ENROLLED ORIGINAL
1
A RESOLUTION
25-374
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
December 5, 2023
To declare an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Green Buildings Act of 2006 to
temporarily postpone the applicability of net zero energy requirements to District-
financed housing.
RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Green Housing Transition Extension Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2023”.
Sec. 2. (a) Net zero energy building standard s require that a building’s energy
consumption not exceed the building’s onsite or dedicated offsite renewable energy generation and that no fossil fuel combustion takes place at the building.
(b) Under current law , the Mayor is required to promulgate rules by the end of calendar
year 2026 that will impose a version of the net zero energy building standard on most new and
substantially improved buildings.
(c) On January 12, 2023, Mayor Bowser signed into law the Greener Government
Buildings Act of 2022, which among other things compels District government agencies to achieve net zero energy compliance in most new or substantially improved government and
government-funded buildings. The effect of the net zero energy compliance provisions of the
Greener Government Buildings Amendment Act of 2022 would be to accelerate existing net zero mandates specifically for government and government-funded buildings.
(d) As part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget process, the Council funded the Greener
Government Buildings Amendment Act of 2022 and repealed its subject-to-appropriations
provision, allowing it to become applicable.
(e) Following the conclusion of the budget process, the Department of Housing and
Community Development (“DHCD” ) raised concerns that the applicability of the newly
accelerated net zero energy mandate wou ld render infeasible a number of ongoing housing
development projects, because DHCD and its housing finance partner agencies had already
approved detailed applications for District government financing that were developed at a time when net zero energy design requirements were not in effect and therefore did not take net zero
energy design requirements into account. ENROLLED ORIGINAL
2
(f) In the Green Housing Transition Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2023, the
Council noted that abruptly abandoning existing housing development finance plans would mean
missing out on important opportunities to increase affordable housing and retain lower-income
households in the District. Therefore, on June 20, 2023, the Council passed the Green Housing
Transition Emergency Amendment Act of 2023, which exempted from the net zero energy
mandate all District- financed affordable housing projects for which funding was committed prior
to December 31, 2023.
(g) Despite this grace period, DHCD has raised concern that some projects that were
already far along the development pipeline, and for which the District government has already
indicated support, still have not received all necessary funding commitments . Most notably, they
are concerned that the existing emergency would not allow the DC Housing Finance Agency
(“DCHFA” ) to award funds to several such projects as part of the upcoming January 2024 round
of financing awards.
(h) As a result of ongoing negotiations, f urther legislation from the Mayor is anticipated.
In the meantime, additional emergency legislation is needed to, at minimum, protect the projects
currently under contemplation for the January 2024 round of DCHFA funding.
Sec. 3. The Council determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute
an emergency making it necessary that the Green Housing Transition Extension Emergency
Amendment Act of 2023 be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.