Loading...
(a) Established. The County Executive must appoint, subject to confirmation by the Council, a Building Performance Improvement Board comprised of 15 voting members. Designees of the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of General Services, Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Department of Housing and Community Development, and Department of Permitting Services are ex officio nonvoting members of the Board.
(b) Membership. Each voting member of the Board must be a resident of the County or a member of the governing body or staff of an entity doing business in the County. The Board should include:
(1) Representatives of local electricity or natural gas utilities;
(2) Providers of energy efficiency, building resilience and/or renewable energy services or consulting;
(3) Owners or managers of affordable housing;
(4) Owners or managers of multi-family residential buildings containing market-rate units;
(5) Nonresidential building owners or managers;
(6) Nonprofit building owners or managers;
(7) Technical building design or operations professionals;
(8) Providers of facilities, mechanical, or similar engineering services;
(9) Commercial or multi-family residential construction finance or investment professionals;
(10) Representatives of nonprofit organizations dedicated to climate action, resiliency, public health, green building, economic development, or building decarbonization; and
(11) Representatives of nonprofit organizations dedicated to racial equity or environmental justice.
(c) Terms. Each voting member serves a 3-year term beginning on January 1. Of the members first appointed, one-third must be appointed for 1-year terms, one-third must be appointed for 2-year terms, and one-third must be appointed for 3-year terms. A member must not serve more than 2 consecutive full terms. A member appointed to fill a vacancy serves the rest of the unexpired term. Members continue in office until their successors are appointed and qualified. The Board must elect one of its members as Chair to be who must serve as such for one calendar year or until a successor is elected.
(d) Procedures. The Board must adopt rules to govern its procedures including meeting frequency, managing Chair elections, establishing committees, and other issues that pertain to Board governance.
(e) Duties and responsibilities. The Board must generally advise the Department on implementation of building energy performance standards. This includes providing recommendations to the Director on:
(1) Building type groupings;
(2) Interim and final performance standards for each building type;
(3) Managing situations where ownership of a building is transferred or a building’s type changes;
(4) Building performance improvement plan technical review and approval processes;
(5) Complementary programs or policies, with particular attention to assistance or accommodations for challenged or under-resourced sectors, such as affordable housing, non-profit organizations, and small businesses; and
(6) Enforcement of benchmarking requirements and performance standards.
(a) If a covered building owner cannot reasonably meet one or more of the applicable interim or final performance standards due to economic infeasibility or other circumstances beyond the owner’s control, based on guidelines established by regulation, the owner may submit a proposed building performance improvement plan to the Department for review and approval by the Director in consultation with the Building Performance Improvement Board.
(b) A building performance improvement plan must include:
(1) documentation of economic infeasibility or other circumstances beyond the owner’s control such that interim or final performance standards are not met;
(2) a list of potential improvement measures, including engineering calculations of energy savings and a cost-benefit analysis of each potential improvement measure;
(3) a plan and timeline for achieving energy improvements to the building’s performance that will provide cost-effective energy savings based on guidelines established by regulation, including the estimated savings to be realized by implementing all of the cost-effective measures identified in the plan; and
(4) procedures for correcting any noncompliance or deviation from the plan.
(c) The owner must submit a building performance improvement plan to the Department at least 90 days before the deadline for submitting documentation of compliance with interim or final performance standards.
(d) If, after consulting with the Building Performance Improvement Board, the Director approves the building performance improvement plan, the owner must record the building performance improvement plan as a covenant in the County land records and deliver a certified copy of the recorded plan to the Department. After the Director receives the certified copy of the recorded plan, the covered building will be deemed to be in compliance with the applicable interim or final performance standards as long as the owner fulfills the terms of the building performance improvement plan within the timeline specified in the plan. (2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, § 1.)
(a) The Department may establish additional criteria recommended by the Building Performance Improvement Board for qualified affordable housing, non-profit buildings, and other buildings as appropriate to modify compliance with interim or final performance standards by regulation.
(b) The Director, in consultation with the Building Performance Improvement Board, may grant an extension or adjustment to an interim or final performance standard for a covered building whose owner submits a request along with documentation at least 90 days before the deadline for submitting documentation of compliance with an interim or final performance standard if any of the following conditions apply:
(1) A demolition permit has been issued or a demolition of the building is planned before the deadline to comply with the next interim performance standard;
(2) The building is in financial distress under Section 18A-39 (g)(1);
(3) The building is exempt from real property taxes and the owner is able to certify by the statement of a certified public accountant or by sworn affidavit that the owner’s revenue less expenses for the previous 2 years was negative;
(4) The Director determines that strict compliance with those standards would be economically infeasible, as defined by regulation, due to circumstances beyond the owner’s control;
(5) Other acceptable conditions as determined by the Director through regulation. (2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, §1.)
(a) Annual report required. By October 1 of each year, the Director must submit a benchmarking and building performance report to the County Executive and County Council. The report must review and evaluate energy efficiency in covered buildings, including:
(1) summary statistics on the most recent reported energy benchmarking information, including information on the completeness and level of data quality of the building energy data being reported by building type per the benchmarking tool;
(2) discussion of any energy efficiency trends, cost savings, and job creation resulting from energy efficiency improvements;
(3) for County-owned covered buildings:
(A) the scores of County-owned covered buildings benchmarked; and
(B) whether the Director recommends any energy efficiency improvements for specific buildings; and
(4) building energy performance summary statistics, if an interim or final performance standard occurs for a covered building type in the current reporting cycle.
(b) Disclosure of benchmarking and building energy performance standards data. The Director must make reported aggregated benchmarking and building energy performance standard data readily available to the public, including on the open data website created under Section 2-154, and the Director may exempt information from disclosure only to the extent that disclosure is prohibited under federal or state law.
(c) Exceptions to disclosure. To the extent allowable under state law, the Director must not make the following readily available to the public:
(1) any individually attributable reported benchmarking information from the first calendar year that a covered building is required to benchmark;
(2) any individually attributable reported benchmarking or building energy performance standards information relating to a covered building if the disclosure of the covered building’s energy use would be harmful to the public interest and national security; and
(3) building performance improvement plans and associated documentation attributable to an individual covered building. (2014 L.M.C., ch. 6, § 1; 2015 L.M.C., ch. 51, §1; 2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, §1; 2023 L.M.C., ch. 21, § 1.)
The County Executive may issue Method (2) regulations to administer this Article. (2014 L.M.C., ch. 6, § 1; 2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, §1.)
(a) The Executive must convene a Benchmarking Work Group. Members of the Work Group must include representatives from the County, building owners and manager, industry trade associations, non-profit organizations, and utility companies.
(b) The Work Group must:
(1) review the application of Chapter 18A, Article 6, as added by Section 1 of this Act, to County buildings for the reporting period ending June 1, 2015; and
(2) submit a report to the County Council and County Executive by September 1, 2015 with recommendations on implementing building benchmarking for privately-owned buildings, including any proposed amendments to County law.
(a) A building owner must not knowingly provide false information required under this Article to the Department. The Director may revoke or modify an extension, adjustment, building performance improvement plan, or compliance with benchmarking or the interim or final performance standards in response to any false information provided by the building owner.
(b) Any violation of this Article is a Class A violation. (2022 L.M.C., ch. 13, §1.)
ARTICLE 7. MONTGOMERY COUNTY GREEN BANK.
Loading...