L.L. 2011/001

Enactment date: 12/20/2010

Int. No. 343-A

By Council Members Dilan, Comrie, Garodnick, Gentile, Vann, Williams, Rodriguez, Mendez, Mark-Viverito, James, Crowley, Van Bramer, Gennaro, Lappin, Greenfield and Jackson (by request of the Mayor)

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to amending the New York city energy conservation code.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Statement of findings and purpose. The Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State ("State Energy Code"), authorized by Article 11 of the New York State Energy Law, sets standards for the energy performance of buildings throughout New York. The State Energy Law expressly permits a municipality to promulgate a local energy conservation construction code that is more stringent than the State Energy Code. In 2009, New York City established such a local energy conservation code, the New York City Energy Conservation Code, with the enactment of Local Law 85 of 2009. In April 2010, the New York State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council amended the State Energy Code in its entirety. The amendment is based on the 2009 edition of the International Energy Conservation Code, published by the International Code Council, Inc. ("2009 IECC"). Such 2010 State Energy Code is scheduled to take effect on December 28, 2010.

Section 101.3.1 of the 2010 State Energy Code provides that such code "is intended to comply with the requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the 'ARRA'), i.e., to be a building energy code for residential buildings and for commercial buildings that meets or exceeds the model codes mentioned in the ARRA, or achieves equivalent or greater energy savings." Section 410 of Title IV of Division A of the ARRA specifies that states and localities should implement the 2009 IECC and the 2007 edition of standard ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1, entitled "Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings," published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. ("ASHRAE 90.1-2007").

Section 101.3.1 of the 2010 State Energy Code further provides that the New York State Department of State has determined:

   1.   That a building energy code that is applicable to both residential buildings and commercial buildings and that meets or exceeds the 2009 IECC, or achieves equivalent or greater energy savings, meets or exceeds the requirements of the ARRA;

   2.   That the 2010 State Energy Code meets or exceeds the 2009 IECC, or achieves equivalent or greater energy savings; and

   3.   Accordingly, that the 2010 State Energy Code meets or exceeds the requirements of the ARRA.

The Council finds that it is reasonable and necessary to amend certain sections of Chapter 10 of Title 28 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York in order to ensure that the New York City Energy Conservation Code remains at least as stringent as the 2010 State Energy Code, as the State Energy Law requires.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 8. This local law shall take effect on December 28, 2010 and shall apply to work for which applications for construction document approval are submitted to the department of buildings on or after such date; provided that the commissioner of buildings may take all actions necessary to implement this local law, including the promulgation of rules, on or before such effective date.