NYC Council Passes ‘Proactive’ Building Safety Bill

A new city law will mandate ‘proactive’ building inspections in New York City, reports Nish Amarnath in Smart Cities Dive. “Int. 0904, the Billingsley Terrace Structural Integrity bill, requires the New York City Department of Buildings to create a risk-based inspection program that can identify dangerous buildings using a model to predict the likelihood of structural failures by assessing factors such as building data, violation history and any prior facade inspection reports.”

The bill aims to prevent building collapses and dangerous conditions in older buildings by identifying risks. “Bill Int. 0904 seeks to address deficiencies in the DOB’s complaints-driven, reactive inspection process — an issue that has surfaced in the city’s aging building stock and recent incidents, including the Billingsley Terrace collapse in the Bronx and the parking garage collapse in lower Manhattan, the city council said in the release.”

If signed by the mayor, the bill would require the DOB to develop a predictive model for the inspection program that would take into account a variety of building data including “qualified exterior wall inspector certification history, prior maintenance records, the number of 311 complaints filed, permit history, the date of the most recent alteration,” as well as building age, size, materials, floors, and more. Owners of buildings found deficient would have to submit a corrective action plan to make the building safe.