Gennaro explains idling law and Air Complaint Portal expansion
Gennaro explains that idling is limited to one minute near schools or parks and three minutes elsewhere. He says the 2019 Citizen Air Complaint Portal made enforcement easier and that stakeholders have asked for reforms since 2024.
To address these air quality concerns, the New York City Air Code prohibits motor vehicles from idling for longer than one minute near a school or a park and for longer than three minutes elsewhere.
Although a citizen complaint program process for these air code provisions has existed in local law since 1971,
to better facilitate participation in the citizen complaint program, in 2019, the city established the City Air Complaint Portal, which allowed the public to more easily submit evidence of idling to DEP.
Since then, the number of idling complaints submitted each year has been climbing dramatically, from 9,070
complaints submitted in 2019 to 163,090 complaints submitted in 2025.
In that time, stakeholders, including DEP, have called upon the Council to reform this program to make it more efficient and fairer for all involved.
As evidenced by the committee's hearing on citizen enforcement program and accompanying legislation in 2024, and again today, when did we last hear this bill?
Yeah, so we last heard this bill in 2024.
And again today.
I am committed, as is this committee, to doing our best to make this program easier and fairer for all parties while maintaining the Council's ultimate goal of reducing harmful air pollution.