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ENROLLED ORIGINAL
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A RESOLUTION
26-338
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
February 3, 2026
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Green Building
Act of 2006 to exempt certain nonresidential projects from maintaining net zero energy
compliance and to modify net zero energy compliance requirements for nonresidential
projects; and to amend section 2 of the Clean Energy DC Building Code Amendment Act
of 2022 to modify the definition of net-zero-energy standards and the types of projects for
which the net-zero-energy standards apply.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Net Zero Modification and Preservation Emergency Declaration
Resolution of 2026”.
Sec. 2. (a) On January 12, 2023, Mayor Bowser signed the Greener Government
Buildings Amendment Act of 2022, effective March 10, 2023 (D.C. Law 24-306; 70 DCR 658)
(“GGBA”), which amended the Green Building Act of 2006 to require that construction of new
or substantially improved projects owned or financed by the District adhere to a net zero energy
standard.
(b) In subsequent budgets, funding enhancements have been necessary to ensure
compliance with the net zero energy requirements for District-owned projects. In the FY26
budget, $9.8 million was designated for specific net zero projects, including the Congress
Heights pool, Fort Davis Recreation Center, and New Community Center at Historic Crummell
School; however, some of these enhancements have not and are not planned to be utilized by the
Executive for their Council-designated purposes despite legal requirements to do so.
(c) In the Mayor’s letter to the Council for the December 16, 2025, Legislative Meeting,
the Mayor stated, “To demonstrate the financial and operational impacts of these Council
mandates, the Department of General Services will not seek waivers from the Green Building
Advisory Council (“GBAC”) for these types of projects and will build them to the highest
environmental standard possible as allowed by the project’s current funding”. Since this
statement, the Department of General Services (“DGS”) has begun implementing this policy of
not sending certain projects to GBAC despite the clear legal requirements to do so. During a
Committee on Facilities public hearing on January 16, 2026, DGS again confirmed its intent not
to follow the law.
ENROLLED ORIGINAL
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(d) Since the passage of the GGBA, the Council has also enacted several pieces of
emergency legislation exempting District-financed affordable housing projects from the
requirements of the GGBA in order to ensure predictability in project design and development.
(e) In consultation with the Executive, the Council has determined that updates to the
GGBA are necessary to ensure that the Executive is able to appropriately budget for capital
projects in FY27 and to provide affordable housing providers with the certainty needed for
upcoming funding rounds.
(f) Emergency legislation is therefore necessary to ensure that the Executive may budget
capital projects in FY27 based on reasonably modified, yet environmentally robust, standards
and to provide affordable housing developers seeking District financing with sufficient time to
prepare projects in accordance with the modified standards.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances, making it necessary that the Net
Zero Modification and Preservation Emergency Amendment Act of 2026 be adopted after a
single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.