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Nine of 10 New York building plans fail basic energy code test

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Earlier this year, the New York City's Department of Buildings began auditing thousands of architectural plans for new and renovated office and residential buildings. The results have been staggering: nine of every 10 have failed to meet the energy code, a set of standards that have been on the books for more than 30 years but are only now being enforced in earnest.

In some cases, the Department of Buildings has even stopped nonconforming projects in their tracks.

“We're very serious about this, and are trying to educate the industry on what is required,” said Gina Bocra, chief sustainability officer at the Department of Buildings, which set up a permanent audit unit about eight months ago. “Buildings are the largest source of energy consumption in our city, and how we conserve energy is key to making progress on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.”

As laudable as the motivation might be, some people are fretting about the potential costs of compliance in terms of time and money. Looming additions to the building code over the next year only fan the concerns.

“The energy code can be an effective way to increase efficiency if it remains flexible, but the more mandatory and prescriptive any code is, the more difficult it is to build a building that complies — particularly in New York City,” said Angela Pinsky, a senior vice president of management services and government affairs with the Real Estate Board of New York, which is currently consulting with the city on code changes.

Several changes already are under consideration, including a potential requirement for developers to purchase pricey sensors that regulate building systems depending on how many people are present, and another that might require rooms to be more airtight.

The effort began under Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year, when he assigned auditors to pore over 212 randomly selected building plans to ensure that lighting, heating and air-conditioning systems, walls and windows all met code standards. That pilot program was part of his 30/30 goal of cutting carbon emissions here by 30% by 2030.

This year, under the de Blasio administration and Ms. Bocra, the training wheels have come off, and the team has audited more than 1,200 applications, with plans to eventually quadruple that number annually.

The new scrutiny might take some in the development community by surprise. The first energy code was set in place in the 1970s. Subsequently, the city passed its own version but rarely enforced it.

Not surprisingly, sustainability advocates have hailed the city's new initiative, and noted that the high degree of noncompliance uncovered thus far shows just how crucial the new audit unit will be.

“No one knew what was going on before because no one was checking,” said Russell Unger, executive director of the Urban Green Council. “It is very easy to proclaim some policy or write some law, but the hard work comes on the other side when you need someone to implement it.”

With a new phalanx of auditors at the city's disposal, Mr. Unger and others expect that designers and architects will pay more attention to the code because violations can hold up an entire project.

That scrutiny even extends to construction sites, with the unit conducting more than 160 random visits this year — compared with zero under the pilot program — to make sure buildings were being constructed according to the approved plans. In one out of five cases, inspectors found problems.

“We are trying to bring both the design and construction sides up to speed,” Ms. Bocra said, noting that the campaign is largely educational at this point because many firms were not consciously breaking the rules.

But make no mistake: Flouting the energy code now carries serious risks for developers. The department is drawing up new fines and regulations that will apply specifically to the code.

In a handful of cases, building inspectors have issued stop-work orders at construction sites. And in at least one instance, a random tip called into the department resulted in a developer being investigated and fined for building a structure that was not up to sustainability standards, even though the property had already been occupied.

The new push comes as the state races to meet a looming federal deadline. In 2009, Albany received more than $123 million from the federal government in exchange for ensuring that 90% of new building plans complied with the baseline federal energy code by 2017. The city is part of that effort, and is taking steps now in the hopes that the Department of Buildings will be operating at full steam by the time that deadline arrives.

Already, the crackdown shows signs of making that task easier. Several engineering firms have already volunteered to go through the Department of Buildings' gantlet a second or third time to prevent their plans from being held up in the future.

“It's better for them from a liability perspective,” Ms. Bocra said. “We had applicants send thank-you letters.”

Mr. Russell's Urban Green Council believes the stricter regulations — and the actual enforcement of them — are sorely needed to solve issues that keep the city's real estate industry too far from the cutting edge.

As an example, he cited a report from the council published earlier this year that showed many typical building walls in New York City are just a few steps up from medieval homes in terms of their ability to retain heat.

“One would need to go back about 1,000 years to find buildings that regularly used as little insulation as these do today,” he said.

Joe Anuta writes for Crain's New York Business, a sister publication of Business Insurance.

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