Washington DC Headlines

On June 24, the DC Tax Revision Commission will hold a public hearing from 5:00pm-8:00pm at One Judiciary Square, 441 4th Street, NW, Room 1107.  The  purpose of this public hearing will be to receive public testimony about how taxes in the District should be changed in order to: (1) provide for fairness in the apportionment of taxes; (2) broaden the tax base; (3)  make the District’s tax policy more competitive with surrounding jurisdictions; (4) encourage business growth and job creation; and  (5) modernize, simplify, and increase transparency in the tax code.  The public may submit testimony in person, in writing or by email, however oral testimony will be limited to three minutes, while written testimony can be as long as necessary.  In preparation for the hearing, members can review reports previously submitted to and learn more about the Commission, by visiting the following website: www.dctaxrevisioncommission.org.  Members can also view a copy of the public hearing notice by clicking on the following link: DC Tax Revision Commission - Notice of June 24 Public Hearing. AOBA members interested in testifying should contact Mike Woicekowski by calling (202) 296-3390 or via e-mail at MWoicekowski@aoba-metro.org.

 

 

 

On May 3, 2013, DC Water published proposed rules for an Impervious Area Charge (IAC) discount program. DC Water is proposing to establish a three year pilot program for the IAC discount program, with a maximum allowable credit for the first year of only 4% --- notably less than the credit of up to 55% that will be applied by DDOE to its stormwater fee. Per the proposed rules, the IAC discount program should take effect on the same date as DDOE’s stormwater discount program (final date pending Council approval), but not earlier than Oct. 1, 2013. Additionally, DC Water will not retroactively apply the IAC credit to the bills of qualified owners to the March 25, 2009 implementation date of the IAC as required by law. For more information on the IAC discount program, please contact Nicola Y. Whiteman at (202) 296-3390 or nwhiteman@aoba-metro.org.

On April 29, 2013, the EPA ENERGY STAR® website, www.energystar.gov, experienced a cyber-attack that resulted in unauthorized access to some data from the DC Department of the Environment’s (DDOE) servers (view the official EPA notice). The information accessed may include energy data, names, email addresses, account details for some users, and encrypted passwords – technically "hashed" passwords; ENERGY STAR does not store passwords in plain text. In response, EPA took all of www.energystar.gov offline. Most of the site is back online, but as a precaution, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and other tools that require a password to log in will be unavailable until the end of this week (May 3^rd). Users will be required to create a new password upon logging in. The access for people or organizations you have shared facilities with will not be affected. The outage will not negatively impact the compliance schedule or any building owners that have not yet submitted data to DDOE. For more information about private benchmarking in the District, members can click on the following link: DDOE - Private Building Benchmarking in the District. To receive benchmarking updates from DDOE, please click on the following link: DC Benchmarking Stakeholders List

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has posted the May 2013 proactive inspections schedule on its website. Members may click on DCRA – MAY 2013 PROACTIVE INSPECTIONS SCHEDULE to view the list of residential properties that DCRA plans to inspect during the month of May.

DC Water is proposing a 5.5% increase in the water and sewer rates for Fiscal Year 2014. The proposed rates, if adopted by the DC Water Board of Directors, will be effective Oct. 1, 2013. DC Water has  scheduled a May 8 hearing to receive  public comments about the proposed increases. The hearing will begin at 6:30pm at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, 777 North Capitol Street, NE, First Floor Training Room. For info about the FY14 rates or the May 8 public hearing, please contact Nicola Whiteman at NWhiteman@aoba-metro.org

Building owners and managers can now review the answers to the 10 most common questions fielded by DDOE or DC SEU by clicking on the following link: Answers to the 10 Most Frequently Asked Benchmarking Questions.Questions include the following: Do I have to include my parking garage in the benchmarking report? It depends. Parking garages do not count towards the size thresholds with respect to when/if you have to report to DDOE, but they do use energy!  If the parking garage shares energy use with the rest of the building without separate or sub-metering, then you must input the garage space as an additional space in the Portfolio Manager entry for that building. If all energy and water use in the garage is separately metered, and the garage is below grade, you do not need to include either the garage space or its energy use. Many more questions and answers can be found in DDOE's benchmarking FAQ document. Members may also visit:  DDOE- Private Building Benchmarking for additional information.

 

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has posted the April 2013 proactive inspections schedule on its website. Members may click on DCRA – APRIL 2013 PROACTIVE INSPECTIONS SCHEDULE to view the list of residential properties that DCRA plans to inspect during the month of April.

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has posted the March 2013 inspection schedule on its website. Members may click on DCRA – MARCH 2013 PROACTIVE INSPECTIONS SCHEDULE to view the list of residential properties that DCRA plans to inspect during the month of March.

DC Water is proposing a 5.5% increase in the water and sewer rates for Fiscal Year 2014.   The proposed rates, if adopted by the DC Water Board of Directors, will be effective Oct. 1, 2013. Please click here for a comparison of the current rates with the increases proposed by DC Water.

 

Please note that the Adjustment of General Applicability for 2012, effective May 1, 2013, is 2.2% as announced by the Rental Housing Commission. Thus, the allowable increase for most tenants will be 4.2% (2.2% + 2%) and will be 2.2% for qualified elderly and disabled tenants. Additional information will be sent to members.

 

Last month, the DC Department of the Environment (DDOE) published final regulations to implement the District’s requirement for all large private buildings to annually benchmark energy and water performance. The final regulations are applicable to commercial and multifamily buildings. With the publication of the final rules, building owners must report that information to DDOE according to the timeline at the following link: DDOE Initial Benchmark Reporting Requirements.  To  help determine if your building is covered and/or to look up the Building ID number you need to use when benchmarking, DDOE has published a listing of covered buildings over 100,000 sq. ft. Members can view the list by clicking on the following link: District Energy Benchmarking of Existing Buildings - Covered Buildings List 2013.

On Feb. 8, Mayor Vincent Gray swore in members of the new Business Regulatory Reform Task Force.  Members of the Task Force, reflecting a cross-section of the public and private sectors, include AOBA representative Mary Lynch, Vice President-Property Management, Akridge. The task force is charged with: (1) reviewing the District’s rules and regulations to identify existing requirements that might impede the progress of business; and (2) monitoring and tracking current and future proposals to reform regulations and identify their potential impact on businesses. The final recommendations will include proposals to eliminate any inconsistent regulations administered by the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.  AOBA looks forward to working with the Task Force to achieve its important mission. For more info, click on: Mayor Gray Launches Business Regulatory Reform Task Force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan ahead!  Next month, major road closures are planned on Saturday, March 16 for the Rock ‘n’ Roll USA Marathon and the related CareFirst Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. Members will find a detailed list of planned closures at: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/files/2011/11/usa13_roadclosuregrid1.pdf

The District of Columbia published final regulations to implement its law requiring that all large private buildings benchmark energy and water performance annually. The final regulations require owners or property managers to evaluate the energy and water efficiency of their buildings, intended to be a critical first step toward saving energy, water, and money.

Pursuant to the District’s Clean and Affordable Energy Act, owners of buildings over 100,000 square feet must report their 2012 energy and water use to DDOE by April 1, 2013. DDOE requires use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) free, industry-standard ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager software tool for benchmarking and reporting. Larger buildings must also submit data for 2010 and 2011; DDOE is requiring less detail in these reports. The scope of reporting expands in 2014, to include all buildings over 50,000 square feet.

The final rulemaking, all guidance documents, and the reporting templates are on DDOE’s website at http://ddoe.dc.gov/energybenchmarking/. While not due until April 1, reporting can begin as soon as the reporting templates for submitting data to DDOE are active. Those wondering if their building is required to report will also be able to find this info in a spreadsheet provided on the DDOE website.

The energy benchmarking rule is the result of over two years of extensive stakeholder engagement, with input from hundreds of people and companies—including owners, managers, developers, tenants, industry associations, consultants, utility companies, business improvement districts, and nonprofit organizations. AOBA provided extensive and thoughtful comments on both the first and second proposed versions of the regulations, and in many of the public meetings DDOE held. Although DDOE has not made changes to the rulemaking itself from the version published as proposed rules in July 2012, the agency has made a number of changes to the guidance documents that support the rulemaking, primarily in response to comments from AOBA and other stakeholders.

A number of the changes are designed to assist the regulated community with compliance with the retroactive reporting requirements that are necessary on account of the delayed publication of this final rulemaking. For 2010 and 2011 data, DDOE will not be requiring any additional information beyond that required by ENERGY STAR, nor is it expected that any data should be collected from tenants who have left a building prior to 2013.

Technical assistance is available for building owners, property managers, and service providers as they complete the benchmarking process. The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) has set up a Benchmarking Help Center to answer questions about benchmarking regulations and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software, and to connect them to energy efficiency programs designed to improve building energy performance. The Help Center can be reached at (202) 525-7036 or at benchmarking@dcseu.com. For more info, including upcoming in-person ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager training sessions, visit http://www.dcseu.com.

The District of Columbia published final regulations to implement its law requiring that all large private buildings benchmark energy and water performance annually. The final regulations require owners or property managers to evaluate the energy and water efficiency of their buildings, intended to be a critical first step toward saving energy, water, and money.

Pursuant to the District’s Clean and Affordable Energy Act, owners of buildings over 100,000 square feet must report their 2012 energy and water use to DDOE by April 1, 2013. DDOE requires use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) free, industry-standard ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager software tool for benchmarking and reporting. Larger buildings must also submit data for 2010 and 2011; DDOE is requiring less detail in these reports. The scope of reporting expands in 2014, to include all buildings over 50,000 square feet.

The final rulemaking, all guidance documents, and the reporting templates are on DDOE’s website at http://ddoe.dc.gov/energybenchmarking/. While not due until April 1, reporting can begin as soon as the reporting templates for submitting data to DDOE are active. Those wondering if their building is required to report will also be able to find this info in a spreadsheet provided on the DDOE website.

The energy benchmarking rule is the result of over two years of extensive stakeholder engagement, with input from hundreds of people and companies—including owners, managers, developers, tenants, industry associations, consultants, utility companies, business improvement districts, and nonprofit organizations. AOBA provided extensive and thoughtful comments on both the first and second proposed versions of the regulations, and in many of the public meetings DDOE held. Although DDOE has not made changes to the rulemaking itself from the version published as proposed rules in July 2012, the agency has made a number of changes to the guidance documents that support the rulemaking, primarily in response to comments from AOBA and other stakeholders.

A number of the changes are designed to assist the regulated community with compliance with the retroactive reporting requirements that are necessary on account of the delayed publication of this final rulemaking. For 2010 and 2011 data, DDOE will not be requiring any additional information beyond that required by ENERGY STAR, nor is it expected that any data should be collected from tenants who have left a building prior to 2013.

Technical assistance is available for building owners, property managers, and service providers as they complete the benchmarking process. The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) has set up a Benchmarking Help Center to answer questions about benchmarking regulations and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software, and to connect them to energy efficiency programs designed to improve building energy performance. The Help Center can be reached at (202) 525-7036 or at benchmarking@dcseu.com. For more info, including upcoming in-person ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager training sessions, visit http://www.dcseu.com.

The District of Columbia published final regulations to implement its law requiring that all large private buildings benchmark energy and water performance annually. The final regulations require owners or property managers to evaluate the energy and water efficiency of their buildings, intended to be a critical first step toward saving energy, water, and money.

Pursuant to the District’s Clean and Affordable Energy Act, owners of buildings over 100,000 square feet must report their 2012 energy and water use to DDOE by April 1, 2013. DDOE requires use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) free, industry-standard ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager software tool for benchmarking and reporting. Larger buildings must also submit data for 2010 and 2011; DDOE is requiring less detail in these reports. The scope of reporting expands in 2014, to include all buildings over 50,000 square feet.

The final rulemaking, all guidance documents, and the reporting templates are on DDOE’s website at http://ddoe.dc.gov/energybenchmarking/. While not due until April 1, reporting can begin as soon as the reporting templates for submitting data to DDOE are active. Those wondering if their building is required to report will also be able to find this info in a spreadsheet provided on the DDOE website.

The energy benchmarking rule is the result of over two years of extensive stakeholder engagement, with input from hundreds of people and companies—including owners, managers, developers, tenants, industry associations, consultants, utility companies, business improvement districts, and nonprofit organizations. AOBA provided extensive and thoughtful comments on both the first and second proposed versions of the regulations, and in many of the public meetings DDOE held. Although DDOE has not made changes to the rulemaking itself from the version published as proposed rules in July 2012, the agency has made a number of changes to the guidance documents that support the rulemaking, primarily in response to comments from AOBA and other stakeholders.

A number of the changes are designed to assist the regulated community with compliance with the retroactive reporting requirements that are necessary on account of the delayed publication of this final rulemaking. For 2010 and 2011 data, DDOE will not be requiring any additional information beyond that required by ENERGY STAR, nor is it expected that any data should be collected from tenants who have left a building prior to 2013.

Technical assistance is available for building owners, property managers, and service providers as they complete the benchmarking process. The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) has set up a Benchmarking Help Center to answer questions about benchmarking regulations and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software, and to connect them to energy efficiency programs designed to improve building energy performance. The Help Center can be reached at (202) 525-7036 or at benchmarking@dcseu.com. For more info, including upcoming in-person ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager training sessions, visit http://www.dcseu.com.

Are your tenants, residents and vendors ready for the Inaugural weekend? Since Inaugural plans and details are subject to change, members are encouraged to check the following 2 key websites for the latest info: D.C. Government: This special website is devoted to info on the events surrounding the Presidential Inauguration, including closures, transportation, security measures and special events. www.inauguration.dc.gov.

U.S. Secret Service: The Secret Service is working with local, state and federal public safety officers to plan security for the Presidential Inauguration. The Secret Service’s website has info on road closures and Metro, security screenings, prohibited items, security screening entry points, air security and water security. www.secretservice.gov.

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has posted the January 2013 proactive inspections schedule on its website. Members may click on DCRA – JANUARY 2013 PROACTIVE INSPECTIONS SCHEDULE to view the list of residential properties that DCRA plans to inspect during the month of January.

 

 

On Dec. 7, the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and Construction Codes Coordinating Board (CCCB) published proposed updates to the District’s construction codes. The proposed codes are the result of numerous meetings by the various code subcommittees known as technical advisory groups and the CCCB. Comments on the proposed rulemaking are due by January 25, 2013. All DC members will soon receive an action alert outlining the steps to allow for member participation in preparing comments that address any member and industry concerns by the January 2013 deadline. To view the proposed code changes, click on the following link: 2013 Proposed Construction Codes. The proposed codes include a new 2013 Green Construction Code Supplement with provisions that are applicable to: (1) existing buildings AND new construction; and (2) both multifamily and commercial properties.

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has posted the November 2012 inspection schedule on its website. Members may click on DCRA – NOVEMBER 2012 PROACTIVE INSPECTION SCHEDULE to view the list of residential properties that DCRA plans to inspect during the month of November.

The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) will offer two hands-on training sessions on EPA's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software on Nov. 6 (general training) and Nov. 13 (multifamily training) at the University of the District of Columbia, Building 41, E-Classroom 104 (Level 1).

The Nov. 6 training will use a general office building as an example facility, and the Nov. 13 training will use a multifamily building as an example facility. Both sessions will provide an overview of how to benchmark any building.  The training will cover the basics of the District’s benchmarking regulations and then launch into a detailed walk-through of the Portfolio Manager tool, including how to benchmark a building and report the results to DDOE. Members interested in attending any of the two training sessions should contact SEU at benchmarking@dcseu.com or by calling (202) 525-7036. Please note that there is a limit of 30 people per training.