New York City Local Law 87

Introduced in 2009 by Council Member Gennaro, the Speaker (Council Member Quinn), Brewer, Comrie, Dickens, Garodnick, Gioia, James, Koppell, Lappin, Mitchell, Palma, Recchia Jr., Reyna, Rivera, Stewart, Liu, Yassky, Sears, White Jr., Mendez, de Blasio, Mark-Viverito, Vann, Avella, Vacca, Gerson, Jackson, Gonzalez, Ferreras, Vallone Jr., Barron, Arroyo, Crowley and Mealy.

To amend the New York city charter and the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring energy audits and retro-commissioning of base building systems of certain buildings and retro-fitting of certain city-owned buildings.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Chapter 3 of title 28 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new article 308 to read as follows:

Article 308

Energy audits and retro-commissioning of building systems.

§28-308.1 Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

BASE BUILDING SYSTEMS. The systems or subsystems of a building that use energy and/or impact energy consumption including:

  1. The building envelope.
  2. The HVAC (heating ventilating and air conditioning) systems.
  3. Conveying systems.
  4. Domestic hot water systems.
  5. Electrical and lighting systems.

Exception: The term “base building systems” shall not include:

  1. Systems or subsystems owned by tenants (other than a net lessee for a term of 49 years or more, inclusive of renewal options), condominium unit owners or cooperative unit shareholders, or a system or subsystems for which a tenant bears full maintenance responsibility and that is within the tenant’s leased space and/or exclusively serves such leased space.
  2. Industrial processes that occur within a covered building. Read more