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Q&A
Financial challenges and support for Local Law 97 compliance
2:05:53
ยท
4 min
Council Member Restler and Commissioner Aggarwala discuss the need for financial support and the enforcement approach for Local Law 97 compliance. They explore potential sources of funding and how to address challenges faced by different types of buildings.
- There's a push for more state support to help subsidize low-income co-ops, condos, and other worthy actors needing financial assistance
- The city is exploring steps to help buildings that need extra assistance, ensuring penalties don't exacerbate housing crises or bankrupt institutions
- The Department of Buildings' enforcement approach will prioritize getting building owners to fix problems rather than collecting fines
Lincoln Restler
2:05:53
Yeah.
2:05:53
Look, I would say I think that the council and a number of advocates have played an important role in ensuring there is a bright there is a real microscope under everything that happens in local law 97 to ensure that everything is handled the right way.
2:06:10
But I do think your assessment is fair that it seems to me so far that things have been that that smart regulations have been developed, and we are moving on a path toward effective implementation.
2:06:27
Thank you.
2:06:28
To that point, and and well, to your earlier to one of your earlier points, really wanna ask.
2:06:33
You know, our ultimate goal here and I well, I do think there are efforts there are many things that there's real divisions within the city council on this law, as you know.
2:06:46
But I think all of us agree, people who wanna see a more stringent Local Law 97, people who who would like to see some loosening of Local Law 97, that securing more state support to help subsidize low income co ops and condos, or other worthy actors that need financial assistance to be able to facilitate compliance in the law is a noble goal.
2:07:11
And, you know, I think some member Braunstein and others have been helping to push that.
2:07:17
I don't know the status of it for this budget, but I do think that all of us, in a concerted way, really do need to push on Albany, the $5,000,000,000 fund that you referenced, and additional resources in the state budget that we should have to support effective compliance in this law.
2:07:30
So I would love to work with you on that.
2:07:32
It's March 18, so we're probably a little late for this year, but but we can make a plan for for 2026 as I hope you'll still be around with us.
2:07:42
Given our ultimate goal though, and just to shift gears a little, is encouraging retrofits and emission reductions not endless penalties.
2:07:50
Right?
2:07:51
This is the goal here is not to generate revenue for the city.
2:07:53
It's to actually reduce emissions.
2:07:56
Could you just speak to is the city kind of exploring steps that help buildings special, you know, that help buildings that need extra assistance, ensure that penalties don't further exacerbate our housing crisis or bankrupt religious institutions, but instead get the assistance they need to comply with the law?
Rohit Aggarwala
2:08:15
Thank you.
2:08:15
So look, so that I think one of the biggest questions that we will have to think through is how the Department of Buildings uses its enforcement discretion.
2:08:27
Right?
2:08:27
And, you know, and and I I will say only a couple of things and then defer to to my colleagues at DOB.
2:08:35
But, you know, in general when a building gets a a DOB violation, DOB's first objective is never to get the cash.
2:08:44
DOB's first objective is to have the building owner fix the problem.
2:08:48
Right?
2:08:49
That has to be our guiding approach to this.
2:08:54
The most recent set of regulations that were promulgated and I believe they've now been placed into effect, although I'll have to check on that, that create the regulations to implement the portion of the law that calls for a financial variance to the law.
2:09:18
Those regulations very much took into account the fact that there may be some buildings particularly in the affordable category that simply do not have the value they need or the reserves or the access to capital they need.
2:09:33
And subjecting a building like that to more penalties is like trying to get blood from a stone.
2:09:39
It's not gonna help.
2:09:41
I think in a very real way what we learn from the first set of compliance reports that will come in over this summer will dramatically help inform in a very rich way what we understand about this.
2:09:56
Like we're operating in a world it's like before the first benchmarking data, right, which this committee embraced during the Bloomberg administration.
2:10:05
Before we had that data, we knew almost nothing about how buildings were using energy.
2:10:11
Benchmarking data gave us one level.
2:10:13
These reports are going to give us a much deeper understanding of each building's energy efficiency and and carbon emissions.
2:10:22
And I think based on that, you know, there will be a lot of opportunity to think in a in a really tailored and and thoughtful way about the different segments that you mentioned.