Bill to Raise Co-op and Condo Carbon Emission Caps Has Lost Traction

What a difference a year makes.

Last April, middle-class co-op and condo residents — especially those living in garden complexes — cheered when city council member Linda Lee introduced Intro 772, a bill designed to soften the sting of the city's climate law, Local Law 97. Lee's bill would allow co-ops and condos to include green spaces such as lawns and gardens as part of their square footage, which would raise a building's allowable carbon emissions — and help them avoid costly retrofits or crippling fines for noncompliance. The bill would also change the fee timeline for smaller buildings.

The bill garnered 22 sponsors on the 51-member city council and appeared headed for passage. But today, The Real Deal reports, Intro 772 appears to be dead in the water. For the bill to have any chance of passing, it would first need a hearing in the Council’s environmental committee, chaired by James Gennaro, a Queens Democrat.

“Gennaro won’t call a hearing. I don’t know why,” says Geoffrey Mazel, counsel for the Queens-based Presidents Co-op and Condo Council. “(City Council Spearker) Adrienne Adams won’t push him. We’ve tried.”

Part of the reason might be that the horse has left the barn. After years of negotiations and numerous legal challenges, Local Law 97 went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, and the first reports on annual building carbon emissions were due by May 1 of this year. Roughly 80% of the buildings covered by the law were in compliance without making any retrofits this year, but the carbon caps become more stringent in 2030 and in future years.

Another part of the reason Intro 772 has languished might be that the bill, by changing formulas and delaying fines, would allow thousands of buildings to produce more global-warming emissions than they could under Local Law 97. This is anathema to environmental activists, who have drawn a line in the sand about carbon emissions and don’t support allowing higher levels than what’s written in Local Law 97. The chief enforcer has been the politically active nonprofit New York Communities for Change.

Is Lee's bill truly dead in the water? Gennaro is in his second stint on the council and is less susceptible to pressure than Adams, who is running for mayor. But neither one has wavered on Local Law 97. And Mayor Eric Adams’ environmental commissioner, Rohit Aggarwala, has called Lee’s bill “absolutely wrong.”

If the council refuses to budge, expect co-ops, condos and the rest of the real estate industry to look to Albany for relief. The state has the ability to override the city, but previous requests for help with the emissions cap have gone unheeded.

It's beginning to look like Local Law 97 — love it or loathe it — is here to stay.