COULD QUEENS LAWMAKER’S
‘GREEN DEAL’ COST CO-OPS
and condo owners across city huge bucks?
BY MAX PARROTT
Astoria Councilman Costa Constantinides maintains
that the Climate Mobilization Act he sponsored in the
City Council aims to make the city greener — but a
group representing co-op and condo owners citywide
fears it will hit their bank accounts quite hard.
The Council of New York Cooperatives & Condo-miniums
released a report to QNS on May 1 detailing
astronomical fines that some Queens co-ops would
have to pay if they don’t meet the 2025 and 2030
benchmarks set by the six-bill environmental package.
Constantinides refuted both the premise and find-ings
of the study.
Co-ops pose a unique challenge to the set of laws,
which imposes environmental regulations on buildings
of more than 25,000 square feet – those said to be
responsible for 30 percent of the city’s carbon emis-sions.
The bills, which passed City Council in a 45-2
vote on April 18, set emissions limits that would force
these buildings to make energy-efficient renovations
or pay steep fines.
Based on the ownership structure of co-ops, the
Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums
22 MAY 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
believes, the fines would be imposed directly on the
pockets of the homeowners.
“In a co-op, people jointly own the whole corporation.
They pay their share of the carrying charges, so that
if there were $100,000 fine, the co-op would have to
increase maintenance fees to all shareholders,” said
Mary Ann Rothman, president of the Council of New
York Cooperatives & Condominiums.
The report estimated that if Queens’ worst-offending
co-ops did not meet the standards of the law, they
would have to pay around $70,000 to $300,000 per
year in 2025 and from $120,000 to $700,000 per
year in 2030, based on their current carbon footprint.
In the highest instances, this could come out to fines
around $1,500 per household by 2030.
One complex that could be hard hit, a 504-unit
Mitchell-Linden co-op at 141-16 25th Rd. in Flush-ing,
is projected to be hit with more than $336,000
in penalties by 2025, with fines potentially increasing
just under $700,000 by 2030.
The co-op council further argues that the broad ex-emptions
the law grants to city buildings, rent-regulated
buildings and places of worship, place an unfair burden
on market-rate residential and commercial properties.
Constantinides’ office refuted these results, pointing
to other parts of his bill that would exempt five of the
10 co-ops that the report included.
In an interview with QNS, the councilman argued
that the legislation built in a “financial hardship ex-ception”
that would prevent many of these buildings
from being fined.
He said that the premise of the report misses the
goal of his bill, which is not to fine people but to provide
them resources through low-interest loans to make
energy-saving renovations that will ultimately them
save money on utilities.
“The only way that someone gets a bill is if they
do nothing and do not act in good faith,” said Con-stantinides.
“I’m not interested in collecting money.
I’m interested in collecting carbon.”
Rothman did not have figures for how much it would
cost the co-op buildings in the report to comply with
the demands of the legislation.
“We’re only just learning that, as we each in our
own buildings look into what it appears to be needed
and how that’s to be done, how quickly it can be done,
whether the necessary equipment is actually available,”
said Rothman.
One of the bills in the package would provide
building owners with loans to help them make
repairs and installations such as window and door
replacement, lighting, caulking, weatherstripping,
air sealing, insulation, and heating and cooling
system upgrades.
Co-op boards do not have the power to force home-owners
to alter the interior of their apartments, leaving
it up to individuals to take the initiative to retrofit their
apartments. However, Rothman said that it tends to
be building-wide systems in co-ops that need to be
adjusted or replaced.
Rothman said that the Urban Green Council
worked with the City Council leading up to the bill.
It suggested an incremental proposal for that was
based on tax incentives because she was concerned
about the effect that punitive measures will have
on co-ops.
“There’s a lot of things in the bill that doesn’t put
them co-ops and condos in a precarious position if
they are able to show they’re working on reducing
their carbon imprint,” said Constantinides.
Community News
Max Parrott/QNS
Councilman Costa Constantinides
/www.qns.com
/www.qns.com
