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Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr. 2
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A PROPOSED RESOLUTION 6
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IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9
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To declare an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Green Buildings Act of 2006 to 12
temporarily postpone the applicability of net zero energy requirements to District-13
financed housing. 14
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RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 16
resolution may be cited as the “Green Housing Transition Extension Emergency Declaration 17
Resolution of 2023”. 18
Sec. 2. (a) Net zero energy building standard s require that a building’s energy 19
consumption not exceed the building’s onsite or dedicated offsite renewable energy generation 20
and that no fossil fuel combustion take place at the building. 21
(b) Under current law , the Mayor is required to promulgate rules by the end of calendar 22
year 2026 that will impose a version of the net zero energy building standard on most new and 23
substantially improved buildings. 24
(c) On January 12, 2023, Mayor Bowser signed into law the Greener Government 25
Buildings Act of 2022, which among other things compels District government agencies to 26
achieve net zero energy compliance in most new or substantially improved government and 27
government-funded buildings. The effect of the net zero energy compliance provisions of the 28
Greener Government Buildings Amendment Act of 2022 would be to accelerate existing net zero 29
mandates specifically for government and government-funded buildings. 30 (d) As part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget process, the Council funded the Greener 31
Government Buildings Amendment Act of 2022 and repealed its subject-to-appropriations 32
provision, allowing it to become applicable. 33
(e) Following the conclusion of the budget process, the Department of Housing and 34
Community Development (DHCD) raised concerns that the applicability of the newly 35
accelerated net zero energy mandate wou ld render infeasible a number of ongoing housing 36
development projects, because DHCD and its housing finance partner agencies had already 37
approved detailed applications for District government financing that were developed at a time 38
when net zero energy design requirements were not in effect and therefore did not take net zero 39
energy design requirements into account. 40
(f) In the Green Housing Transition Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2023, the 41
Council noted that abruptly abandoning existing housing development finance plans would mean 42
missing out on important opportunities to increase affordable housing and retain lower-income 43
households in the District. Therefore, on June 20, 2023, the Council passed the Green Housing 44
Transition Emergency Amendment Act of 2023, which exempted from the net zero energy 45
mandate all District- financed affordable housing projects for which funding was committed prior 46
to December 31, 2023. 47
(g) Despite this grace period, DHCD has raised concern that some projects that were 48
already far along the development pipeline, and for which the District government has already 49
indicated support, still have not received all necessary funding commitments . Most notably, they 50
are concerned that the existing emergency would not allow the DC Housing Finance Agency 51
(DCHFA) to award funds to several such projects as part of the upcoming January 2024 round of 52
financing awards. 53 (h) As a result of ongoing negotiations, f urther legislation from the Mayor is anticipated. 54
In the meantime, additional emergency legislation is needed to, at minimum, protect the projects 55
currently under contemplation for the January 2024 round of DCHFA funding. 56
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances 57
enumerated in section 2 constitute an emergency making it necessary that the Green Housing 58
Transition Extension Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 be adopted after a single reading. 59
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately. 60