The New Rochelle City Council began their review of the 10 sections of the Mayor’s GreeNR plan by devoting considerable time on June 15th to a review of the Energy & Climate section of the plan. In April, when the Mayor introduced the GreeNR plan with all of 3 minutes advanced notice, he stated he hoped the council would review the plan in the coming weeks and then vote on the plan in June. By June, the plan was to review two sections over 5 City Council meetings. By the end of the June 15 meeting, the plan was to review one section per meeting which takes the review stage out to January 2011.
By far, the best question of the entire night came from Councilman James Stowe (video above) who asked what sort of legal liability the City would have under section 1.6, the GreeNR Seal certification program which would “recognize” something called a “sustainable property” by which the Mayor means a “green” residential house.
Before going into that further, the context for this Council review of GreeNR on June 15th, is the following 8 subsections of Section 1.
Energy & Climate Initiatives
1.1 Green Building Standards: Adopt requirements and guidelines to promote energy efficiency and conservation in the construction, renovation, and operation of buildings, with distinct standards for structures of different size and use.
1.2 Exterior Lighting Efficiency: Replace or retrofit municipally owned exterior lights to fully utilize energy efficient and cost-saving lighting technology.
1.3 Municipal Building Efficiency: Enhance the energy efficiency of municipal buildings through physical and operational improvements.
1.4 Green Fleet: Replace or convert City vehicles to improve technology, and reduce the emission of air pollutants.
1.5 Renewable Energy Generation: Facilitate the generation of renewable energy by addressing impediments in the local building and zoning codes and by exploring opportunities for energy production on public lands.
1.6 GreeNR Seal: Establish a certification program to recognize the sustainable properties and to acknowledge sustainable practices in the business sector.
1.7 Mid & High Rise Campaign: Conduct an informational energy consumption and waste generation in existing commercial or multi-family mid-rise and high-rise structures.
1.8 Efficiency & Conservation Loans: Implement a local loan program to improvements more affordable by enlisting lenders to p property tax obligations and paid back through energy savings.
Now, back to Councilman Stowe’s excellent question regarding the GreeNR Seal, a certification program that Deborah Newborn describes as “free” and as an “educational program”.
It is clear from their answers that neither Noam Bramson, Chuck Strome or Deborah Newborn has given any thought to the issues raised by Mr. Stowe. Newborn in particular seems perplexed as to why someone would misrepresent their home as being green when it was not.
Chuck Strome proposes that New Rochelle building inspectors will certify homes as “green”. So much for this being a “free” program. Mayor Bramson, to his credit, nixes that idea as impractical and expensive.
Perhaps these charts and tables from the GreeNR plan might clarify to the quite literally Ms. “Newborn” as to why some New Rochelle residents might seek to obtain a GreeNR Seal without having invested money to meet the GreeNR standards.
Apparently she is unaware of the history of massive fraud in New Rochelle with regard to building permits, open C of O’s, STAR exemptions and Veterans exemptions, something Paul Vacca, the current head of the buildings department has been struggling to correct for the past several years. Is there any doubt that the same people who are gaming the system now to avoid paying property taxes — including a large number of municipal employees — will be extremely interested in a program where a building inspector can hand you a certificate that increases the value of your home by $50,000 to $100,000 or more? The “Friends and Family Network” has to be drooling at the opportunity to take their turn dipping into this proposed City Hall goody-bag.
According to the GreeNR plan (excerpt above), the GreeNR Seal will be worth more than $40 million to New Rochelle residents over the next decade and $120 million by 2030 but Ms. Newborn imagines that New Rochelle residents and their contractors and architects can be relied upon to certify to the City that a homeowner deserves a piece of paper that they get for free than is worth tens of thousands of dollars.
If the GreeNR Seal depends on building inspectors and the cost of having them do the inspecting makes this program unaffordable, we trust the Mayor will remove the claim that this plan will increase home values by $42mm over the next ten years.
Will have more on the City Council review of Section 1 soon.
