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City staff shows benchmarking results: multifamily leads noncompliance; committee plans targeted outreach
Summary
City staff presented benchmarking records for 537 properties and flagged multifamily housing as the largest group of noncompliant properties (74 of 258 multifamily properties); members recommended targeted outreach, one-on-one technical assistance and leveraging housing providers to increase reporting before the 2031 compliance cycle.
City staff presented benchmarking compliance data to the Healthy Buildings Technical Committee at its Jan. 7 meeting, identifying the scale of missing or problematic submissions and laying groundwork for targeted outreach.
Speaker 6 summarized a compliance spreadsheet covering 2019–2024 records: "537 properties that we have records for," the presenter said, and noted multifamily housing accounted for 258 properties in the dataset with 74 that either did not submit or whose submissions contained errors or incomplete utility data. Staff and members discussed possible causes — data entry errors, staff turnover at reporting facilities, and confusion about property type selection in Energy Star Portfolio Manager — and agreed that a mix of targeted outreach, office hours and one-on-one help would be the first step to improve reporting.
Committee members volunteered to assist with outreach to their constituencies. One member representing neighborhood building owners suggested sharing lists with owner associations so those groups could notify members. Staff said the city would prioritize hand-holding and technical assistance rather than immediate fines; Speaker 1 noted that existing fines for benchmarking non-submission (previously $250/month) had not been enforced and that the accountability board recommended focusing on support rather than collections during initial implementation.
Members also discussed how to classify and prioritize noncompliant properties (for example, houses of worship, nonprofit affordable housing, retail) and requested an additional data column to distinguish properties that attempted submission but encountered errors from those that never attempted submission. Staff committed to refining the dataset, clarifying blanks and preparing outreach materials and timelines ahead of the 2030 reporting cycle (due June 30, 2031).
