After years of discussion and months of debate, the City Council on Monday night passed a Building Emissions Reductions and Disclosures Ordinance (BERDO).
The vote was 23 in favor and none against, with Councilor David Micley absent.
Micley had a conflict with work that kept him from the meeting, but he said after the meeting that he would have voted for it.
“I support Newton’s efforts to take these important steps forward in doing our part to address the challenges of climate change,” Micley said. “This vote, which I support, represents our acceptance of that responsibility.”
The version they passed calls for commercial buildings with more than 20,000 square feet of floor space to record and report energy use as well as take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has an energy reporting component for residential buildings with more than 20,000 square feet of floor space but not a greenhouse gas reduction requirement.
The BERDO was teed up for a vote on Dec. 2, but Councilor Leonard Gentile “chartered” it, referring to the City Charter, which says any councilor can stop discussion on an item and automatically push it to the next scheduled full City Council meeting.
“One of the reasons I asked for more time was I was surprised at the number of direct contact I’ve experienced, either by voicemail or emails, texts, even more so than last year at this time when we were talking about the MBTA Communities Act,” Gentile said.
Gentile was ready to go forward with the BERDO Monday night and offered an amendment related to the process of implementing it. The ordinance establishes a BERDO administrator and a BERDO advisory committee to decide on details of the ordinance. Gentile’s amendment simply requires that administrator and committee to meet with the City Council at least 90 days before the ordinance takes effect, to go over the details with councilors and take questions.
Councilor Susan Albright offered an amendment to add a 30-day public comment period to coincide with that 90-day window in Gentile’s amendment.
Both proposals were approved unanimously. And there was no discussion on the main ordinance, so BERDO went directly to a vote and was passed with no further debate or discussion.
Council President Marc Laredo marked the occasion with gratitude for those inside and outside City Hall who made the ordinance possible.
“Your work is tremendously appreciated. I know there was a lot of time that went into this,” Laredo said at the podium. “There was some compromise that went into that, which is often the case when we pass legislation, particularly new legislation, but I’m personally very pleased to see this have broad approval.”
After the meeting, Charles River Chamber President Greg Reibman—who had earlier criticized an attempt to add large residential buildings to the reductions part of the BERDO, praised the resulting compromise.
“The chamber thanks the city staff, city councilors and Citizens Committee on Energy for listening to and working with our members on shaping the final ordinance,” Reibman said.