A. Governed buildings and City properties shall be benchmarked annually for the previous calendar year according to the following schedule:
1. Each City property shall be benchmarked no later than May 1, 2018, and every May 1 thereafter.
2. Each governed building with a gross floor area of fifty thousand (50,000) square feet or more shall be benchmarked no later than May 1, 2019, and every May 1 thereafter.
3. Each governed building with a gross floor area of twenty five thousand (25,000) to forty nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine (49,999) square feet shall be benchmarked no later than May 1, 2020, and every May 1 thereafter.
B. Below is a summary table of the first benchmarking submission compliance dates:
Properties | Benchmarking Submission By Building Owner |
City property | May 1, 2018 |
Governed building (50,000 square feet of gross floor area or larger) | May 1, 2019 |
Governed building (25,000 to 49,999 square feet of gross floor area) | May 1, 2020 |
C. Benchmarking shall be performed and/or verified by the owner.
D. Before making a benchmarking submission the owner shall run all automated data quality checker functions available within the benchmarking tool, and shall correct all missing or incorrect information identified.
E. If the current owner receives notification from the City that any information reported as part of the benchmarking submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the information so reported shall be amended in the benchmarking tool by the owner and the owner shall provide an updated benchmarking submission to the Director within sixty (60) days of the notification.
F. Exceptions:
1. Governed buildings whose average occupancy throughout the calendar year for which benchmarking is required is less than sixty percent (60%); or
2. Governed buildings under financial hardship; or
3. Due to special circumstances unique to the applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions of the applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this chapter would cause undue hardship or would not be in the public interest; or
4. An owner is unable to benchmark due to the failure of either a utility provider or a tenant (or both) to report the information necessary for the owner to complete any benchmarking submittal requirement.
G. For properties qualifying for these exceptions, the owner shall file documentation, in such form and with such certifications as required by the Director, with the department in the year prior to the due date for the benchmarking submission, establishing that the governed building qualifies for such an exception.
H. A randomly-selected subset of benchmarking submission not to exceed ten percent (10%) of the total benchmarking submissions completed in a given year may be subject to verification by the City. Such reviews shall be conducted in a way so as to preserve the anonymity of individual properties and shall be conducted at no cost to the owner.
I. An owner may make a claim of confidentiality for any submitted benchmarking information pursuant to the limitations under State law. (Ord. 45-17, 2017)