Pol’s ‘Green’ push
Wants rent-regulated buildings in energy ‘New Deal’
The city’s Green New Deal, which requires buildings to become more fuel-efficient, could include thousands more of them under a new bill that got a hearing Tuesday in the City Council.
The bill, which is being pushed by City Councilman Costa Constantinides, would require buildings with 35% or fewer rent-regulated units to come into compliance with the existing law, which passed in 2019.
“Passing Intro. 1947 now will give landlords the time to plan to meet these mandates, get into the Retrofit Accelerator, and do their part in reducing pollution,” Constantinides (D-Queens) said, referring to the body tasked with helping buildings adjust. “It will also create the jobs and economic activity New York City needs right now to get back to work.”
Under the existing law, buildings of 25,000 square feet or more are required to become more energy-efficient by 2024. That’s about 50,000 buildings.
Adding rent-regulated buildings could bring thousands of more buildings into that mix.
“We need to continue to lead the fight to cut harmful emissions and create good jobs, good green jobs, and in this bill we are making sure that would add up to 4,000 new apartments.w
“TThat’s the equivalent of a major midlevel American city’’s level of pollution,” he said. “We need to rapidly expaand this model all around the country. Otherwise, the plannet will cook.”
Landlords are saying it isn’t thatT They simple. say that there still isn’t any statistical evidence that showws the original law is effective, so why add on to it until it fullyy goes into effect.
TThey also point to the economicomic hardship the pandemic is causing for building owners across the city.
“We’re having trouble paying our taxes now,” said Frank Ricci, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents landlords. “Commercial tenants are months behind on their rent, other tenants are moving. How we can absorb any more costs is impossible.” that the cost improvements do not gett passed on to rentregulateded tenantstenants,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson (DManhattan) said in a Tuesday rally held via Zoom.
Pete Sikora, the climate and inequality campaign director with New York Communities for Change, said 12,000 rentregulated buildings fall within the square footage threshold of the original law. If only a third of them have 35% or fewer rent-regulated apartments,