Add Climate and Health Standards for Buildings Code to reduce carbon emissions of commercial and multifamily residential buildings and provide information to tenants to…

This legislation would affect owners and tenants of covered commercial and multifamily buildings throughout Portland, as well as utilities, property managers, workers in affected buildings, and businesses involved in building upgrades. Low-income renters and residents of older multifamily buildings are a community of particular concern because tenants generally have limited control over building systems and may be exposed to energy burden, poor indoor air quality, or extreme heat.Potential community benefits include reduced building-related carbon emissions; increased public access to building energy information; prospective-tenant information about utility costs, energy assistance, cooking fuel, ventilation, and cooling; and potential health and resilience benefits associated with building improvements. The code requires a residential climate and health inventory beginning in 2028 and prospective-tenant notices beginning January 1, 2028.Potential concerns include owner compliance and retrofit costs, possible effects on rents or deferred maintenance, displacement during major building work, administrative burden, and the ability of smaller property owners or older buildings to finance or technically complete upgrades. These issues are addressed through phased standards; extensions and exemptions for specified circumstances; a dedicated compliance-assistance fund; priority for affordable housing, small property owners, and buildings serving low-income or climate-vulnerable tenants; an exemption from carbon performance standards and impact fees for regulated affordable housing; and a prohibition on passing carbon-performance-standard costs through to residential tenants.When required upgrades would make a residential unit unsafe or unfit for occupancy and require overnight relocation, owners must submit a tenant impact plan. The plan must address temporary housing and, where applicable, moving/storage and transportation assistance, and must guarantee a right to return to the same unit. If required whole-building upgrades would require relocation for more than ten calendar days or termination of a tenancy, the City Administrator may authorize compliance through payment of the carbon pollution impact fee instead of the building upgrades.Earlier BPS public engagement on multifamily energy reporting found majority support while also identifying concerns about compliance cost, tenant cost pass-through, utility-data collection, and landlord-tenant communication. BPS subsequently conducted the five-building multifamily reporting pilot to test those concerns.Overall engagement included work with BPS and a core stakeholder group, with review and feedback periods spanning from December 2025 through October 2026. A community policy workshop held in July 2026 included building and property owners, developers, climate and environmental justice organizations, health care facilities, education programs, tenant and renter rights groups, affordable housing providers, trades and labor, and utility and energy companies. The proposal was also discussed with the Sustainability and Climate Commission, which endorsed the policy in August 2026. Most recently, the Housing and Permitting Committee's October 6 informational presentation included invited panelists from BPS, the Sustainability and Climate Commission, Multnomah County Health Department, Coalition of Communities of Color, Community Energy Project, Institute for Market Transformation, Run on Climate, and a former Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council member.

Ongoing City administrative work associated with implementation, including annual reporting administration, data review and verification, owner notifications, administrative rulemaking, review of extensions/exemptions and Alternate Compliance Plans, enforcement, appeals, tenant-impact-plan review, public reporting, and preparation of periodic program impact reports.The code establishes a carbon pollution impact fee for covered buildings that do not achieve applicable carbon performance standards. For the first interim standard, the code sets the cost of carbon at $380 per metric ton of CO2e per year. Future rates would be determined by the City Administrator, reviewed at least every five years, and approved by Council. Fee revenue is variable and will depend on the number of buildings above their GHGI targets and the amount of excess emissions.Carbon pollution impact fee revenue must be deposited into a dedicated fund and used solely to support compliance with the chapter, including grants, technical assistance, financing for building retrofits, and related compliance support. The code prioritizes financial assistance for regulated affordable housing, naturally occurring affordable housing, small property owners, and buildings serving low-income or climate-vulnerable tenants. Administrative costs paid from the fund may not exceed seven percent.