July 2013
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BOMA/NY’s Technical Know How Making Inroads at City Hall

Your Advocacy Response Committee (ARC) is not letting any grass grow under its feet during these summer months, and our long-term strategy of being the "practical" expert, and demonstrating the operational ramifications of laws has started to take root.

Going Above the Flood Line

Several key recommendations from our Hurricane Sandy Task Force and its Lessons Learned report have "a good chance of being official New York City Policy," reports Sylvester Giustino, BOMA/NY’s Director of Legislative Affairs.

Among them are our recommendations to give building owners and managers the flexibility to move critical systems such as fire and fuel pumps, fuel storage, etc., above the sub-basement level. This also applies to the fire and life safety telecommunications systems, which are currently required to be in locations that were wiped out by storm floods.

In response to this, the Building Resiliency Task Force (BRTF) established following Sandy to study such matters, issued its report advising that zoning relief be given to owners wishing to elevate to what is more commonly known as the 500-year flood levels, almost double the Advisory Base Flood Elevation now in force and that affords owners zoning relief.

The BRTF also backed up BOMA/NY's recommendations to have a secondary (dual or redundant) telecommunications carrier; wireless, if possible, to avoid the losses experienced by wired systems located in flood areas. The need for this recommendation is clearly evident--three months after Superstorm Sandy, more than 170 commercial properties in Lower Manhattan still were without traditional life safety circuits, reports Giustino.

"Yes"to Extending TRIPRA

On a separate issue, BOMA/NY upheld its decade long position on the extension of what is commonly known as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. Testifying before the New York City Council on Federal and State Legislation this past June, BOMA/NY supported RES. 1806-2013, a resolution calling on Congress to pass and the President to sign, legislation extending the current Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, or TRIPRA.

The reauthorization of this federal program is essential to the real estate industry as it "provides for a transparent system of shared public and private compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of terrorism," according to the US Treasury Department, which administers it.

This is considered essential until the reinsurance industry is "prepared to accurately underwrite and assume the whole risk," explains Giustino. He adds that BOMA/NY was joined by US Representative Carolyn Maloney, REBNY, the Partnership for NYC, the Alliance for Downtown New York, and the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, in calling for passage of the resolution.

BOMA/NY
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