Cooling ordinance O-26-22

Supported stronger cooling requirements, recounting testimony from renters without AC in 90-100 degree heat and criticizing delays in the city's encampment litigation.

Spoke as a renter with a dog worried about extreme heat, urging the council to stand up to out-of-state private equity landlords and pass the ordinance.

The apartment association director supported cooling in principle but argued a temperature standard is unenforceable and suggested dates instead, citing frozen pipes from March enforcement.

Supported cooling but warned that turning swamp coolers on before the last freeze bursts pipes and floods flat roofs, urging the bill be reworked.

An owner of ~2,000 units raised five technical objections: seasonal confusion, chillers that can't switch, shared ductwork, unmeasurable evaporative cooling, and electrical capacity costs that would raise rents and shrink older housing stock.

A local developer opposed the bill as written, citing PNM capacity limits, $50,000+ conversion costs that would be passed to renters, and urging time-based standards instead.