I don’t often miss major news, but today my good friend Sherwin Sucaldito, an excellent @properties agent, gave me a heads that the Chicago City Council just passed Chapter 18-14 of the municipal code of Chicago known as the Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance.
The law was sponsored by the mayor and strongly opposed by BOMA. The law requires certain landlords and building owners to report their energy “benchmark” to the City. The law does not require landlords to take any corrective action. Annual disclosure requirements go into place next year. The Tribune goes into detail on the genesis of the idea behind the law.
Covered by the law are buildings containing more than 50,000 gross square feet. The law requires tenants to cooperate with their landlords to provide energy consumption information. Covered building owners will input the information required into an online system and are required to retain records of the information for three years.
Landlords and building owners who fail to comply with the law are subject to a fine of $100 for the first violation and an additional fine of up to $25 per day for each day the violation continues.
Congratulations, Chicago landlords (of bigger buildings), one more piece of paper for you!
Update: Here’s CIC’s take on the law.