Both issues on Beacon council agenda for Monday
The City of Beacon is poised on Monday (March 13) to become the first municipality in New York state to adopt comprehensive all-electric legislation.
The City Council is expected to vote on a proposal to prohibit the use of fossil fuels such as natural gas and heating oil in new residential and commercial construction as of Jan. 1, 2024. Existing buildings would not be affected.
The council held a public hearing on the measure on Feb. 27. Of 24 speakers, 21 were in favor of the electrification act.
If adopted, Beacon would jump ahead of the state in limiting the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels. “Beacon is at the forefront of this issue,” City Attorney Nick Ward-Willis said during a council workshop on Monday (March 6), noting that, as part of her 2024 budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a similar prohibition that would begin Jan. 1, 2026, and apply to new single-family homes and apartment buildings smaller than four stories.
During the Beacon workshop, the council adjusted the draft law’s language regarding major renovation projects. The proposal requires installing all-electric heating and hot water equipment if a renovation exceeds 75 percent of the heated floor area and involves the replacement or installation of a heating or hot water system.
If a renovation meets the 75 percent threshold but does not include the replacement or installation of a heating or hot water system, the council dispensed with a clause requiring electric systems to be installed if they are replaced within five years. Now, if the systems are replaced at any time after a major renovation, they would have to be electric.
The council also decided to keep a list of exemptions to the law, which would cover backup generators, manufactured homes, manufacturing facilities, commercial food establishments, laundromats, laboratories, hospitals and other medical facilities, crematoriums and backup power for critical infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment facilities.
Those exemptions are expected to be part of an eventual statewide law, and Beacon can signal its support by mirroring the state proposal, City Administrator Chris White said. That’s important because the oil and gas industry has begun pushing back against the electrification movement.
“If there’s any time to say, ‘Hey, the state’s right and we’re going to go earlier and we support this effort,’ it’s right before this [state] budget, because it’s not a done deal,” White said.
Tompkins Terrace
The City Council also could vote on Monday to approve a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreement with Related Companies, the owner of the Tompkins Terrace low-income housing complex.
The council in January began discussing a 40-year agreement with Related, which is planning a $14.5 million rehabilitation of the development. The company has proposed a deal in which it would make set payments to be distributed to the Beacon school district, the city, Dutchess County and the Howland Public Library.
Its proposal would begin with a payment of $310,000 and increase 2.25 percent each year, for a total of $19.75 million over four decades. Some residents have said in public hearings that the city should demand more money but during the March 6 workshop, City Attorney Judson Siebert called the PILOT a “very sound proposal.”
The current tax-abatement agreement requires Related to make an annual payment equal to 10 percent of the rent collected in the previous year after deducting the cost of utilities. That number fluctuates, which can cause “budgetary and tax-cap complications,” Siebert said. With the proposed agreement, the city would have “a set figure that you know you’re going to have from year to year.”
If adopted, the PILOT will keep affordability levels intact at Tompkins Terrace, White said. Right now, 38 of the 193 units are restricted to households earning 50 percent or less of the area median income (AMI), which, in Beacon, is equal to a four-person household earning up to $56,200. The remaining 155 apartments may be rented to households earning 60 percent or less of the AMI ($67,440 for a household of four).
PILOT agreements of this type do not typically include language requiring maintenance of an apartment complex at set intervals, Siebert said, but the Tompkins Terrace contract will require the apartments to be maintained in accordance with city and state standards.
