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The Appellate Division First Department recently reinstated a lawsuit against the City of New York regarding the legality of Local Law 97, the so-called “Climate Mobilization Act”. Local Law 97 was landmark legislation passed by the New York City Council in May 2019 and it requires extensive retrofits in New York City buildings to reduce carbon emissions. The law also implements large penalties for non-complying buildings. It is the most far-reaching piece of environmental legislation implemented in the Country. Its costs to New York City building owners, including Co-ops and Condos, are astronomical and its penalties are among the largest penalties ever assessed by a municipality against its residents and property owners.
Due to the extreme nature of Local Law 97, stakeholders were of the opinion that it was worthy of a vigorous judicial review. As a result, a lawsuit was filed in 2022, with Glen Oaks Village Owners Inc. as the lead plaintiff, challenging the legality of Local Law 97 on several grounds. On November 2023 the Supreme Court, New York County, dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety.
The Plaintiff’s appealed and the Appellate Division reinstated one cause of action. The cause of action that was reinstated was based on a legal theory known as preemption. Basically, if a State law covers the same issues as a local municipal law, the provisions of the State law preempt the municipal law.
In the Appellate Court’s decision, the Court agreed that there is a triable issue regarding the Plaintiff’s argument that Local Law 97 is preempted by New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which also deals with combatting climate change and improving air quality. As a result of these apparent conflicts in laws, the case will be remanded back to the Supreme Court for discovery and a hearing on this issue.
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Click Here for a Copy of the Decision
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