The City Council wants more information and input from businesses and advocates before adopting a Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO).
The proposed ordinance is aimed at 150 of the largest buildings in the City, and it calls for the largest non-residential properties in Watertown to reach net-zero energy status by 2035, and all buildings to reach that status by 2050.
The Council’s Committee on Rules and Ordinances met twice to discuss the proposal that came from the Watertown Environment and Energy Efficiency Committee (WE3C). At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Council President Mark Sideris said there were questions about the impact of BERDO, including on residential buildings.
“It appears that the Council and some others have some questions that we could get better clarification if we had the City staff perform a few things that I am going to lay out here,” Sideris said.
Some of the areas Sideris wants the City staff to look at are: the success metrics of BERDOs in other communities, economic development impacts, and the burden on the City staff to monitor the BERDO reporting and requirements.
Sending the ordinance to the City staff would allow more study than if it remained a topic of discussion at subcommittee meetings, Sideris said.
Advocates of the proposed ordinance said that Watertown’s BERDO is based on those of Boston and Cambridge. Ernesta Krazkiewicz, a member of the WE3C, said that was done so that the ordinance would be “familiar and convenient to carry out” for groups that do business in those communities. The metrics used to measure the progress are also the same as those in Boston and Cambridge.
Sideris requested that the City staff gather advocates and those impacted by the BERDO to gather information.
“I ask the administration to convene a summit of advocates, business leaders and community members that do business or live in Watertown to understand the environmental and economic benefits and impact of different options for the BERDO such as performance requirements, schedules, etc.,” Sideris said.
He also wants the staff to assess the cost and benefits of including residential properties, especially condominium buildings, in the BERDO, noting that most communities around Watertown have not done so.
“When (City staff) have completed all of these things with a very robust process, I want them to return to the City Council with an updated BREDO ordinance that we can consider,” Sideris said.
Councilor Lisa Feltner requested how the City will coordinate reporting of energy use by large buildings in the BERDO, and she added that she has seen different lists of the largest buildings in town.
The Council voted unanimously to send the building emission reduction and disclosure ordinance (BERDO) to the City staff for more study, and to report back with a new proposed ordinance.