The legislation specifies that audits be conducted once a decade, and upgrades required only if they are projected to pay for themselves in energy savings within seven years. The city plans to establish a $16 million fund with federal stimulus money to provide loans to property owners for upgrades.

Formally known as Chapter 3 of Title 28 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, Article 308: "Audits, Retro-Commissioning and Retrofits of Building Systems" (see complete text here), the legislation requires owners of existing buildings over 50,000 square feet "to make cost-effective energy efficiency improvements to their buildings once every ten years," in the words of a Council press release.

Among the legislation's provisions, owners of buildings 50,000 square feet or more must retain an approved energy professional to conduct the once-per-decade audit, which the city will require of a specified 10 percent of affected buildings each year for 10 years. The audit would identify both "capital alterations of building systems involving the installation of new equipment, insulation or other proven energy efficiency technologies" and "reasonable retro-commissioning and retrofit measures that would ... reduce energy use and/or the cost of operating the building."

A building is exempt if it has received an EPA Energy Star label for at least two of the three years preceding the filing of a required energy-efficiency report; if if is LEED-certified; or if the actual performance of the building, measured tby energy bills over a two-year period meets or exceeds that of performance model.

Owners may twice file for a one-year extension of time to file an energy efficiency report, and owners of financially distressed buildings, and buildings where loans or grants are unable to be obtained after good-faith efforts, may file for more extensions.

The Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives & Condominiums has lobbied Councilmember Gennaro (above) to lower the payback time from seven years to five, and to cap the amount of money an owner must spend, among other points.

LOCALE (click to enlarge)