By P.J. Nutting/New Era News

Boulder City Council began its first reading of the much-discussed SmartRegs proposal at their meeting on May 18. In witness of an over-capacity meeting hall, Mayor Susan Osborne said it was, “the most important issue we’ll tackle this year, and the most complex.” Landlords and renters passionately agreed.

If you haven’t heard of SmartRegs yet, you are surely a first-time visitor to (the site). New Era Colorado has been a big player in supporting SmartRegs, which would update Boulder’s housing code to set energy efficiency standards for rental units. Landlords would have to maintain their properties to similar standards held for new properties — but to a lesser degree, according to the introductory presentation given by Yael Gichon, Residential Program Strategist for the Local Environmental Division.

Currently, there are no such regulations for rental units, and New Era found on its latest bus trip that many Boulder renters were relieved to hear they were due for an energy upgrade. As a renter in Boulder, and on a personal note, I have found it was hard enough to get my landlord to bolt my toilet into the floor so it didn’t swivel like an office chair. It took them months to fix a couple of bolts; I can’t imagine how long it would take to replace my ancient, drafty windows or lay down a little weather stripping.

City council is currently chasing after their sustainability goals outlined in their 2006 Climate Action Plan. In order to catch up to international carbon standards, they are eyeing the 19,600 rental units whose energy use is unregulated. I even heard Mayor Osborne refer to “when” it passes instead of “if” during preliminary discussion.

Surprisingly, the majority of the landlords in attendance, who would face the financial burden, thought it was a great idea. Jim Hartman, who has rented properties in Boulder and Denver, kicked off the public hearing by encouraging the council to work even faster to pass the new regulations. He said he has already updated many of his properties for energy efficiency and mentioned the retroactive incentives that SmartRegs might give to those already heading in that direction. Paul Sheldon, who rents out properties in Boulder and Durango and has worked on Aspen’s city planning board, said regulation would level the playing field for landlords who had already invested the money. He said it was “unfair” that other landlords were able to rent low-efficiency units with no consequence.

“The city won’t allow a property with gushing water, why would they allow gushing energy?”
added Tom Volckhausen.

the rest of the story …