City Zoning

[alonzo-ny]

Could someone explain or point me in a direction of an explanation of city zoning. How to understand the maps and find out FAR, available air rights and all other things one might want to know about zoning.

[lofter1]

That ^^^ is a HUGE task ...

You might want to try starting at the NY CITY PLANNING Website (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html)


And the CITY PLANNING MAP & BOOKSTORE (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/pub/publist.shtml) :22 Reade Street

New York, NY 10007-1216

Walk in hours: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Phone: (212) 720-3667 / 3668

Fax orders: (212) 720-3646

Featured Publication

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/gif/pub/zonehand.jpg

Zoning Handbook, updated and expanded plain language guide to NYC zoning regulations, with color illustrations and summary descriptions of each zoning district, explanations of basic zoning concepts and regulatory procedures, glossary of zoning terminology, comparative tables and more, 2006. ($24.00 / $18.00 each for 10 or more copies).


View the excerpt (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/pub/zonehand.shtml).

[lofter1]

I came across this Power Point presentation (pdf file (http://mzarchitects.com/images/ZLM%20Sept%202006%20final.pdf)) which looks like it could be useful in understanding NYC Zoning:

Zoning Lot Mergers
and
Transfers of Development Rights

[Front_Porch]

This is what L1 was directing you to:

New York City Zoning Districts
The city is divided into three basic zoning districts: residential (R), commercial (C), and manufacturing (M). The three basic districts are further divided into a variety of lower-, medium- and higher-density residential, commercial and manufacturing districts.

Any of these districts may in turn be overlaid by special purpose zoning districts tailored to the unique characteristics of certain neighborhoods. Some blockfronts in residential districts may be overlaid as well by commercial districts providing for neighborhood retail stores and services. These overlay districts modify the controls of the underlying districts.

Each zoning district regulates:
permitted uses listed in one or more of 18 use groups (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#use_group);
the size of the building in relation to the size of the zoning lot (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#lot_or_zoning_lot), known as the floor area ratio or FAR (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#floor);
for residential uses, the number of dwelling units (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#dwelling_unit) permitted, the amount of open space (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#open_space) required on the zoning lot and the maximum amount of the lot that can be covered by a building (lot coverage (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#lot_coverage));
the distance between the building and the front, side and rear lot lines (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml#lot_line_zoning);
the amount of parking required; and
other features applicable to specific residential, commercial or manufacturing districts.ali r.
{downtown broker}

[lofter1]

Very concise and well presented ^^^ Ali R. :)

Now NO ONE will have any reason to be confused by NYC zoning :rolleyes:

[lofter1]

Norman Marcus,
New York City Zoning Expert,
Dies at 75

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/nyregion/07marcus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
By DENNIS HEVESI

July 7, 2008

Norman Marcus, who as general counsel to the New York City Planning Commission for more than 20 years drafted much of the intricate legal language intended to preserve the historic character of many of the city’s neighborhoods while still allowing new construction, died on June 30 at his home in Manhattan. He was 75.

The cause was cancer, his son-in-law Peter Miller said.

Mr. Marcus was a master of the labyrinthine codes and designations — the R8s and C7s — that list the rules on square footage, height, air rights, parking requirements, types of businesses and even exposure to sunlight that govern construction in a given area.

“He was my strong right arm in difficult days,” said John E. Zuccotti, the chairman of the planning commission from 1973 through 1975 and one of five chairmen Mr. Marcus advised in his 22-year career, starting in 1963.

Mr. Zuccotti was referring to a particular challenge he faced in his first year as chairman, a proposal by a City Charter commission to eliminate the City Planning Department. The department is the agency that carries out Planning Commission policy.

With Mr. Marcus’s help, Mr. Zuccotti said, “we were able to make them recognize the importance of planning and turn it around.”

Mr. Marcus was also “the spark plug behind many of the special districts that were created,” Mr. Zuccotti said. For example, he led the legal team that established the Midtown Manhattan district, in which air rights above Broadway theaters could be transferred to nearby development sites, thereby preserving the historic architecture of the theaters.

It was a concept that Mr. Marcus first promoted in 1968 when the Penn Central Railroad, which then owned Grand Central Terminal, struck a deal with a developer to build a 55-story office tower above the station, which had landmark status.

Working with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, Mr. Marcus and his legal team developed the plan for transferring the air rights above Grand Central to nearby locations. Penn Central challenged the idea through the courts and, in 1978, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the transfer was not illegal.

Mr. Marcus was also an architect of inclusionary zoning, which offers tax breaks to developers of luxury housing if they set aside a portion of their building — usually 20 percent — for low- or middle-income tenants. Inclusionary zoning started in Manhattan in the 1970s and now helps promote mixed-income neighborhoods in many sections of the city.

“He was part of the team that came up with the idea, and he certainly was the man who translated the idea into the legislation,” Mr. Zuccotti said.

Among Mr. Marcus’s other accomplishments was drafting the so-called loft law, which legalized artists’ occupation of loft spaces in what had once been mostly manufacturing districts.

Born in the Bronx on Aug. 31, 1932, Mr. Marcus was the only child of David and Evelyn Freed Marcus. He graduated from Columbia in 1953 and received a law degree from Yale four years later. While at Yale, he met Maria Lenhoff, whom he married in 1956. Ms. Marcus is now the Joseph M. McLaughlin professor of law at Fordham University.

Besides his wife, Mr. Marcus is survived by two daughters, Valerie and Nicole Marcus, both of Manhattan; a son, Eric, of Auburn, Ala.; and four grandchildren.

After leaving the Planning Commission in 1985, Mr. Marcus went into private practice while also teaching zoning law at New York University, the Cardozo School of Law, Pratt Institute and the architecture school at Princeton.

Two years ago, the Municipal Art Society of New York, an organization that promotes excellence in urban design and planning, cited Mr. Marcus for his “illustrious career using the art and craft of land-use law to shape a better New York.”

From his earliest days in public life, Mr. Marcus had been an ardent advocate of neighborhood preservation. In 1964, when New York City’s Board of Standards and Appeals, now defunct, granted the utility Consolidated Edison a zoning variance to build a power substation in a residential area of Upper Manhattan, Mr. Marcus called it “a classic example of the chaos which ensues when carefully considered legislation on zoning and urban renewal is ignored.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[lofter1]

Doris does decoding — again

The Villager (http://www.thevillager.com/villager_282/dorisdoes.html)
September 24 - 30, 2008

Doris Diether, zoning expert and longtime member of Community Board 2, is offering her ninth annual series of lectures, “Decoding Zoning NYC,” on five successive Wednesdays, Oct. 15 to Nov. 12.

The classes, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave. at 34th St., begin with an overview of the city’s zoning history from 1916 to the present. Subsequent lectures will cover basic zoning principles, regulations on uses and signs, the roles of the City Planning Commission and the Board of Standards and Appeals and public involvement and the interaction of the Department of Buildings with other city agencies in the zoning process. Cost of all five lectures is $135 and individual lectures are $30 each.

The American Institute of Architects will offer academic credit for successful completion of the course.

To register, phone 212-817-8215 or e-mail continuinged@gc.cuny.edu or visit http://www.gc.cuny.edu.