Eric Michael Johnson for The New York Times: BrightFarms, a company that finances, builds and operates rooftop greenhouses for food retailers, recently announced the opening of the nation's largest rooftop farm in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
April 26, 2012 - New York City is about to update its zoning regulations to catch up with the Bloomberg administration’s environmental image and to make it easier for buildings to insulate exterior walls, install solar panels and put gardens on rooftops.
With buildings accounting for 75 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, city planners say, the hope is that owners will take steps to increase their structures’ energy efficiency, produce their own renewable energy, put storm water to good use and, in some cases, even grow food.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council support the proposed new rules, which the Council is expected to approve in a vote scheduled for Monday. The zoning changes would affect building types as varied as office towers, warehouses and apartment buildings.
The new regulations would encourage better insulation by allowing buildings to add up to eight inches of thickness to exterior walls without its being counted in the building’s maximum footprint. Other changes would relax height limits and facade restrictions to make room for equipment like solar panels, wind turbines, awnings, green roofs, recreational decks and skylights. read more>>>
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