations say backyard wind turbines don't stand a chance.

"I don't know how you make those aesthetically pleasing," Rudnickas said.