Int. No. 854

By Council Members Gerson, Brewer, Liu and Palma

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring motion detectors for commercial buildings.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Chapter 13 of the building code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section BC1302:

1302  Requiring motion detectors in commercial buildings. a. For purposes of this section, "commercial building" shall mean all buildings and structures, except those classified by this code in occupancy groups “I” or “R”.

b. Motion detectors shall be installed as part of all new construction of commercial buildings for the purpose of shutting off lights when movement has not been detected for a period to be established by the commissioner by rule, but such period shall not be longer than twenty minutes.  Such motion detectors shall also be installed within one year of the effective date of this section for all existing commercial buildings.

c. There shall be at least one motion detector for each unit of area determined by the commissioner by rule, but not less than one for every one hundred square feet or portion thereof of such building except for stairwells intended to be used in case of emergencies.  However, if a portion of such building may be fully enclosed in such a manner as the distance within such enclosed area is less than one hundred square feet and there is artificial light within such enclosed area, then a motion detector shall be installed within such enclosed area.

§2. This local law shall take effect thirty days after enactment.

LF

LS #3364

10/17/08