HomeMy WebLinkAboutScrivener's Error MemoCITY OF MIAMI
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY
MEMORANDUM
TO: Todd B. Hannon, City Clerk
FROM: Victoria Mendez, City Attorneys for
DATE: December 15, 2022
RE: Ordinance 14005 — Amend Code - Chapter 10 - Building Energy and Water
Consumption Benchmarking
File No. 8727
At its June 10, 2021, meeting, the City Commission adopted the above referenced agenda
item, SR.3, requiring private and City of Miami ("City") owned buildings over 20,000 square
feet to perform and report annual energy and water benehmarking unless otherwise exempted;
and, requiring periodic retuning, or maintenance of, building facilities and equipment, every 5
years for all such buildings over 50,000 square feet that do not meet exemption criteria as part of
the Building Efficiency 305 Program or BE305 Program.
The item inadvertently printed with a link to an incorrect cross reference. Further, the file
version was inadvertently incremented prior to the April 22, 2021, City Commission meeting
and, therefore, no changes are reflected in the legislation between the original version and
Revision A.
The Legislation has been corrected and incremented to Revision D.
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Enclosure(s)
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City of Miami
Legislation
Ordinance
File Number: 8727 Final Action Date:
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER 10 OF
THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED
"BUILDINGS," TO ADD A NEW ARTICLE XII, TITLED "BUILDING ENERGY AND
WATER CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING", REQUIRING BUILDINGS OVER 20,000
SQUARE FEET OF GROSS FLOOR AREA TO PERFORM AND REPORT ANNUAL
ENERGY AND WATER BENCHMARKING TO THE CITY OF MIAMI; PROVIDING FOR
EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN BUILDING TYPES; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY
CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE.
WHEREAS, the City of Miami ("City") desires to raise awareness of energy performance
through information and transparency with a goal of unlocking energy and cost savings
opportunities and health benefits for the City's businesses and residents; and
WHEREAS, Benchmarking of energy and water consumption is part of committed
actions in the Resilient305 unified strategy with Miami -Dade County and the City of Miami
Beach as well as in the City's Miami Forever Climate Ready strategy which was launched
in January 2020; and
WHEREAS, the City of Miami's 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory
revealed fifty-two percent (52%) of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings; and
WHEREAS, a relatively small number of large buildings often account for
considerable portion of a city's energy use; and
WHEREAS, annual Benchmarking of energy and water consumption helpsbuildin p
owners, property managers, and facilities' staff establish energy performance baselines, --
monitor performance over time, guide actions to cut waste, and verify energy and roater `eu
savings from investments as well as mitigates carbon emissions; and is
WHEREAS, Benchmarking data provides summary information about public and
private buildings, documenting trends in energy and water performance; and
WHEREAS, Benchmarking allows for a data -based approach to analyzing future
energy needs, where improvements can be made, and how to reduce costs, and
WHEREAS, more than thirty (30) major United States cities and counties, including New
York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boulder, and Kansas City, have adopted similar requirements, thus
demonstrating the acceptability, legality, and feasibility of such requirements;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA:
Section 1. The recitals and findings contained in the Preamble to this Ordinance are
adopted by reference and incorporated as if fully set forth in this Section.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
Section 2. Chapter 10 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, is further
amended in the following particulars.'
"CHAPTER 10
BUILDINGS
ARTICLE XII. BUILDING ENERGY AND WATER
CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING AND RETUNING
Sec. 10-147. Building Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarkinq and Retuning Ordinance.
("Ordinance"). -=
Intent. This Article shall be known and may be cited as the City of Miami's ("City")Building
Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarkinq and Retuning Ordinance and is intended' to
allow a data -based approach to analyze future energy needs, improve future usages, eliminate
waste, and reduce costs.
Sec. 10-148. Definitions.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, the following terms shall, for the purpose of this Article, have
the meanings indicated in this Section:
Aggregated, Whole -Building Data means energy or water data that has been summed for an
entire property, which may include a single occupant or a group of separately metered tenants.
Base Building Systems mean the systems or subsystems of a building that use or distribute
energy, water, impact energy, and/or water consumption, including, but not limited to the
building's envelope as well as its HVAC systems, conveying systems, electrical and lighting
systems, on -site generation systems, domestic hot water systems, water distribution systems,
plumbing fixtures and other water -using equipment, and landscape irrigation systems and water
features, including fountains and excluding systems or subsystems that operate industrial
applications or processes or any systems or subsystems in a multifamily residential building
appurtenant only to the specific dwelling unit for which the occupant of that unit bears
responsibility for its maintenance and such usage is measured by a meter or submeter.
Benchmark means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for a property for
the previous calendar year and other descriptive information for such property as required by
the Benchmarkinq Tool. Total energy and water consumption shall not include separately
metered uses that are not integral to building operations as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Submission means a subset of information input into the Benchmarkinq Tool and
Benchmarking information generated by the Benchmarkinq Tool as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Tool means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA") ENERGY
STAR® Portfolio Manager, or any additional or alternative tool adopted by the Director, used to
track and assess the energy and water use of certain properties relative to similar properties.
1 Words and/or figures stricken through shall be deleted. Underscored words and/or figures shall be
added. The remaining provisions are now in effect and remain unchanged. Asterisks indicate omitted and
unchanged material.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
Covered Private Property means a property, other than a covered City property, or any property
owned or operated by Miami -Dade County, the State of Florida, or the Federal government with
a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.
Covered Public Property means a property with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000
square feet of Gross Floor Area and is owned, leased, or managed by the City and where the
City regularly pays all or part of the annual energy and/or water bills.
Covered Property means any Covered Public Property or Covered Private Property except for
any property with a single-family home or duplex, a solely residential multi -family building of five
(5) units or Tess, or any building with an industrial use per designated Standard Industrial ,
Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39. •
Department means the City's Building Department.
Director means the Director of the City's Building Department or designee. =;
172
Energy means electricity, natural gas, steam, or other product sold by a utility to a Cl stomer of a
property or renewable on -site electricity generation for purposes of providing heatinm• cooling,
lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end -uses as recorded in the
Benchmarking Tool.
ENERGY STAR® Score means the 1-100 numeric rating generated by the ENERGY STAR®
Portfolio Manager tool as a measurement of a building's energy efficiency.
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager means the tool developed and maintained by the EPA to
track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings.
Financial Hardship (of a property) means that a property:
1, Had arrears of property taxes or special assessments that resulted in the issuance of
a tax certificate against the property within the prior two (2) years;
2. Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress;
3. Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower;
4. Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or
5. Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.
Gross Floor Area means Floor Area as defined in Article I, Section 1.2 of Ordinance No. 13114,
the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended ("Miami 21 Code"), or any
successor Zoning Ordinance.
Shared Benchmarking Information means information generated by the Benchmarking Tool and
descriptive information about the physical property and its operational characteristics, which is
shared with the public. The information, as defined by the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager
glossary, includes, but is not limited to, descriptive information such as the property's address,
primary use, Gross Floor Area, number of floors, number of years the property has been
ENERGY STAR® Certified, and the last approval date, if applicable, as well as energy -related
output information such as site and source energy use intensity, weather normalized site and
source energy use intensity, the ENERGY STAR ®score, where available, total annual
greenhouse gas emissions, monthly energy use by fuel type, indoor water use and water use
intensity (consumption per gross square foot), outdoor water use (where available), total water
use, the property's ENERGY STAR® Water Score, where available, and any other general
comments required to explain said ENERGY STAR® Scores.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
System or Subsystem means a building assembly made up of various components that serve a
specific function including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors,
lighting, piping, ductwork, insulation, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning ("HVAC") system
equipment or components, electrical appliances, and plumbing appliances.
Utility means an entity that distributes and/or sells natural gas, electric, water, or thermal energy
services for buildings.
Sec. 10-149. Applicability.
This Ordinance shall apply to all new and existing Covered Properties in accordance with the
initial compliance timetable set forth in Section 10-138 of the City Code so long as the
Benchmarking Tool as selected by the Director remains free to use by members of the general
public.
f-i
Sec. 10-150. Procedures.
The owner of each Covered Property shall collect and enter data for the previousalendaryear
into the Benchmarkinq Tool. Unless otherwise defined in this Ordinance, the owner -of each.:
Covered Property shall input all data into the Benchmarking Tool in a manner that conforms to
latest guidance provided by the EPA for use of the Benchmarkinq Tool. Whole -building, utility
data for the property's energy water and energy use shall be compiled using one or more oFthe
following methods:
La) Obtaining Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from a utility company;
Collecting data from all tenants for nonresidential properties; or
(c) Reading a master meter.
If the owner of a Covered Property does not otherwise have access to whole -building energy
and water data, such property owner shall request Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from each
utility that provides energy or water service to the property and that has made aggregated utility
data available to owners before the reporting date of that calendar year. When a Utility does not
provide whole -building energy or water data, the owner of a Covered nonresidential property
shall request energy and water data from tenants or occupants.
Each non-residential tenant located in a Covered Property shall, within thirty (30) days of a
request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the Director, provide all information that
cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with the
requirements of this Ordinance.
When the owner of a Covered Property receives notice that a nonresidential tenant intends to
vacate a space within such property and the Utilities do not provide Aggregated, Whole -Building
Data, the owner shall request information relating to such tenant's energy and water use for any
period of occupancy relevant to the owner's obligation to Benchmark.
When a Covered Property changes ownership, the previous owner shall provide the new owner
with all information needed to Benchmark for the period during which the previous owner was in
possession of the property.
Sec. 10-151. Duty to Report Benchmarkinq.
For every Covered Property subject to this Chapter, the owner shall annually submit to the
Director an energy and water Benchmarkinq report in an electronic format as established by the
Director by the date specified in Section 10-152 of the City Code.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
The information included in the annual Energy and Water Benchmarkinq Report shall include, at
a minimum, the Shared Benchmarkinq Information for the previous calendar year.
The owner of each Covered Property shall enter data into the Benchmarkinq Tool such that that
the energy and water Benchmarkinq report shall be based on an assessment in the
Benchmarkinq Tool of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the whole property
for the entire calendar year being reported.
Before submitting a Benchmarking Submission, the owner shall run all automated data quality
checker functions available within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall verify that all data has been
accurately entered into the Benchmarkinq Tool. In order for the Benchmarkinq report to be
considered in compliance with this Ordinance, the owner shall correct all missing or incorrect
information as identified by the Benchmarkinq Tool prior to submitting the Benchmarkinq report
to the Director.
Where the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the Benchmarkinq
Submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner shall amend the information so reported
within the Benchmarking Tool and shall provide the Director with an updated Benchmarkinq
Submission within thirty (30) days of learning of the inaccuracy.
Sec. 10-152. Benchmarking Requirements.
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property a
Benchmarking report is generated, completed, and submitted to the Director:annually.
(b) The Benchmarking reports for each Covered Property shall be due by the dates a
defined in the following table. Subsequent Benchmarkinq reports for each Caveree
Property shall be due by June 30 of each year thereafter.
Size (Gross Floor Area)
Initial Compliance Required by:
Buildings 100,000 square feet
June 30, 2022
or larger
Buildings between 50,000 and
June 30, 2023
99,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000 and
June 30, 2024
49,999 square feet
Sec. 10-153. Benchmarkinq Exemptions.
(a) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Public Property for the current reporting
year if the owner submits documentation with the Director establishing that the property
has met one of the following conditions:
1. The property does not have a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate
of Occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being Benchmarked;
2. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being
Benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal
occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year;
3. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year
to be Benchmarked; or
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
4. The Covered Property had average physical occupancy of less than fifty percent
(50%) throughout the calendar year for which Benchmarkinq is required.
(b) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Private Property for the current reporting
year if an owner submits documentation with the Director, in such form and with such
evidence as required by the Director, establishing that the property has met one of the
following conditions:
1. It meets any of the exemptions defined for a Covered Public Property;
2. The Director determines that due to special circumstances unique to the
applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions of the
applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this Ordinance would cause undue
hardship or would not be in the public's interest;
3. The owner notifies the Director that the property is under Financial Hardship and
provides proof of the same; or
4. The Covered Property may be exempted from electricity Benchmarkmg if nkore
than fifty percent (50%) of Gross Floor Area is used for residential prroserekand:'
i. The property is not master metered or the owner does not have access to::'
master meters or other means to obtain whole -building electricity data; and
ii. The serving electric utility does not provide data aggregation services
access to whole -building utility data. Once such services are available -from the
Utility as determined by the Director, such properties will no longer be exempt
from Benchmarkinq requirements and shall file initial Benchmarking reports in the
first required reporting year following such data availability.
(b) Any entity or owner requesting an exemption from Benchmarking shall submit an Annual
Benchmarkinq Exemption Request form to the Director by April 1 in the year for which
the exemption is being requested. Any exemption granted will be limited to the
Benchmarkinq Submission for which the request was made and does not extend to past
or future submittals.
(c) For each reporting year in which an owner files a request for an exemption, the Director
shall determine whether that exemption is approved. Appeal of a determination that a
property is not exempt shall be made within fifteen (15) days of such determination to a
review committee comprised of the Director of the Departments of Resilience and Public
Works (or the Supervisor of Plats in lieu thereof), Zoning, and Planning, the Director, and
an Assistant City Manager as designated by the City Manager. The review committee,
acting by majority vote, shall either affirm the Director's denial or reverse his/her denial
and grant the requested exemption.
Sec. 10-154. Energy and Water Retuning Requirements.
(a) The owner of each Covered Property 50,000 sq. ft. or above shall ensure that retuning
is performed on the Base Building Systems of each such property in accordance with the
schedule requirements of Section 10-156 to ensure that Base Building Systems are
maintained, cleaned, and repaired.
(b) Retuning shall be performed by or under the supervision of a qualified retuning
professional in accordance with industry standard practices including ASHRAE
Guideline 1.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, ASHRAE
Standard 0.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, and other
standards as may be defined by the Director.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
(c) The owner shall correct, through low-cost adjustments and minor repairs to the
property's energy and water systems, all deficiencies identified by the retuning
professional as having a simple payback of three (3) years or less. However, a retuning
measure is not required if such retuning measure would necessitate a building permit
other than an electrical or plumbing permit.
(d) The cost estimates for recommended improvements to Covered properties that are
regulated by any City, County, State, or federal law regulating landmarks and historic
buildings shall include all additional costs necessary for the proposed retuning work to
comply with such law..
(e) Unless otherwise restricted by statute or contract, tenants shall allow property oW1 ers..:")
reasonable access to systems and Utility information, if necessary, to co ply with! the
terms of this Ordinance. ,, ,
Sec. 10-155. Energy and Water Retuning Reports.
(a) For each Covered Property, a retuning professional shall complete, physigally o�ligitally
sign, and electronically submit an on-line Retuning Report on behalf of the'mprope"r`ty
owner in accordance with the schedule requirements of Section 10-156. _ ..
(b) Before submitting the Retuning Report, the qualified retuning professional shall verify
that the energy and water consumption reported in the annual Benchmarkinq reports for
the five (5) previous years are accurate. If found to be inaccurate, the qualified
professional must identify inaccuracies in the reports and ensure that the data entered in
the Benchmarkinq Tool and reported to the Director is updated prior to submitting the
retuning report so that it reflects correct historical electricity and water consumption data.
Sec. 10-156. Retuning Schedule.
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property retuning is
performed, a retuning report is completed and submitted to the Director once every five
(5) years with a start date commencing per Table 2.
(b) The retuning reports for each Covered Property shall be due prior to December 30 of the
Calendar Year shown in Table 2 as determined by the building's square footage.
Table 2.
Size
Retuning
Buildings 350,000 square feet
December 1, 2027 and every five (5) years
or larger
thereafter
Buildings between 175,000 and
December 1, 2028 and every five (5) years
349,999 square feet
thereafter
Buildings between 100,000 and
December 1, 2029 and every five (5) years
174,999 square feet
thereafter
City of Miami
File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
Buildings between 74,000 and
99,999 square feet
December 1, 2030 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 50,000 and
74,999 square feet
December 1, 2031 and every five (5) years
thereafter
(c) An owner may apply for an extension of time to file a retuning report if despite such
owner's good faith efforts, to be documented in such application, the owner is unable to
complete the required retuning prior to the scheduled due date for such report. The
Director may grant no more than one (1) such extension for no more than one (1) year.
(d) The owner of a property that is in Financial Hardship may apply for and be granted
annual extensions of time to file a retuning report.
(e) Extensions granted pursuant to this Section shall not extend the scheduled due dates for
subsequent retuning reports. The property owner acknowledges that by requesting and
receiving an extension the period of time before the property's next compliances date will
be less than the typical schedule.
Sec. 10-157. Retuning Exemption.
(a) A retuning report is not required for a Covered Property for the current reporting cycle if
a qualified professional submits documentation to the Department in such firm andwith
such certifications as required by the Director establishing that the property has mat one
(1) of the following conditions:
1. The property is exempt from Benchmarkinq requirements pursuant t,ther,-.
provisions of Section 8.
2. The initial Certificate of Occupancy for the property was issued less than five (5)
years prior to the date when the first retuning would otherwise be due.
3. The property has undergone substantial rehabilitation, as certified by a registered
design professional, within the five-year period prior to the Calendar Year in
which a retuning is due such that at the commencement of such Calendar Year,
all of the Base Building Systems of such property are in compliance with energy
conservation and efficiency codes of the State, County, and City as applicable,
and any State, County, and City Codes impacting water consumption in
existence at the time this Ordinance takes effect.
(b) The energy portion of the retuning is not required for the current reporting cycle if a
qualified professional submits documentation with the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director. For each reporting cycle, the Department
shall determine whether an exemption under this Subsection applies to a property.
Appeal of a determination that a property is not exempt shall be made according to the
procedures set forth by the Director.
Sec. 10-158. Sharing of Data.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website the Shared
Benchmarkinq Information as defined in Section. 10-148 for the previous Calendar Year
for each Covered Property.
(b) The Shared Benchmarkinq Information for each Covered Property shall be made
available to the public beginning one (1) year after each such property is first required to
submit a Benchmarking report.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
(c) The Director will determine if any Benchmarkinq shared summary data shall be
excluded from publishing because it is not in the public interest.
(d) The City may provide non-anonymized data from Benchmarkinq or Retuning
submissions to any Utility serving a Covered Property or to any federal, State, County, or
City -managed Energy efficiency program, provided that the data will be used only for
purposes of targeting incentives provided through energy and water efficiency programs
and provided that the City has first obtained the Covered Property owner's written or
electronic permission to share the data with the Utility or energy efficiency program.
Where the property owner's permission can be granted electronically through
acceptance of a default option, the City shall provide a clearly delineated option for
owners of Covered Properties to choose to opt out of granting this permission.
(e) The City may disclose any retuning data or data from Benchmarkinq Submissions to a
third party for academic or other non-commercial research purposes provided that such
data is anonymized.
(f) All third parties receiving data from Benchmarkinq or Retuning submissions shall sign a
non -disclosure agreement with the City stipulating terms for acceptable use of the data,
including assurances that such data shall not be disclosed to other entities, before
receiving such data.
Sec. 10-159. Annual Report and Analysis.
x
)
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website and updat`e'annueily
the following information:
1. No later than December 1, 2022, a report on the Benchmarkinq of all --available,
Covered Properties, including an assessment of accuracy and issues. affect
accuracy, summary energy and water consumption statistics, trends observed;
and an assessment of changes across the portfolio over time; and
2. No later than December 1, 2023, a report on the Benchmarkinq of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of compliance rates, an
assessment of accuracy and issues affecting accuracy, summary energy and
water consumption statistics, trends observed, and an assessment of changes
across the portfolio over time.
(b) Beginning in 2027 and every three (3) years thereafter, the Director shall make available
on a publicly accessible website a report on the progress of retuning for all Covered
Properties, including but not limited to, compliance rates, trends observed, correlations
of Benchmarking scores and retuning measures completed, the impact of retuning on
EUIs and ENERGY STAR® Scores, and recommendations on how the uptake of energy
and water conservation measures could be increased or the implementation of retuning
could be improved.
(c) Nothing in this Ordinance shall prevent the Director from including all such information in
a combined annual energy and water efficiency report covering the progress of all of the
City's energy and water efficiency ordinances and programs.
Sec. 10-160. Enforcement.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any entity or person to fail to comply with the requirements of this
Ordinance or misrepresent any material fact in a document required to be prepared or
shared by this Ordinance.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
(b) If the Director determines that a property owner has failed to report Benchmarkinq
information as required under this Ordinance or the owner has submitted incomplete or
false Benchmarkinq information, the Director may refer the owner for enforcement as set
forth in Chapter 2, Article X of the City Code, titled "Code Enforcement," and may be
brought for further proceedings before the Code Enforcement Board. A property owner
in violation of this Article may be fined $250.00 per day for a first-time offense or $500.00
per day for a repeat violation of this Article. The City may also avail itself of any other
legal remedy available and the use of one enforcement option shall not preclude the use
of another."
Section 5. If any section, part of a section, paragraph, clause, phrase, or word of this
Ordinance is declared invalid, the remaining provisions of this Ordinance shall not be affected.
Section 6. This Ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and
signature of the Mayor.2
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS:
F
2 This Ordinance shall become effective as specified herein unless vetoed by the Mayor within ten (10)
days from the date it was passed and adopted. If the Mayor vetoes this Ordinance, it shall become
effective immediately upon override of the veto by the City Commission or upon the effective date stated
therein. whichever is later.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: A) Printed On: 4/14/2021
City of Miami
Legislation
Ordinance
File Number: 8727 Final Action Date:
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER 10 OF
THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED
"BUILDINGS," TO ADD A NEW ARTICLE XII, TITLED "BUILDING ENERGY AND
WATER CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING", REQUIRING BUILDINGS OVER 20,000
SQUARE FEET OF GROSS FLOOR AREA TO PERFORM AND REPORT ANNUAL
ENERGY AND WATER BENCHMARKING TO THE CITY OF MIAMI; PROVIDING FOR
EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN BUILDING TYPES; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY
CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE.
WHEREAS, the City of Miami ("City") desires to raise awareness of energy performance
through information and transparency with a goal of unlocking energy and cost savings
opportunities and health benefits for the City's businesses and residents; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking of energy and water consumption is part of committed
actions in the Resilient305 Unified Strategy with Miami -Dade County and the City of Miami
Beach as well as in the City's Miami Forever Climate Ready strategy which was launched
in January 2020; and
WHEREAS, the City's 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory revealed fifty-two
percent (52%) of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings; and
WHEREAS, a relatively small number of large buildings often account for a
considerable portion of a city's energy use; and
WHEREAS, annual benchmarking of energy and water consumption helpildirg:;
owners, property managers, and facilities' staff establish energy performance baslines,
monitor performance over time, guide actions to cut waste, and verify energy and water .
savings from investments as well as mitigates carbon emissions; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking data provides summary information about public iand
private buildings, documenting trends in energy and water performance; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking allows for a data -based approach to analyzing future
energy needs, where improvements can be made, and how to reduce costs; and
WHEREAS, more than thirty (30) major United States cities and counties, including New
York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boulder, and Kansas City, have adopted similar requirements, thus
demonstrating the acceptability, legality, and feasibility of such requirements;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA:
Section 1. The recitals and findings contained in the Preamble to this Ordinance are
adopted by reference and incorporated as if fully set forth in this Section.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
Section 2. Chapter 10 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, is further
amended in the following particulars.'
"CHAPTER 10
BUILDINGS
ARTICLE XII. BUILDING ENERGY AND WATER
CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING AND RETUNING
Sec. 10-147. Building Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarking and Retuning:Ordinances;
Intent. This Article shall be known and may be cited as the City of Miami's ("City" )-�Bu.ildir �=
Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarkinq and Retuning Ordinance and is intended ti,-
allow a data -based approach to analyze future energy needs, improve future usages, eliminate
waste, and reduce costs.
Sec. 10-148. Definitions.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, the following terms shall, for the purpose of this Article, have
the meanings indicated in this Section:
Aggregated, Whole -Building Data means energy or water data that has been summed for an
entire property, which may include a single occupant or a group of separately metered tenants.
Base Building Systems mean the systems or subsystems of a building that use or distribute
energy, water, impact energy, and/or water consumption, including, but not limited to the
building's envelope as well as its HVAC systems, conveying systems, electrical and lighting
systems, on -site generation systems, domestic hot water systems, water distribution systems,
plumbing fixtures and other water -using equipment, and landscape irrigation systems and water
features, including fountains and excluding systems or subsystems that operate industrial
applications or processes or any systems or subsystems in a multifamily residential building
appurtenant only to the specific dwelling unit for which the occupant of that unit bears
responsibility for its maintenance and such usage is measured by a meter or submeter.
Benchmark means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for a property for
the previous calendar year and other descriptive information for such property as required by
the Benchmarkinq Tool. Total energy and water consumption shall not include separately
metered uses that are not integral to building operations as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Submission means a subset of information input into the Benchmarkinq Tool and
Benchmarkinq information generated by the Benchmarkinq Tool as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Tool means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA") ENERGY
STAR® Portfolio Manager or any additional or alternative tool adopted by the Director used to
track and assess the energy and water use of certain properties relative to similar properties.
1 Words and/or figures stricken through shall be deleted. Underscored words and/or figures shall be
added. The remaining provisions are now in effect and remain unchanged. Asterisks indicate omitted and
unchanaed material.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
Covered Private Property means a property, other than a covered City property, or any property
owned or operated by Miami -Dade County, the State of Florida, or the Federal government with
a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.
Covered Public Property means a property with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000
square feet of Gross Floor Area and is owned, leased, or managed by the City and where the
City regularly pays all or part of the annual energy and/or water bills.
Covered Property means any Covered Public Property or Covered Private Property except for
any property with a single-family home or duplex, a solely residential multi -family building of five
(5) units or less, or any building with an industrial use per designated Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39.
Department means the City's Building Department.
Director means the Director of the Department or designee.
t_
Energy means electricity, natural gas, steam, or other product sold by a utility to;a customer of
property or renewable on -site electricity generation for purposes of providing hetinq,
lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end -uses as recorded in the; <°
Benchmarking Tool.
ENERGY STAR® Score means the 1-100 numeric rating generated by the ENERGY STAR®
Portfolio Manager tool as a measurement of a building's energy efficiency.
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager means the tool developed and maintained by the EPA to
track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings.
Financial Hardship (of a property) means that a property:
1, Had arrears of property taxes or special assessments that resulted in the issuance of
a tax certificate against the property within the prior two (2) years;
2. Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress;
3. Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower;
4. Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or
5. Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.
Gross Floor Area means Floor Area as defined in Article I, Section 1.2 of Ordinance No. 13114,
the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended ("Miami 21 Code"), or as
defined in any successor Zoning Ordinance.
Shared Benchmarking Information means information generated by the Benchmarking Tool and
descriptive information about the physical property and its operational characteristics, which is
shared with the public. The information, as defined by the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager
glossary, includes, but is not limited to, descriptive information such as the property's address,
primary use, Gross Floor Area, number of floors, number of years the property has been
ENERGY STAR® Certified, and the last approval date, if applicable, as well as energy -related
output information such as site and source energy use intensity, weather normalized site and
source energy use intensity, the ENERGY STAR ®score (where available), total annual
greenhouse gas emissions, monthly energy use by fuel type, indoor water use and water use
intensity (consumption per gross square foot), outdoor water use (where available), total water
use, the property's ENERGY STAR® Water Score (where available), and any other general
comments required to explain said ENERGY STAR® Scores.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
System or Subsystem means a building assembly made up of various components that serve a
specific function including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors,
lighting, piping, ductwork, insulation, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning ("HVAC") system
equipment or components, electrical appliances, and plumbing appliances.
Utility means an entity that distributes and/or sells natural gas, electric, water, or thermal energy
services for buildings.
Sec. 10-149. Applicability.
This Ordinance shall apply to all new and existing Covered Properties in accordance with the
initial compliance timetable set forth in Section 10-138 of the City Code so long as the
Benchmarking Tool as selected by the Director remains free to use by members of the general
public.
Sec. 10-150. Procedures.
The owner of each Covered Property shall collect and enter data for the previous calendar year
into the Benchmarkinq Tool. Unless otherwise defined in this Ordinance, the owner of each
Covered Property shall input all data into the Benchmarkinq Tool in a manner that conforms to
latest guidance provided by the EPA for use of the Benchmarkinq Tool. Whole -building utility
data for the property's energy water and energy use shall be compiled using one or more of the
following methods: r
Obtaining Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from a utility company;
(b) Collecting data from all tenants for nonresidential properties; or
(c) Reading a master meter.
If the owner of a Covered Property does not otherwise have access to whole-buildingenergy
and water data, such property owner shall request Aggregated, Whole -Building DataItom :each
utility that provides energy or water service to the property and that has made aggreq'atted utility
data available to owners before the reporting date of that calendar year. When a Utility does not
provide whole -building energy or water data, the owner of a nonresidential Covered Property
shall request energy and water data from tenants or occupants.
Each non-residential tenant located in a Covered Property shall, within thirty (30) days of a
request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the Director, provide all information that
cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with the
requirements of this Ordinance.
When the owner of a Covered Property receives notice that a nonresidential tenant intends to
vacate a space within such property and the Utilities do not provide Aggregated, Whole -Building
Data, the owner shall request information relating to such tenant's energy and water use for any
period of occupancy relevant to the owner's obligation to Benchmark.
When a Covered Property changes ownership, the previous owner shall provide the new owner
with all information needed to Benchmark for the period during which the previous owner was in
possession of the property.
Sec. 10-151. Duty to Report Benchmarking.
For every Covered Property subject to this Chapter, the owner shall annually submit to the
Director an energy and water Benchmarkinq report in an electronic format as established by the
Director by the date specified in Section 10-152 of the City Code.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
The information included in the annual Energy and Water Benchmarkinq Report shall include, at
a minimum, the Shared Benchmarkinq Information for the previous calendar year.
The owner of each Covered Property shall enter data into the Benchmarkinq Tool so that the
energy and water Benchmarkinq report shall be based on an assessment in the Benchmarkinq
Tool of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the whole property for the entire
calendar year being reported.
Before submitting a Benchmarking Submission, the owner shall run all automated data quality
checker functions available within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall verify that all data has been
accurately entered into the Benchmarkinq Tool. In order for the Benchmarkinq report to be
considered in compliance with this Ordinance, the owner shall correct all missing or incorrect
information as identified by the Benchmarkinq Tool prior to submitting the Benchmarkinq report
to the Director.
Where the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the Benchmarkinq
Submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner shall amend the information so reported
within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall provide the Director with an updated Benchmarkinq
Submission within thirty (30) days of learning of the inaccuracy.
Sec. 10-152. Benchmarking Requirements.
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property
Benchmarkinq report is generated, completed, and submitted to the Director.anr)JJAlly.'
:' �t7,
(b) The Benchmarking reports for each Covered Property shall be due by the dates a,
defined in the following table. Subsequent Benchmarkinq reports for each<Ccvered'
Property shall be due by June 30 of each year thereafter.
Table 1.
Size (Gross Floor Area)
Initial Compliance Required by:
Buildings 200,000 square
June 30, 2023
feet or larger
Buildings between 100,000
October 1, 2023
square feet and 199,999
s• uare feet
Buildings between 50,000
October 1, 2024
and 99,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000
October 1, 2025
and 49,999 square feet
Sec. 10-153. Benchmarkinq Exemptions.
(a) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Public Property for the current reporting
year if the owner submits documentation to the Director establishing that the property
has met one of the following conditions:
1. The property does not have a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate
of Occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being Benchmarked;
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: 8) Printed On: 5/19/2021
2. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being
Benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal
occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year;
3. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year
to be Benchmarked; or
4. The Covered Property had average physical occupancy of Tess than fifty percent
(50%) throughout the calendar year for which Benchmarkinq is required.
(b) Benchmarking is not required for a Covered Private Property for the current reporting
year if an owner submits documentation with the Director in such form and with such
evidence as required by the Director establishing that the property has met one of the
following conditions:
1. It meets any of the exemptions defined for a Covered Public Property; __
2. The Director determines that due to special circumstances unique to the
applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions Of,the --s
applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this Ordinance would,qaus6qinda4
hardship or would not be in the public's best interest;
3. The owner notifies the Director that the property is under FinanciaRlardship and -
provides proof of the same; or
4. The Covered Property may be exempted from electricity Benchmarkrnnq if rnpre
than fifty percent (50%) of Gross Floor Area is used for residential purposes" andk
iND
i. The property is not master metered or the owner does not have accs.as to
master meters or other means to obtain whole -building electricity data; and
ii. The serving electric utility does not provide data aggregation services or
access to whole -building utility data. Once such services are available from the
Utility as determined by the Director, such properties will no longer be exempt
from Benchmarkinq requirements and shall file initial Benchmarking reports in the
first required reporting year following such data availability.
5. If over 25% of the dwelling units within the property qualify as affordable housing,
the property owner or representative may request an exemption.
(b) Any entity or owner requesting an exemption from Benchmarking shall submit an Annual
Benchmarkinq Exemption Request form to the Director by April 1 in the year for which
the exemption is being requested. Any exemption granted will be limited to the
Benchmarkinq Submission for which the request was made and does not extend to past
or future submittals.
(c) For each reporting year in which an owner files a request for an exemption, the Director
shall determine whether that exemption is approved. Appeal of a determination that a
property is not exempt shall be made within fifteen (15) days of such determination to a
review committee comprised of the Director of the Departments of Resilience and Public
Works (or the Supervisor of Plats in lieu thereof), Zoning, and Planning, the Director, and
an Assistant City Manager as designated by the City Manager. The review committee,
acting, by majority vote, shall either affirm the Director's denial or reverse his/her denial
and grant the requested exemption.
Sec. 10-154. Energy and Water Retuning Requirements.
(a) The owner of each Covered Property 50,000 sq. ft. or above shall ensure that retuning
is performed on the Base Building Systems of each such property in accordance with the
schedule requirements of Section 10-156 to ensure that Base Building Systems are
maintained, cleaned, and repaired.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
(b) Retuning shall be performed by or under the supervision of a qualified retuning
professional in accordance with industry standard practices including ASHRAE
Guideline 1.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, ASHRAE
Standard 0.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, and other
standards as may be defined by the Director.
(c) The owner shall correct, through low-cost adiustments and minor repairs to the
property's energy and water systems, all deficiencies identified by the retuning
professional as having a simple payback of three (3) years or less. However, a retuning
measure is not required if such retuning measure would necessitate a building permit
other than an electrical or plumbing permit.
(d) The cost estimates for recommended improvements to Covered Properties that are
regulated by any City, County, State, or federal law regulating landmarks and historic
buildings shall include all additional costs necessary for the proposed retuning work to
comply with such law.
(e) Unless otherwise restricted by statute or contract, tenants shall allow property owners ,
reasonable access to systems and Utility information, if necessary, to cod* with he
terms of this Ordinance. ".
Sec. 10-155. Energy and Water Retuning Reports.
(a) For each Covered Property, a retuning professional shall complete, physicat Y,,or digitally
sign, and electronically submit an on-line Retuning Report on behalf of the proerty v.-,
owner in accordance with the schedule requirements of Section 10-156.
(b) Before submitting the Retuning Report, the qualified retuning professional shall verify
that the energy and water consumption reported in the annual Benchmarkinq reports for
the five (5) previous years are accurate. If found to be inaccurate, the qualified
professional must identify inaccuracies in the reports and ensure that the data entered in
the Benchmarkinq Tool and reported to the Director is updated prior to submitting the
retuning report so that it reflects correct historical electricity and water consumption data.
Sec. 10-156. Retuning Schedule.
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property retuning is
performed, a retuning report is completed and submitted to the Director once every five
(5) years with a start date commencing per Table 2.
(b) The retuning reports for each Covered Property shall be due prior to December 30 of the
Calendar Year shown in Table 2 as determined by the building's square footage.
Table 2.
Size
Retuning
Buildings 200,000 square
December 1, 2028 and every five (5) years
feet or larger
thereafter
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
Buildings between 100,000
and 199,000 square feet
December 1, 2029 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 50,000
99,999 square feet
December 1, 2030 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 20,000
and 49,999 square feet
Optional
(c) An owner may apply for an extension of time to file a retuning report if, despite such
owner's good faith efforts documented in such application, the owner is unable to
complete the required retuning prior to the scheduled due date for such report. The
Director may grant no more than one (1) such extension for no more than one (1) year.
(d) The owner of a property that is in Financial Hardship may apply for and be granted
annual extensions of time to file a retuning report.
(e) Extensions granted pursuant to this Section shall not extend the scheduled due dates for
subsequent retuning reports. The property owner acknowledges that by requesting and
receiving an extension, the period of time before the property's next compliance date will
be Tess than the typical schedule.
Sec. 10-157. Retuning Exemption.
(a) A retuning report is not required for a Covered Property for the current reporting cYdle if --
a qualified professional submits documentation to the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director establishing that the propertAas met' one
(1) of the following conditions: "'
k l
1. The property is exempt from Benchmarkinq requirements pursuant toEthe
provisions of Section 10-153.
2. The initial Certificate of Occupancy for the property was issued less than five (5)
years prior to the date when the first retuning would otherwise be due.
3. The property has undergone substantial rehabilitation, as certified by a registered
design professional, within the five-year period prior to the Calendar Year in
which a retuning is due such that at the commencement of such Calendar Year,
all of the Base Building Systems of such property are in compliance with energy
conservation and efficiency codes of the State, County, and City as applicable,
and any State, County, and City Codes impacting water consumption in
existence at the time this Ordinance takes effect.
(b) The energy portion of the retuning is not required for the current reporting cycle if a
qualified professional submits documentation with the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director. For each reporting cycle, the Department
shall determine whether an exemption under this Subsection applies to a property.
Appeal of a determination that a property is not exempt shall be made according to the
procedures set forth by the Director.
Sec. 10-158— Permit Fee Credit
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
a. All Covered Properties that are in good standing with submitting Benchmarkinq
Submissions, retuning reports, and have not been found in violation of either
Benchmarkinq Submissions as required by Section 10-152 or retuning reporting as
required by Section 10-155 within the past five (5) calendar nears shall be granted a
maximum one-time credit per building, up to the amount provided in Table 3, for permit
fees related to direct costs incurred for Benchmarkinq or retuning purposes pursuant to
this Chapter. A property that has been found to have any code violations shall not
qualify.
Table 3.
Size
Maximum Credit of Building -Efficiency Related
Permit Fees
Buildings 500,000 square or
Up to $25,000.00
larger
Buildings between 100,000 and
$10,000.00
,-
y S.w
499,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000 and
$5,000.00
i+,
-0
99,999 square feet
Sec. 10-159. Sharing of Data.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website the Shared
Benchmarkinq Information as defined in Section 10-148 for the previous Calendar Year
for each Covered Property.
(b) The Shared Benchmarkinq Information for each Covered Property shall be made
available to the public beginning one (1) year after each such property is first required to
submit a Benchmarkinq report.
(c) The Director will determine if any Benchmarkinq shared summary data shall be
excluded from publishing because it is not in the public's best interest.
(d) The City may provide non-anonymized data from Benchmarkinq or retuning submissions
to any Utility serving a Covered Property or to any federal, State, County, or City -
managed Energy efficiency program, provided that the data will be used only for
purposes of targeting incentives provided through energy and water efficiency programs
and provided that the City has first obtained the Covered Property owner's written or
electronic permission to share the data with the Utility or energy efficiency program.
Where the property owner's permission can be granted electronically through
acceptance of a default option, the City shall provide a clearly delineated option for
owners of Covered Properties to choose to opt out of granting such permission.
(e) The City may disclose any retuning data or data from Benchmarkinq Submissions to a
third party for academic or other non-commercial research purposes provided that such
data is anonymized.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: 8) Printed On: 5/19/2021
(f) All third parties receiving data from Benchmarkinq or retuning submissions shall sign a
non -disclosure agreement with the City stipulating terms for acceptable use of the data,
including assurances that such data shall not be disclosed to other entities, before
receiving such data.
Sec. 10-160. Annual Report and Analysis.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website and update annually
the following information:
1 No later than December 1, 2023, a report on the Benchmarkinq of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of accuracy and issues affecting
accuracy, summary energy and water consumption statistics, trends observed,
and an assessment of changes across the portfolio over time; and
2. No later than December 1, 2024, a report on the Benchmarkinq of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of compliance rates, an
assessment of accuracy and issues affecting accuracy, summary energy and
water consumption statistics, trends observed, and an assessment of changes
across the portfolio over time.
(b) Beginning in 2029 and every three (3) years thereafter, the Director shall make available
on a publicly accessible website a report on the progress of retuning for all Covered
Properties, including but not limited to, compliance rates, trends observed, correlations
of Benchmarkinq scores and retuning measures completed, the impact of retuning on
EUIs and ENERGY STAR® Scores, and recommendations on how the uptake of energy
and water conservation measures could be increased or the implementation o-retuninq
could be improved. _
(c) Nothing in this Ordinance shall prevent the Director from including all such rriformation in
a combined annual energy and water efficiency report covering the progreS, of all .Qf. the
City's energy and water efficiency ordinances and programs.
Sec. 10-161. Enforcement.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any entity or person to fail to comply with the requirer:ri'ents if this
Ordinance or misrepresent any material fact in a document required to be prepared or
shared by this Ordinance.
(b) If the Director determines that a property owner has failed to report Benchmarkinq
information as required under this Ordinance or the owner has submitted incomplete or
false Benchmarkinq information, the Director may refer the owner for enforcement as set
forth in Chapter 2, Article X of the City Code, titled "Code Enforcement," and may be
brought for further proceedings before the Code Enforcement Board. A property owner
in violation of this Article may be fined $250.00 per day for a first-time offense or $500.00
per day for a repeat violation of this Article. The City may also avail itself of any other
legal remedy available and the use of one enforcement option shall not preclude the use
of another.
(c) No violation shall be issued for non-compliance or failure to submit to the Director a
Benchmarkinq report until one year from the first compliance date for Benchmarkinq
reports as defined in Section 10-152."
Section 5. If any section, part of a section, paragraph, clause, phrase, or word of this
Ordinance is declared invalid, the remaining provisions of this Ordinance shall not be affected.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
Section 6. This Ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and
signature of the Mayor.'
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS:
2 This Ordinance shall become effective as specified herein unless vetoed by the Mayor within ten (10)
days from the date it was passed and adopted. If the Mayor vetoes this Ordinance, it shall become
effective immediately upon override of the veto by the City Commission or upon the effective date stated
therein. whichever is later.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: B) Printed On: 5/19/2021
City of Miami
Legislation
Ordinance: 14005
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
www.miamigov.com
File Number: 8727
Final Action Date: 6/10/2021
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER
10 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED
"BUILDINGS," TO ADD A NEW ARTICLE XII, TITLED "BUILDING ENERGY
AND WATER CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING", REQUIRING BUILDINGS
OVER 20,000 SQUARE FEET OF GROSS FLOOR AREA TO PERFORM AND
REPORT ANNUAL ENERGY AND WATER BENCHMARKING TO THE CITY OF
MIAMI; PROVIDING FOR EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN BUILDING TYPES;
CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR A,I
IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE.
SPONSOR(S): Commissioner Ken Russell
f,.,.7)
WHEREAS, the City of Miami ("City") desires to raise awareness of energy pprforrrlance
through information and transparency with a goal of unlocking energy and cost savings
opportunities and health benefits for the City's businesses and residents; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking of energy and water consumption is part of committed
actions in the Resilient305 Unified Strategy with Miami -Dade County and the City of Mimi
Beach as well as in the City's Miami Forever Climate Ready strategy which was launched
in January 2020; and
WHEREAS, the City's 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory revealed fifty-two
percent (52%) of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings; and
WHEREAS, a relatively small number of large buildings often account for a
considerable portion of a city's energy use; and
WHEREAS, annual benchmarking of energy and water consumption helps building
owners, property managers, and facilities' staff establish energy performance baselines,
monitor performance over time, guide actions to cut waste, verify energy and water
savings from investments, and mitigate carbon emissions; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking data provides summary information about public and
private buildings, documenting trends in energy and water performance; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking allows for a data -based approach to analyzing future
energy needs, where improvements can be made, and how to reduce costs; and
WHEREAS, more than thirty (30) major United States cities and counties, including New
York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boulder, and Kansas. City, have adopted similar requirements, thus
demonstrating the acceptability, legality, and feasibility of such requirements;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA:
City of Miami Page 1 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed On: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727
Enactment Number: 14006
Section 1. The recitals and findings contained in the Preamble to this Ordinance are
adopted by reference and incorporated as if fully set forth in this Section.
Section 2. Chapter 10 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, is further
amended in the following particulars.'
"CHAPTER 10
BUILDINGS
ARTICLE XII. BUILDING ENERGY AND WATER
CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING AND RETUNING
Sec. 10-147. Building Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarking and RetuninQ.Ord!'nance..
Intent. This Article shall be known and may be cited as the City of Miami's ("City uildiq
Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarking and Retuning Ordinance and is intended t. -
allow a data -based approach to analyze future energy needs, improve future usacres eliminate
waste, and reduce costs.
Sec. 10-148. Definitions.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, the following terms shall, for the purpose of this Article, have
the meanings indicated in this Section:
Aggregated, Whole -Building Data means energy or water data that has been summed for an
entire property, which may include a single occupant or a group of separately metered tenants.
Base Building Systems mean the systems or subsystems of a building that use or distribute
energy, water, impact energy, and/or water consumption, including, but not limited to the
building's envelope as well as its HVAC systems, conveying systems, electrical and lighting
systems, on -site generation systems, domestic hot water systems, water distribution systems,
plumbing fixtures and other water -using equipment, and landscape irrigation systems and water
features, including fountains and excluding systems or subsystems that operate industrial
applications or processes or any systems or subsystems in a multifamily residential building
appurtenant only to the specific dwelling unit for which the occupant of that unit bears
responsibility for its maintenance and such usage is measured by a meter or submeter.
Benchmark means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for a property for
the previous calendar year and other descriptive information for such property as required by
the Benchmarking Tool. Total energy and water consumption shall not include separately
metered uses that are not integral to building operations as determined by the Director.
Benchmarking Submission means a subset of information input into the Benchmarking Tool and
Benchmarking information generated by the Benchmarking Tool as determined by the Director.
1 Words and/or figures stricken through shall be deleted. Underscored words and/or figures shall be
added. The remaining provisions are now in effect and remain unchanged. Asterisks indicate omitted and
unchanged material.
City of Miami Page 2 of 11 Fite ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
Benchmarkinq Tool means the United States Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA")
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager or any additional or alternative tool adopted by the Director
used to track and assess the energy and water use of certain properties relative to similar
properties.
Covered Private Property means a property, other than a covered City property, or any property
owned or operated by Miami -Dade County, the State of Florida, or the Federal government with
a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.
Covered Public Property means a property with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000
square feet of Gross Floor Area and is owned, leased, or managed by the City and where the
City regularly pays all or part of the annual energy and/or water bills.
Covered Property means any Covered Public Property or Covered Private Property except for
any property with a single-family home or duplex, a solely residential multi -family building of five
(5) units or less, or any building with an industrial use per designated Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39.
Department means the City's Building Department.
Director means the Director of the Department or designee.
Energy means electricity, natural gas, steam, or other product sold by a utility to a customer of a
property or renewable on -site electricity generation for purposes of providing heating', cooling,
lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end -uses as recorded in theca ,-
Benchmarkinq Tool.`''
ENERGY STAR® Score means the 1-100 numeric rating generated by the ENERGY SLAB®
Portfolio Manager tool as a measurement of a building's energy efficiency.
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager means the tool developed and maintained b .the ERA to
track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings. r--
Financial Hardship (of a property) means that a property:
1, Had arrears of property taxes or special assessments that resulted in the issuance of
a tax certificate against the property within the prior two (2) years;
2. Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress;
3. Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower;,
4. Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or
5. Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.
Gross Floor Area means Floor Area as defined in Article I, Section 1.2 of Ordinance No. 13114,
the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended ("Miami 21 Code"), or as
defined in any successor Zoning Ordinance.
Shared Benchmarking Information means information generated by the Benchmarkinq Tool and
descriptive information about the physical property and its operational characteristics, which is
shared with the public. The information as defined by the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager
glossary, includes, but is not limited to, descriptive information such as the property's address,
primary use, Gross Floor Area, number of floors, number of years the property has been
City of Miami Page 3 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
ENERGY STAR® Certified, the last approval date, if applicable, and energy -related output
information such as site and source energy use intensity, weather normalized site and source
energy use intensity, the ENERGY STAR ®score (where available), total annual greenhouse
gas emissions, monthly energy use by fuel type, indoor water use and water use intensity
(consumption per gross square foot), outdoor water use (where available), total water use, the
property's ENERGY STAR® Water Score (where available), and any other general comments
required to explain said ENERGY STAR® Scores.
System or Subsystem means a building assembly made up of various components that serve a
specific function including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors,
lighting, piping, ductwork, insulation, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning ("HVAC") system
equipment or components, electrical appliances, and plumbing appliances.
Utility means an entity that distributes and/or sells natural gas, electric, water, or thermal energy
services for buildings.
0=.1497Applicability.
This` Or"dina"n"ce`shall"'apply to all "new`and existing] Covered Properties in accordance `with the;
(initial Tcorpliance Itimetable -set forth 1.ni7Section 4041337,0flhoCitsrC`ode so` long" as the
BenchmarkingToolasrselected -by the DirectorWrerrmains free to°use=.by members =of the general
public.
Sec. 10-150. Procedures.
CO
The owner of each Covered Property shall collect and enter data for the previous care dar,year
into the Benchmarking Tool. Unless otherwise defined in this Ordinance, the owner "df'each
Covered Property shall input all data into the Benchmarking Tool in a manner that ccrforms.to
latest guidance provided by the EPA for use of the Benchmarking Tool. Whole-building'-utility.-1
data for the property's energy water and energy use shall be compiled using one or more of the
following methods:
(1) Obtaining Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from a utility company;
(2) Collecting data from all tenants for nonresidential properties; or
(3) Reading a master meter.
If the owner of a Covered Property does not otherwise have access to whole -building energy
and water data, such property owner shall request Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from each
utility that provides energy or water service to the property and that has made aggregated utility
data available to owners before the reporting date of that calendar year. When a Utility does not
provide whole -building energy or water data, the owner of a nonresidential Covered Property
shall request energy and water data from tenants or occupants.
Each non-residential tenant located in a Covered Property shall, within thirty (30) days of a
request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the Director, provide all information that
cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with the
requirements of this Ordinance.
When the owner of a Covered Property receives notice that a nonresidential tenant intends to
vacate a space within such property and the Utilities do not provide Aggregated, Whole -Building
Data, the owner shall request information relating to such tenant's energy and water use for any
period of occupancy relevant to the owner's obligation to Benchmark.
City of Miami Page 4 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
When a Covered Property changes ownership, the previous owner shall provide the new owner
with all information needed to Benchmark for the period during which the previous owner was in
possession of the property.
Sec. 10-151. Duty to Report Benchmarkinq.
There shall be no City fees associated with the submission of Benchmarkinq reports or retuning
reports. For every Covered Property subject to this Chapter, the owner shall annually submit to
the Director an energy and water Benchmarkinq report in an electronic format as established by
the Director by the date specified in Section 10-152 of the City Code.
The information included in the annual Energy and Water Benchmarkinq Report shall include, at
a minimum, the Shared Benchmarkinq Information for the previous calendar year.
The owner of each Covered Property shall enter data into the Benchmarkinq Tool so that the
energy and water Benchmarkinq report shall be based on an assessment in the Benchmarkinq
Tool of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the whole property for the entire
calendar year being reported.
Before submitting a Benchmarkinq Submission, the owner shall run all automated data quality
checker functions available within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall verify that all data has been
accurately entered into the Benchmarkinq Tool. In order for the Benchmarkinq report to be
considered in compliance with this Ordinance, the owner shall correct all missing or incorrect
information as identified by the Benchmarkinq Tool prior to submitting the Benchma1kinq'report
to the Director.
>
Where the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the Bench`r iOrking
Submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner shall amend the information so reporter
within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall provide the Director with an updated Bencltmarkinq r,
Submission within thirty (30) days of learning of the inaccuracy.
Sec. 10-152. Benchmarkinq Requirements.
1. The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property, a
Benchmarkinq report is generated, completed, and submitted to the Director annually.
2. The Benchmarkinq reports for each Covered Property shall be due by the dates as
defined in the following table. Subsequent Benchmarking reports for each Covered
Property shall be due by June 30 of each year thereafter.
Table 1.
Size (Gross Floor Area)
Initial Compliance Required by:
Buildings 200,000 square
June 30, 2023
feet or larger
Buildings between 100,000
October 1, 2023
square feet and 199,999
square feet
City of Miami Page 5 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727
Enactment Number: 14005
Buildings between 50,000
and 99,999 square feet
October 1, 2024
Buildings between 20,000
and 49,999 square feet
October 1, 2025
Sec. 10-153. Benchmarkinq Exemptions.
(a) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Public Property for the current reporting
year if the owner submits documentation to the Director establishing that the property
has met one of the following conditions:
1. The property does not have a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate
of Occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being Benchmarked;
2. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being
Benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal
occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year;
3. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year
to be Benchmarked; or
4. The Covered Property had average physical occupancy of less than fifty4erceht ,
(50%) throughout the calendar year for which Benchmarkinq is reqplred
(b) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Private Property for the currefl`t reporting
year if an owner submits documentation with the Director in such form anal;Vvith such
evidence as required by the Director establishing that the property has mil: one o the
following conditions: m'
1. It meets any of the exemptions defined for a Covered Public Property,;,
2. The Director determines that due to special circumstances unique to the
applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions of the
applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this Ordinance would cause undue
hardship or would not be in the public's best interest;
3. The owner notifies the Director that the property is under Financial Hardship and
provides proof of the same; or
4. The Covered Property may be exempted from electricity Benchmarkinq if more
than fifty percent (50%) of Gross Floor Area is used for residential purposes and:
i. The property is not master metered or the owner does not have access to
master meters or other means to obtain whole -building electricity data; and
ii. The serving electric utility does not provide data aggregation services or
access to whole -building utility data. Once such services are available from the
Utility as determined by the Director, such properties will no longer be exempt
from Benchmarkinq requirements and shall file initial Benchmarkinq reports in the
first required reporting year following such data availability.
(b) Any entity or owner requesting an exemption from Benchmarking shall submit an Annual
Benchmarkinq Exemption Request form to the Director by April 1 in the year for which
the exemption is being requested. Any exemption granted will be limited to the
Benchmarkinq Submission for which the request was made and does not extend to past
or future submittals.
City of Miami Page 6 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
(c) For each reporting year in which an owner files a request for an exemption, the Director
shall determine whether that exemption is approved. Appeal of a determination that a
property is not exempt shall be made within fifteen (15) days of such determination to a
review committee comprised of the Director of the Departments of Resilience and Public
Works (or the Supervisor of Plats in lieu thereof), Zoning, and Planning, the Director, and
an Assistant City Manager as designated by the City Manager. The review committee,
acting by majority vote, shall either affirm the Director's denial or reverse his/her denial
and grant the requested exemption.
Sec. 10-154. Energy and Water Retuning Requirements.
(a) The owner of each Covered Property 50,000 sq. ft. or above shall ensure that retuning
is performed on the Base Building Systems of each such property in accordance with the
schedule requirements of Section 10-156 to ensure that Base Building Systems are
maintained, cleaned, and repaired.
(b) Retuning shall be performed by or under the supervision of a qualified retuning
professional in accordance with industry standard practices including ASHRAE
Guideline 1.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, ASHRAE
Standard 0.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, and other
standards as may be defined by the Director.
(c) The owner shall correct, through low-cost adjustments and minor repairs to the
property's energy and water systems, all deficiencies identified by the retuning . ,
professional as having a simple payback of three (3) years or less. However, a trrtun n.
measure is not required if such retuning measure would necessitate a buildin sperm T
other than an electrical, plumbing, or mechanical permit. 1,,
co
(d) The cost estimates for recommended improvements to Covered Properties tat'are
regulated by any City, County, State, or federal law regulating landmarks and ittorid'-
buildings shall include all additional costs necessary for the proposed retunirkiworktd
comply with such law. 8...
(e) Unless otherwise restricted by statute or contract, tenants shall allow property owners
reasonable access to systems and Utility information, if necessary, to comply with the
terms of this Ordinance.
Sec. 10-155. Energy and Water Retuning Reports.
(a) For each Covered Property, a retuning professional shall complete, physically or digitally
sign, and electronically submit an on-line Retuning Report on behalf of the property
owner in accordance with the schedule requirements of Section 10-156.
(b) Before submitting the Retuning Report, the qualified retuning professional shall verify
that the energy and water consumption reported in the annual Benchmarkinq reports for
the five (5) previous years are accurate. If found to be inaccurate, the qualified
professional must identify inaccuracies in the reports and ensure that the data entered in
the Benchmarkinq Tool and reported to the Director is updated prior to submitting the
retuning report so that it reflects correct historical electricity and water consumption data.
Sec. 10-156. Retuning Schedule.
City of Miami Page 7 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 8/29/2021
File ID: 8727
Enactment Number: 14005
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property retuning is
performed, a retuning report is completed and submitted to the Director once every five
(5) years with a start date commencing pursuant to Table 2.
(b) The retuning reports for each Covered Property shall be due prior to December 30 of the
Calendar Year shown in Table 2 as determined by the building's square footage.
Table 2.
Size
Retuning
Buildings 200,000 square
December 1, 2028 and every five (5) years
feet or larger
thereafter
Buildings between 100,000
and 199,000 square feet
December 1, 2029 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 50,000
99,999 square feet
December 1, 2030 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 20,000
and 49,999 square feet
Optional
co
(c) An owner may apply for an extension of time to file a retuning report if, despitiis su l
owner's good faith efforts documented in such application, the owner is unable to
complete the required retuning prior to the scheduled due date for such report. The
Director may grant no more than one (1) such extension for no more than one (1) year.
(d) The owner of a property that is in Financial Hardship may apply for and be granted
annual extensions of time to file a retuning report.
(e) Extensions granted pursuant to this Section shall not extend the scheduled due dates for
subsequent retuning reports. The property owner acknowledges that by requesting and
receiving an extension, the period of time before the property's next compliance date will
be less than the typical schedule.
Sec. 10-157. Retuning Exemption.
(a) A retuning report is not required for a Covered Property for the current reporting cycle if
a qualified professional submits documentation to the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director establishing that the property has met one
(1) of the following conditions:
City of Miami Page 8 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
1. The property is exempt from Benchmarking requirements pursuant to the
provisions of Section 10-153.
2. The initial Certificate of Occupancy for the property was issued less than five (5)
years prior to the date when the first retuning would otherwise be due.
3. The property has undergone substantial rehabilitation, as certified by a registered
design professional, within the five-year period prior to the Calendar Year in
which a retuning is due such that at the commencement of such Calendar Year,
all of the Base Building Systems of such property are in compliance with energy
conservation and efficiency codes of the State, County, and City as applicable,
and any State, County, and City Codes impacting water consumption in
existence at the time this Ordinance takes effect.
4. If over 25% of the dwelling units within the property qualify as affordable housing,
the property owner or representative may request an exemption.
(b) The energy portion of the retuning is not required for the current reporting cycle if a
qualified professional submits documentation with the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director. For each reporting cycle, the Department
shall determine whether an exemption under this Subsection applies to a property.
Appeal of a determination that a property is not exempt shall be made according to the
procedures set forth by the Director.
Sec. 10-158. Permit Fee Credit
a. All covered properties that are in good standing with submitting Benchmarking
Submissions, retuning reports, (as reflected in Section 10-157(a)(3)) and have not been
found in violation of either Benchmarking Submissions as required by Section 10-152 or
retuning reporting as required by Section 10-155 within the past five (5) calendar years
shall be granted a maximum one-time, non-transferrable credit per building every
retuning period, up to the amount provided in Table 3, for City's Building permit fees
related to professional service/"soft costs", incurred for retuning purposes pursuant to
this Chapter. The credit expires if unused in that period. A property that has i3een -found
to have any code violations shall not qualify.
i"4F r 7
Table 3.
Size
Maximum Credit of Building-Efficiency=RRelat6d
Permit Fees
_e :__
_..-
Buildings 500,000 square or
Up to $25,000.00
=
w
larger
Buildings between 100,000 and
$10,000.00
499,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000 and
$5 000.00
99,999 square feet
City of Miami
Page 9 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
Sec. 10-159. Sharing of Data.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website the Shared
Benchmarking Information as defined in Section 10-148 for the previous Calendar Year
for each Covered Property.
(b) The Shared Benchmarking Information for each Covered Property shall be made
available to the public beginning one (1) year after each such property is first required to
submit a Benchmarking report.
(c) The Director will determine if any Benchmarking shared summary data shall be
excluded from publishing because it is not in the public's best interest.
(d) The City may provide non-anonymized data from Benchmarking or retuning submissions
to any Utility serving a Covered Property or to any federal, State, County, or City
managed Energy efficiency program, provided that the data will be used only for
purposes of targeting incentives provided through energy and water efficiency programs
and provided that the City has first obtained the Covered Property owner's written or
electronic permission to share the data with the Utility or energy efficiency program.
Where the property owner's permission can be granted electronically through
acceptance of a default option, the City shall provide a clearly delineated option for
owners of Covered Properties to choose to opt out of granting such permission.
(e)
(f)
The City may disclose any retuning data or data from Benchmarking Submissions to a
third party for academic or other non-commercial research purposes providec(hhat such
data is anonymized.
rzlf
All third parties receiving data from Benchmarking or retuning submissions::Shell sitfil a
non -disclosure agreement with the City stipulating terms for acceptable use oaf the rta,
including assurances that such data shall not be disclosed to other entities,.faofore
receiving such data.
Sec. 10-160. Annual Report and Analysis.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website and update annually
the following information:
1. No later than December 1, 2023, a report on the Benchmarking of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of accuracy and issues affecting
accuracy, summary energy and water consumption statistics, trends observed,
and an assessment of changes across the portfolio over time; and
2. No later than December 1, 2024, a report on the Benchmarking of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of compliance rates, an
assessment of accuracy and issues affecting accuracy, summary energy and
water consumption statistics, trends observed, and an assessment of changes
across the portfolio over time.
(b) Beginning in 2029 and every three (3) years thereafter, the Director shall make available
on a publicly accessible website a report on the progress of retuning for all Covered
Properties, including but not limited to, compliance rates, trends observed correlations
of Benchmarking scores and retuning measures completed, the impact of retuning on
EUIs and ENERGY STAR® Scores, and recommendations on how the uptake of energy
City of Miami Page 10 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
File ID: 8727 Enactment Number: 14005
and water conservation measures could be increased or the implementation of retuning
could be improved.
(c) Nothing in this Ordinance shall prevent the Director from including all such information in
a combined annual energy and water efficiency report covering the progress of all of the
City's energy and water efficiency ordinances and programs.
Sec. 10-161. Enforcement.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any entity or person to fail to comply with the requirements of this
Ordinance or misrepresent any material fact in a document required to be prepared or
shared by this Ordinance. The Director may request an audit to confirm the utility data
for any building or submission for compliance. The Director shall then have the authority
to verify the report's amended data by:
1. City personnel to inspect and audit the building on -site.
2. Reject amended reports based on the City audit.
(b) If the Director determines that a property owner has failed to report Benchmarking or
returning information as required under this Ordinance or the owner has submitted
incomplete or false Benchmarking or retuning information, the Director may refer the
owner for enforcement as set forth in Chapter 2, Article X of the City Code, titled "Code
Enforcement," and may be brought for further proceedings before the Code Enforcement
Board. A property owner in violation of this Article may be fined $250.00 per day for a
first-time offense or $500.00 per day for a repeat violation of this Article. The City may
also avail itself of any other legal remedy available and the use of one enforcement
option shall not preclude the use of another.
(c) No violation shall be issued for non-compliance or failure to submit to the Director a
Benchmarking report until one (1) year from the first compliance date for Benchmarking
reports as defined in Section 10-152."
Section 5. If any section, part of a section, paragraph, clause, phrase, or word of this
Ordinance is declared invalid, the remaining provisions of this Ordinance shall not be affected.
Section 6. This Ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and
signature of the Mayor.2
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS:
2 This Ordinance shall become effective as specified herein unless vetoed by the Mayor within ten (10)
days from the date it was passed and adopted. If the Mayor vetoes this Ordinance, it shall become
effective immediately upon override of the veto by the City Commission or upon the effective date stated
herein, whichever is later.
City of Miami Page 11 of 11 File ID: 8727 (Revision: C) Printed on: 6/29/2021
City of Miami
Legislation
Ordinance
Enactment Number: 14005
File Number: 8727 Final Action Date: 6/10/2021
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION AMENDING CHAPTER 10 OF
THE CODE OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA, AS AMENDED, TITLED
"BUILDINGS," TO ADD A NEW ARTICLE XII, TITLED "BUILDING ENERGY AND
WATER CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING", REQUIRING BUILDINGS OVER 20,000
SQUARE FEET OF GROSS FLOOR AREA TO PERFORM AND REPORT ANNUAL
ENERGY AND WATER BENCHMARKING TO THE CITY OF MIAMI; PROVIDING FOR
EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN BUILDING TYPES; CONTAINING A SEVERABILITY
CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE.
WHEREAS, the City of Miami ("City") desires to raise awareness of energy performance
through information and transparency with a goal of unlocking energy and cost savings
opportunities and health benefits for the City's businesses and residents; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking of energy and water consumption is part of committed
actions in the Resilient305 Unified Strategy with Miami -Dade County and the City of Miami
Beach as well as in the City's Miami Forever Climate Ready strategy which was launched
in January 2020; and
WHEREAS, the City's 2018 Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory revealed fifty-two
percent (52%) of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings; and
WHEREAS, a relatively small number of large buildings often account for a
considerable portion of a city's energy use; and
WHEREAS, annual benchmarking of energy and water consumption helps buildrhg
owners, property managers, and facilities' staff establish energy performance baselines,
monitor performance over time, guide actions to cut waste, verify energy and water
savings from investments, and mitigate carbon emissions; and ,m
WHEREAS, benchmarking data provides summary information about public ricl
private buildings, documenting trends in energy and water performance; and
WHEREAS, benchmarking allows for a data -based approach to analyzing fulute
energy needs, where improvements can be made, and how to reduce costs; and
WHEREAS, more than thirty (30) major United States cities and counties, including New
York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boulder, and Kansas City, have adopted similar requirements, thus
demonstrating the acceptability, legality, and feasibility of such requirements;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA:
Section 1. The recitals and findings contained in the Preamble to this Ordinance are
adopted by reference and incorporated as if fully set forth in this Section.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
Section 2. Chapter 10 of the Code of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended, is further
amended in the following particulars.'
"CHAPTER 10
BUILDINGS
ARTICLE XII. BUILDING ENERGY AND WATER
CONSUMPTION BENCHMARKING AND RETUNING
Sec. 10-147. Building Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarkinq and Retuning Ordinance.
Intent. This Article shall be known and may be cited as the City of Miami's ("City") Building
Energy and Water Consumption Benchmarkinq and Retuning Ordinance and is intended to
allow a data -based approach to analyze future energy needs, improve future usages, eliminate
waste, and reduce costs.
Sec. 10-148. Definitions.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, the following terms shall, for the purpose of this Article `have
the meanings indicated in this Section:
Aggregated, Whole -Building Data means energy or water data that has been sumtled forcah
entire property, which may include a single occupant or a group of separately metered terfAts
Base Building Systems mean the systems or subsystems of a building that use or distribute
energy, water, impact energy, and/or water consumption, including, but not limitedl•Qthe co
building's envelope as well as its HVAC systems, conveying systems, electrical and!kilhtinq.
systems, on -site generation systems, domestic hot water systems, water distributior'systems,
plumbing fixtures and other water -using equipment, and landscape irrigation systems and water
features, including fountains and excluding systems or subsystems that operate industrial
applications or processes or any systems or subsystems in a multifamily residential building
appurtenant only to the specific dwelling unit for which the occupant of that unit bears
responsibility for its maintenance and such usage is measured by a meter or submeter.
Benchmark means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for a property for
the previous calendar year and other descriptive information for such property as required by
the Benchmarkinq Tool. Total energy and water consumption shall not include separately
metered uses that are not integral to building operations as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Submission means a subset of information input into the Benchmarkinq Tool and
Benchmarkinq information generated by the Benchmarkinq Tool as determined by the Director.
Benchmarkinq Tool means the United States Environmental Protection Agency's ("EPA")
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager or any additional or alternative tool adopted by the Director
used to track and assess the energy and water use of certain properties relative to similar
properties.
1Words and/or figures stricken through shall be deleted. Underscored words and/or figures shall be
added. The remaining provisions are now in effect and remain unchanged. Asterisks indicate omitted and
unchanged material.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
Covered Private Property means a property, other than a covered City property, or any property
owned or operated by Miami -Dade County, the State of Florida, or the Federal government with
a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of Gross Floor Area.
Covered Public Property means a property with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000
square feet of Gross Floor Area and is owned, leased, or managed by the City and where the
City regularly pays all or part of the annual energy and/or water bills.
Covered Property means any Covered Public Property or Covered Private Property except for
any property with a single-family home or duplex, a solely residential multi -family building of five
(5) units or Tess, or any building with an industrial use per designated Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39.
Department means the City's Building Department.
Director means the Director of the Department or designee.
Energy means electricity, natural gas, steam, or other product sold by a utility to a customer of a
property or renewable on -site electricity generation for purposes of providing heating, cooling,
lighting, water heating, or for powering or fueling other end -uses as recorded in the
Benchmarking Tool.
ENERGY STAR® Score means the 1-100 numeric rating generated by the ENERGY STAR®
Portfolio Manager tool as a measurement of a building's energy efficiency.
C J E •,
ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager means the tool developed and maintained by tiq .EP/ tb
track and assess the relative energy performance of buildings. 'W` "5
Financial Hardship (of a property) means that a property:
1, Had arrears of property taxes or special assessments that resulted in tha issuarlee of i ',:
a tax certificate against the property within the prior two (2) years;
2. Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress;
3. Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower;
4. Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or
5. Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.
Gross Floor Area means Floor Area as defined in Article I, Section 1.2 of Ordinance No. 13114,
the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Miami, Florida, as amended ("Miami 21 Code"), or as
defined in any successor Zoning Ordinance.
Shared Benchmarking Information means information generated by the Benchmarking Tool and
descriptive information about the physical property and its operational characteristics, which is
shared with the public. The information as defined by the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager
glossary, includes, but is not limited to, descriptive information such as the property's address,
primary use, Gross Floor Area, number of floors, number of years the property has been
ENERGY STAR® Certified, the last approval date, if applicable, and energy -related output
information such as site and source energy use intensity, weather normalized site and source
energy use intensity, the ENERGY STAR ®score (where available), total annual greenhouse
gas emissions, monthly energy use by fuel type, indoor water use and water use intensity
(consumption per gross square foot), outdoor water use (where available), total water use, the
property's ENERGY STAR® Water Score (where available), and any other general comments
required to explain said ENERGY STAR® Scores.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
System or Subsystem means a building assembly made up of various components that serve a
specific function including but not limited to exterior walls, windows, doors, roofs, ceilings, floors,
lighting, piping, ductwork, insulation, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning ("HVAC") system
equipment or components, electrical appliances, and plumbing appliances.
Utility means an entity that distributes and/or sells natural gas, electric, water, or thermal energy
services for buildings.
Sec. 10-149. Applicability.
This Ordinance shall apply to all new and existing Covered Properties in accordance with the
initial compliance timetable set forth in Section 10-152 of the City Code so Ionq as the
Benchmarkinq Tool as selected by the Director remains free to use by members of the general
public.
Sec. 10-150. Procedures.
The owner of each Covered Property shall collect and enter data for the previous calendar -year
into the Benchmarkinq Tool. Unless otherwise defined in this Ordinance, the owneV of each 3
Covered Property shall input all data into the Benchmarkinq Tool in a manner that•cin;forms;'to
latest guidance provided by the EPA for use of the Benchmarkinq Tool. Whole-buifdinq uti.ity
data for the property's energy water and energy use shall be compiled using one cirmore,pf the --
following methods:"
(1) Obtaining Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from a utility company;
(2) Collecting data fromall tenants for nonresidential properties; or
(3) Reading a master meter.
If the owner of a Covered Property does not otherwise have access to whole -building energy
and water data, such property owner shall request Aggregated, Whole -Building Data from each
utility that provides energy or water service to the property and that has made aggregated utility
data available to owners before the reporting date of that calendar year. When a Utility does not
provide whole -building energy or water data, the owner of a nonresidential Covered Property
shall request energy and water data from tenants or occupants.
Each non-residential tenant located in a Covered Property shall, within thirty (30) days of a
request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the Director, provide all information that
cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with the
requirements of this Ordinance.
When the owner of a Covered Property receives notice that a nonresidential tenant intends to
vacate a space within such property and the Utilities do not provide Aggregated, Whole -Building
Data, the owner shall request information relating to such tenant's energy and water use for any
period of occupancy relevant to the owner's obligation to Benchmark.
When a Covered Property changes ownership, the previous owner shall provide the new owner
with all information needed to Benchmark for the period during which the previous owner was in
possession of the property.
Sec. 10-151. Duty to Report Benchmarkinq.
There shall be no City fees associated with the submission of Benchmarkinq reports or retuning
reports. For every Covered Property subject to this Chapter, the owner shall annually submit to
the Director an energy and water Benchmarkinq report in an electronic format as established by
the Director by the date specified in Section 10-152 of the City Code.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
The information included in the annual Energy and Water Benchmarkinq Report shall include, at
a minimum, the Shared Benchmarkinq Information for the previous calendar year.
The owner of each Covered Property shall enter data into the Benchmarkinq Tool so that the
energy and water Benchmarkinq report shall be based on an assessment in the Benchmarkinq
Tool of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the whole property for the entire
calendar year being reported.
Before submitting a Benchmarkinq Submission, the owner shall run all automated data quality
checker functions available within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall verify that all data has been
accurately entered into the Benchmarkinq Tool. In order for the Benchmarkinq report to be
considered in compliance with this Ordinance, the owner shall correct all missing or incorrect
information as identified by the Benchmarkinq Tool prior to submitting the Benchmarkinq report
to the Director.
Where the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the Benchmarkinq
Submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner shall amend the information so reported
within the Benchmarkinq Tool and shall provide the Director with an updated Benchmarkinq
Submission within thirty (30) days of learning of the inaccuracy.
Sec. 10-152. Benchmarkinq Requirements.
1. The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property, s',
Benchmarkinq report is generated, completed, and submitted to the Directq,r annudlfy.
2. The Benchmarkinq reports for each Covered Property shall be due by the dales as
defined in the following table. Subsequent Benchmarkinq reports for each overecr?,
Property shall be due by June 30 of each year thereafter.
Table 1.
Size (Gross Floor Area)
Initial Compliance Required by:
Buildings 200,000 square
June 30, 2023
feet or larger
Buildings between 100,000
October 1, 2023
square feet and 199,999
s. uare feet
Buildings between 50,000
October 1, 2024
and 99,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000
October 1, 2025
and 49,999 square feet
Sec. 10-153. Benchmarkinq Exemptions.
(a) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Public Property for the current reporting
year if the owner submits documentation to the Director establishing that the property
has met one of the following conditions:
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
1. The property does not have a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate
of Occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being Benchmarked;
2. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being
Benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal
occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year;
3. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year
to be Benchmarked; or
4. The Covered Property had average physical occupancy of Tess than fifty percent
(50%) throughout the calendar year for which Benchmarkinq is required.
(b) Benchmarkinq is not required for a Covered Private Property for the current reporting
year if an owner submits documentation with the Director in such form and with such
evidence as required by the Director establishing that the property has met one of the
following conditions:
1. It meets any of the exemptions defined for a Covered Public Property;
2. The Director determines that due to special circumstances unique to the
applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions of the
applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this Ordinance would cause undue
hardship or would not be in the public's best interest;
3. The owner notifies the Director that the property is under Financial Hardship and
provides proof of the same; or
4. The Covered Property may be exempted from electricity Benchmarkinq if more
than fifty percent (50%) of Gross Floor Area is used for residential purposes and:
i. The property is not master metered or the owner does not have acr.,ess to r :;
master meters or other means to obtain whole -building electricity dati4hd
ii. The serving electric utility does not provide data aggregation serviceslor
access to whole -building utility data. Once such services are available -from th:e
Utility as determined by the Director, such properties will no longer be°exempt)
from Benchmarkinq requirements and shall file initial Benchmarkinq rekirts iri'the
first required reporting year following such data availability
(b) Any entity or owner requesting an exemption from Benchmarkinq shall submit an Annual
Benchmarkinq Exemption Request form to the Director by April 1 in the year for which
the exemption is being requested. Any exemption granted will be limited to the
Benchmarkinq Submission for which the request was made and does not extend to past
or future submittals.
(c) For each reporting year in which an owner files a request for an exemption, the Director
shall determine whether that exemption is approved. Appeal of a determination that a
property is not exempt shall be made within fifteen (15) days of such determination to a
review committee comprised of the Director of the Departments of Resilience and Public
Works (or the Supervisor of Plats in lieu thereof), Zoning, and Planning, the Director, and
an Assistant City Manager as designated by the City Manager. The review committee,
acting by majority vote, shall either affirm the Director's denial or reverse his/her denial
and grant the requested exemption.
Sec. 10-154. Energy and Water Retuning Requirements.
(a) The owner of each Covered Property 50,000 sq. ft. or above shall ensure that retuning
is performed on the Base Building Systems of each such property in accordance with the
schedule requirements of Section 10-156 to ensure that Base Building Systems are
maintained, cleaned, and repaired.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
(b) Retuning shall be performed by or under the supervision of a qualified retuning
professional in accordance with industry standard practices including ASHRAE
Guideline 1.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, ASHRAE
Standard 0.2 Commissioning Process for Existing Systems and Assemblies, and other
standards as may be defined by the Director.
(c) The owner shall correct, through low-cost adjustments and minor repairs to the
property's energy and water systems, all deficiencies identified by the retuning
professional as having a simple payback of three (3) years or less. However, a retuning
measure is not required if such retuning measure would necessitate a building permit
other than an electrical, plumbing, or mechanical permit.
(d) The cost estimates for recommended improvements to Covered Properties that are
regulated by any City, County, State, or federal law regulating landmarks and historic
buildings shall include all additional costs necessary for the proposed retuning work to
comply with such law.
(e) Unless otherwise restricted by statute or contract, tenants shall allow property ow iers
reasonable access to systems and Utility information, if necessary, to com lyTwithrthe
terms of this Ordinance.
Sec. 10-155. Energy and Water Retuning Reports.
(a) For each Covered Property, a retuning professional shall complete, physically=or digitally"
sign, and electronically submit an on-line Retuning Report on behalf of the property; -
owner in accordance with the schedule requirements of Section 10-156.
(b) Before submitting the Retuning Report, the qualified retuning professional shall verify
that the energy and water consumption reported in the annual Benchmarking reports for
the five (5) previous years are accurate. If found to be inaccurate, the qualified
professional must identify inaccuracies in the reports and ensure that the data entered in
the Benchmarking Tool and reported to the Director is updated prior to submitting the
retuning report so that it reflects correct historical electricity and water consumption data.
Sec. 10-156. Retuning Schedule.
(a) The owner of a Covered Property shall ensure that for each such property retuning is
performed, a retuning report is completed and submitted to the Director once every five
(5) years with a start date commencing pursuant to Table 2.
(b) The retuning reports for each Covered Property shall be due prior to December 30 of the
Calendar Year shown in Table 2 as determined by the building's square footage.
Table 2.
Size
Retuning
Buildings 200,000 square
December 1, 2028 and every five (5) years
feet or larger
thereafter
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
Buildings between 100,000
and 199,000 square feet
December 1, 2029 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 50,000
99,999 square feet
December 1, 2030 and every five (5) years
thereafter
Buildings between 20,000
and 49,999 square feet
Optional
(c) An owner may apply for an extension of time to file a retuning report if, desr►71~e sun)
owner's good faith efforts documented in such application, the owner is unable to 2'°
complete the required retuning prior to the scheduled due date for such resrart, The
Director may grant no more than one (1) such extension for no more than one:-(1) Vier.
(d) The owner of a property that is in Financial Hardship may apply for and be ranted-.1
annual extensions of time to file a retuning report.
(e) Extensions granted pursuant to this Section shall not extend the scheduled due date's for
subsequent retuning reports. The property owner acknowledges that by requesting and
receiving an extension, the period of time before the property's next compliance date will
be Tess than the typical schedule.
Sec. 10-157. Retuning Exemption.
(a) A retuning report is not required for a Covered Property for the current reporting cycle if
a qualified professional submits documentation to the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director establishing that the property has met one
(1) of the following conditions:
1. The property is exempt from Benchmarkinq requirements pursuant to the
provisions of Section 10-153.
2. The initial Certificate of Occupancy for the property was issued less than five (5)
years prior to the date when the first retuning would otherwise be due.
3. The property has undergone substantial rehabilitation, as certified by a registered
design professional, within the five-year period prior to the Calendar Year in
which a retuning is due such that at the commencement of such Calendar Year,
all of the Base Building Systems of such property are in compliance with energy
conservation and efficiency codes of the State, County, and City as applicable,
and any State, County, and City Codes impacting water consumption in
existence at the time this Ordinance takes effect.
4. If over 25% of the dwelling units within the property qualify as affordable housing,
the property owner or representative may request an exemption.
(b) The energy portion of the retuning is not required for the current reporting cycle if a
qualified professional submits documentation with the Department in such form and with
such certifications as required by the Director. For each reporting cycle, the Department
shall determine whether an exemption under this Subsection applies to a property.
Appeal of a determination that a property is not exempt shall be made according to the
procedures set forth by the Director.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
Sec. 10-158. Permit Fee Credit
a. All covered properties that are in good standing with submitting Benchmarkinq
Submissions, retuning reports, (as reflected in Section 10-157(a)(3)) and have not been
found in violation of either Benchmarkinq Submissions as required by Section 10-152 or
retuning reporting as required by Section 10-155 within the past five (5) calendar years
shall be qranted a maximum one-time, non-transferrable credit per building every
retuning period, up to the amount provided in Table 3, for City's Building permit fees
related to professional service/"soft costs", incurred for retuning purposes pursuant to
this Chapter. The credit expires if unused in that period. A property that has been found
to have any code violations shall not qualify.
Table 3.
t:a
Size
Maximum Credit of Building -Efficiency Related
Permit Fees
Buildings 500,000 square or
Up to $25,000.00
-`'
31
)
larger
Buildings between 100,000 and
$10,000.00
€=='
499,999 square feet
Buildings between 20,000 and
$5,000.00
99,999 square feet
Sec. 10-159. Sharing of Data.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website the Shared
Benchmarkinq Information as defined in Section 10-148 for the previous Calendar Year
for each Covered Property.
(b) The Shared Benchmarkinq Information for each Covered Property shall be made
available to the public beginning one (1) year after each such property is first required to
submit a Benchmarking report.
(c)
The Director will determine if any Benchmarkinq shared summary data shall be
excluded from publishing because it is not in the public's best interest.
(d) The City may provide non-anonymized data from Benchmarkinq or retuning submissions
to any Utility serving a Covered Property or to any federal, State, County, or City -
managed Energy efficiency program, provided that the data will be used only for
purposes of targeting incentives provided through energy and water efficiency programs
and provided that the City has first obtained the Covered Property owner's written or
electronic permission to share the data with the Utility or energy efficiency program.
Where the property owner's permission can be granted electronically through
acceptance of a default option, the City shall provide a clearly delineated option for
owners of Covered Properties to choose to opt out of granting such permission.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
(e) The City may disclose any retuning data or data from Benchmarkinq Submissions to a
third party for academic or other non-commercial research purposes provided that such
data is anonymized.
(f) All third parties receiving data from Benchmarkinq or retuning submissions shall sign a
non -disclosure agreement with the City stipulating terms for acceptable use of the data,
including assurances that such data shall not be disclosed to other entities, before
receiving such data.
Sec. 10-160. Annual Report and Analysis.
(a) The Director shall make available on a publicly accessible website and update annually
the following information:
1. No later than December 1, 2023, a report on the Benchmarkinq of all available
Covered Properties, including an assessment of accuracy and issues affecting
accuracy, summary energy and water consumption statistics, trends observed,
and an assessment of changes across the portfolio over time; and c7s
2. No later than December 1, 2024, a report on the Benchmarkinq of athavailable
Covered Properties, including an assessment of compliance rates ar
assessment of accuracy and issues affecting accuracy, summary energy ,rid
water consumption statistics, trends observed, and an assessment`of.changes
across the portfolio over time. ; ` i'
(b) Beginning in 2029 and every three (3) years thereafter, the Director shall rrfake available
on a publicly accessible website a report on the progress of retuning for all'Cgvered
Properties, including but not limited to, compliance rates, trends observed, aorrelq';(lons
of Benchmarkinq scores and retuning measures completed, the impact of retuning on
EUIs and ENERGY STAR® Scores, and recommendations on how the uptake of energy
and water conservation measures could be increased or the implementation of retuning
could be improved.
(c) Nothing in this Ordinance shall prevent the Director from including all such information in
a combined annual energy and water efficiency report covering the progress of all of the
City's energy and water efficiency ordinances and programs.
Sec. 10-161. Enforcement.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any entity or person to fail to comply with the requirements of this
Ordinance or misrepresent any material fact in a document required to be prepared or
shared by this Ordinance. The Director may request an audit to confirm the utility data
for any building or submission for compliance. The Director shall then have the authority
to verify the report's amended data by:
1. City personnel to inspect and audit the building on -site.
2. Relect amended reports based on the City audit.
(b) If the Director determines that a property owner has failed to report Benchmarkinq or
returning information as required under this Ordinance or the owner has submitted
incomplete or false Benchmarkinq or retuning information, the Director may refer the
owner for enforcement as set forth in Chapter 2, Article X of the City Code, titled "Code
Enforcement," and may be brought for further proceedings before the Code Enforcement
Board. A property owner in violation of this Article may be fined $250.00 per day for a
first-time offense or $500.00 per day for a repeat violation of this Article. The City may
also avail itself of any other legal remedy available and the use of one enforcement
option shall not preclude the use of another.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022
(c) No violation shall be issued for non-compliance or failure to submit to the Director a
Benchmarkinq report until one (1) year from the first compliance date for Benchmarkinq
reports as defined in Section 10-152."
Section 5. If any section, part of a section, paragraph, clause, phrase, or word of this
Ordinance is declared invalid, the remaining provisions of this Ordinance shall not be affected.
Section 6. This Ordinance shall become effective immediately upon its adoption and
signature of the Mayor.2
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS:
2 This Ordinance shall become effective as specified herein unless vetoed by the Mayor within ten (10)
days from the date it was passed and adopted. If the Mayor vetoes this Ordinance, it shall become
effective immediately upon override of the veto by the City Commission or upon the effective date stated
herein. whichever is later.
City of Miami File ID: 8727 (Revision: D) Printed On: 12/20/2022