City Council - Ordinance Committee

Easthampton City Council Ordinance Subcommittee Meeting Notes May 9, 2024, 6:00 PM Present: Councilor Denham, Councilor Derby, Councilor Smith, Connie Dawson (energy advisory committee) Cassie Charter, Easthampton Conservation Agent, Jamie Webb, Senior Planner, Remote: Chris Mason, Regional Coordinator for Western Mass for Green Communities Program, Dept of Energy Resources, and Bill Footer, Performance Systems Development, Mass Saves vendor for Mass code education program I. Councilor Denham: We had a good conversation discussing the different codes last meeting. This week I had numerous meetings with folks from the Valley CDC who are supportive of city moving forward with this. Spoke with Julia from Community Builders to make sure she was clear about specialized code. They are doing a lot of work to support green communities and recognize that there will be costs, and they are doing what they can to be able to be passive house. Also recognize there are different ways you can get to passive house. Concern: Will it limit our ability to get where we want? II. Councilor Denham: Kevin Perrier just joined call, he is from Five Star Building Corp. III. Councilor Denham: Cassie, I want to turn this over to you because you have been in communication with Chris and wanted to give you the floor. IV. Cassie: From my notes from last meeting, we had three main things: a. How will this impact existing projects in city b. Concerns about passive house costs c. School buildings V. Presentation by Chris Mason and Bill Footer a. Existing buildings are excluded from having to use opt-in code b. Additions to a building, even if the building really is not very big and the addition is a lot larger, would be exempt. VI. Councilor Derby: My question for Kevin is whether or not this would impact the Maple School Building project costs if it’s passive house. a. Kevin: Maple School was considering a detached building which would affect it, but on a project of that size, it would not make or break the project. VII. Chris: If the city decides that the code is too restrictive, they can vote to rescind it VIII. Councilor Smith: Would this affect accessory dwelling units (detatched units up to 1100 square feet)? a. Chris: No, it would be all electric since it’s so small and that would be the requirement b. Kevin: I would like to see you reach out to all developers in the community to see their opinions on whether or not they would approve adopting this; I recommend giving it a year or two before we even consider doing something like this c. Chris: We have 41 communities that have adopted the specialized code. IX. Councilor Derby: If the timeline is July 25th, we have a meeting on July 17th so we have time. Makes sense to do due diligence. Oh wait, we don’t have two meetings in July, only one. We would not have to pass this through planning board because it’s an opt-in X. Councilor Denham: We want to make sure we aren’t pricing out our residents but also not block developers from coming to our city.  a. Jamie Webb: You should ask Northampton how it’s been going for them under the stretch code vs. specialized code. XI. Fuel-Efficient Policy for Municipal Vehicles a. List of definitions of different options (this already exists) b. Councilor Derby: I move that we move the fuel-efficient policy for municipal vehicles to the full council. c. Councilor Smith: Second d. We will set the public hearing for the full city council XII. Councilor Derby: Motion to adjourn XIII. Councilor Smith: Second