City Council - Ordinance Committee

Easthampton City Council Ordinance Subcommittee Meeting Notes April 23, 2024, 6:00 PM Present: Councilor Denham, Councilor Derby, Councilor Gomez, Connie Dawson (energy advisory committee), Cassie (conservation agent), Councilor Smith (remote), BJ Church (building commissioners) I. Councilor Denham: Cassie will give presentation on how this would benefit the city on work we are doing around the climate action plan II. Peter Serfino: working with Mike Bouchon on 11 Ferry Street a. What are you all anticipating as time frame of specialized code? As a designer in the beginning of design, this is a critical question for me. b. If we have projects already started, would they get grandfathered in to current cod III. Councilor Denham: A number of things are happening in the city so that if we move relatively quickly on this, we can apply for grants. If we were adopt this immediately, it would be in 6 months IV. Mike Michon: Our engineers and HERS rates have asked us to find out. This could really cost us a lot more V. Julia Scannell: The cost between stretch code and specialized code impacts the costs overall and this is especially difficult for affordable housing VI. Connie Dawson: I don’t think rehabs would be affected by this VII. Cassie: We are discussing the opt-in specialized code tonight. The very big difference is between first and second chapters. VIII. Councilor Derby: We need to make sure that this doesn’t impact upcoming projects of the city and we may want to adopt this with a different timeline than a 6-month delay IX. Peter: In case of 11 Ferry street, we designed a 96-unit all electric building and we told state for energy star certification and zero-energy codes. It already will mandate passive house. We have to change what we are doing and go the passive house code, we will really have some front-end and back-end certification compliances and insulation that will have to happen during construction that will be considerable. It adds time, process and cost. X. Connie Dawson to Peter: What is your timeline? XI. Peter: If not passive house, by end of this year. But, we are not going to be starting for a year because of affordable housing grants XII. Michael: Variable interest rates and adding the third pane of glass will be hard and we can’t know for sure what will be in the HERS code. Since we don’t know how any of this will affect us financially, we are having a hard time supporting it. XIII. BJ: I agree, we can’t even get our 2021 code signed off, so what everything will be when it irons out, I can’t say until it’s here. XIV. Mike: That’s where our engineers, HERS raters, myself and Peter are concerned because it could stall projects. XV. Councilor Denham: What is the HERS scale? XVI. Peter: We have a seal of approval that it meets certain energy standards but it’s very similar to passive house. Ten years ago, we thought everything would be lead certification, and now it’s passive housing. What will happen 10 years from now? XVII. BJ: It’s a rating system XVIII. Mike Michon: These less-used things are going to have a higher premium XIX. Councilor Derby: We should get the schools involved for any new construction XX. Cassie: Improvements to existing structures are already regulated XXI. BJ: Taking it from base to stretch is big. This got us going to become a net-zero energy by 2050 XXII. Connie Dawson: How would this help Easthampton get new designation? XXIII. Cassie: Green community is a designation we already have; climate leader community designation would open us up to broader breadth of grant opportunities that include different things like a money for geothermal improvements to municipal buildings, and more climate impacts like resiliencies and not just a fossil fuel impact. It would align us with broader grants available at the state level. When we complete climate action plan and get this designation, we will have a lot more opportunities. a. Eligibility: i. Adopted by July 25th 2024 ii.Next opportunity will be in December iii. Having an energy advisory committee iv. Commitment to be a net zero city by 2050 v. Updated zero emission first for city vehicles vi. Last piece: Getting this passed XXIV. Mike: Is the deadline in July a. Cassie: first round is July. Opportunity won’t go away but an additional reason to go with it for now is that it’s in alignment with the climate action plan. Not sure how long you can wait to put it into effect b. BJ: Usually the standard is 6 months XXV. Mike: Why July and not December? a. Cassie: We are in process of developing a climate action plan. We haven’t paused any other projects due to plan, but if we have the availability right away to go into these grant opportunities, we will really get the momentum. Not sure what we would miss out on if we change it in December versus July. XXVI. Discussion of the different codes follows XXVII. Councilor Smith: A concern is that the opportunity for grants are not necessarily big money savings XXVIII. Cassie: It’s also a culture shift XXIX. Councilor Dedham: Remaining questions? a. Councilor Derby: Critical piece is about the school reuse folks. Also, what could this mean for the Old Farm on Oliver Street? If we stall out affordable housing grants because we are waiting on this, we need to know. XXX. Councilor Denham: I will reach out to the city about the town lodging, Councilor Derby can you can you reach out to the school projects? XXXI. Councilor Derby: Is there a possibility to see how long the grace period will be? Can it be longer than 6 months? XXXII. Councilor Denham: If we meet after May 6, we will have time to do this research. I want to be supportive as possible. XXXIII. Motion to adjourn by Councilor Denham, Seconded by Councilor Derby