Yonkers green buildings law vetoed
Acting on the city attorney”™s advice, Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone has vetoed a law requiring sustainable or green development for most new construction and substantially rehabilitated buildings in the city.
Instead the mayor, who called the bipartisan measure “unenforceable and in fact illegal,” will propose his own sustainable development law to the City Council early this year.
The City Council, which adopted the green buildings legislation by a 5-1 vote in November, called it one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the nation. It required commercial buildings to meet a formally recognized standard for sustainable building through either the U.S. Green Building Council”™s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, called LEED, or The Green Building Initiative”™s Green Globes rating system. The law required building standards to be verified by a third party.
But Yonkers Corporation Counsel Frank J. Rubino separately advised the mayor and City Council of his several legal concerns about the legislation.
In a recent memorandum to the mayor, Rubino said the law required a public referendum because it reduced the mayor”™s power by shifting the power to issue zoning variances, hear appeals and do inspections for certificates of occupancy from the mayor and his appointed officials to the City Council and a third-party inspector. The law also was subject to a review and approval process under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which was not done, and made unauthorized changes to the state Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, he said.
The city attorney also claimed the City Council had unconstitutionally delegated its legislative power to a third-party, nongovernmental, private organization, the U.S. Green Building Council. And the drafted legislation”™s vague language could be construed to include new single-family homes in the USGBC”™s LEED certification requirement for commercial buildings, Rubino said.
“It’s unusual for me to weigh in on legislation awaiting the mayor”™s approval or veto because those are primarily judgment calls based on what he feels is best for the city,” Rubino said after the mayor”™s veto. “But in this case, there were so many technical problems with this proposed legislation, I was compelled to advise him not to sign it into law.”
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Amicone”™s spokesman said Rubino sent his concerns to the City Council before its scheduled vote on the law and indicated he would not certify the local law with the state Secretary of State unless it was changed substantially. The City Council that night adopted the law without changes.
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Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick could not be reached for comment on the council”™s action and the mayor”™s veto.
Terry Joshi, a member of the Yonkers Green Policy Task Force that drafted the initial green buildings law, said the volunteers worked on the legislation for 16 months. “It”™s like we”™ve been working in a little vacuum,” she said. “We got no help at all with the (Amicone) administration.”
Anticipating the mayor”™s veto after a public hearing on the measure in December, Joshi said, “We”™re very disappointed that there”™s been a last-minute effort to overturn our work when they could have been helping all along. It”™s very disheartening.”
Joshi said the administration”™s claim that the law”™s language could hold residents to costly environmental standards required of commercial developers was not justified. She noted the since-vetoed law required residential buildings to receive the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority”™s Energy Star certification for home energy systems.
Joshi also challenged the city attorney”™s claim that the City Council was unconstitutionally delegating inspection authority to a private third party. “It seems to me that 90 percent of the cities that have this (sustainable development law) have third-party certification,” she said.
Amicone in his veto message said a sustainable development law is needed in Yonkers, “but it has to be one that works.” To be effective, it must “strike the right balance between regulations and incentives, marrying environmental concerns with economic realities,” he said. ?Amicone said that the city”™s Law Department is working on an alternative sustainable development law with input and guidance from Pace University”™s Land Use Law Center. “We will get it done, and we’ll get it done soon,” he said.?“There is broad-base consensus that having a sustainable development law will be good for the city”™s economy, the environment and it’s the right thing to do morally,” the mayor said. “But it has to be done right.”