Council Passes Gennaro-Garodnick Bill to Encourage Innovation

It will soon be easier for City agencies to fasttrack green technologies, following a unanimous vote by the City Council on Intro 77.

The bill — which Council Member Garodnick co-sponsored with Council Member Jim Gennaro, and which Speaker Quinn highlighted in her State of the City speech — creates a "Green Team" to promote cooperation among the many City agencies that must approve new advancements in sustainability, to ensure that they do not die a slow death as they move through the regulatory maze. It also creates a new division in the Department of Buildings whose sole purpose will be to streamline approvals for building innovations.

"This is a forward-thinking bill that will not only work with technologies on the market today, but also those that we can't even anticipate right now," Council Member Garodnick said. "It will aid innovators, help open the market to green-collar jobs, and allow New York City to be on the cutting edge."