On December 10, Int. 1482-B/NYC Local Law 15 was passed by the NYC Council, 43-3! This bill requires bird-friendly materials on new and substantially altered buildings.

NYC Local Law 15 is an amendment to the administrative code of the city of New York that goes into law January 10th, 2021. It will not apply to applications for construction document approval filed before that date.

• Bird-friendly materials must be used on the majority of the exterior of new buildings, and renovated buildings that replace all exterior glazing, up to 75 feet and up to 12 feet above a green roof.

  • There should be no more than 10 square feet of materials other than bird-friendly materials collectively within a 100 square foot area.

• Bird-friendly materials used must have a threat factor of 25 or less. This means that when the glass or other materials are tested, birds fly towards the material only 25% of the time or less.

• Awnings, handrails/guards, windbreak panels, or acoustic barriers made of glass must be made of bird-friendly materials no matter what height they are at.

  • Fly-through conditions, such as a glass walking bridge or glass corner of a building, must use bird-friendly materials up to 75 feet.

Exceptions:

• Where ground floor transparency is required by NYC zoning (retail spaces) spaces can use transparent bird-friendly material with a UV-reflective pattern maximum and max threat factor of 27.

• In areas of special flood hazard where flood resistant glazing is proposed and ground floor transparency is required by NYC Zoning, transparent bird-friendly material with a UV-reflective pattern and a max threat factor of 36 can be used.

Full text on NYC Council site.

If you who called, emailed, wrote, or tweeted at your city councilperson: thank you! It wouldn't hurt to send them a thank-you note, either. You can find their vote and their Twitter handle here.