Empire State Building, 1931

As early as the 1870’s and 1880’s, New Yorkers began to protest the loss of light and air as tall residential buildings began to appear in Manhattan. In response, the state legislature enacted a series of height restrictions on residential buildings, culminating in the Tenement House Act of 1901.

By then, New York City had become the financial center of the country and expanding businesses needed office space. With the introduction of steel beam construction techniques and improved elevators, technical restraints that had limited building height vanished. The Manhattan skyline was beginning to assume its distinctive form.

In 1915, when the 42-story Equitable Building was erected in Lower Manhattan, the need for controls on the height and form of all buildings became clear. Rising without setbacks to its full height, the Equitable Building cast a seven-acre shadow over neighboring buildings, affecting their value and setting the stage for the nation’s first zoning resolution.

Other forces were also at work during the same period. Housing shortages, caused by an influx of new immigrants, created a market for tenements built to maximum bulk and minimum standards. Warehouses and factories began to encroach upon the fashionable stores along Ladies’ Mile, edging uncomfortably close to Fifth Avenue. Intrusions like these and the impacts of rapid growth added urgency to the calls of reformers for new and more effective height and setback controls for all uses, and for zoning restrictions separating residential, commercial and manufacturing uses.

The concept of enacting a set of laws to govern land use was revolutionary but the time had come for the city to regulate its surging physical growth. The ground-breaking Zoning Resolution of 1916, though a relatively simple document, established height and setback controls and designated residential districts that excluded what were seen as incompatible uses. It fostered the iconic tall, slender towers that epitomize the city’s business districts and established the familiar context of three- to six-story residential buildings found in much of the city. The new ordinance became a model for urban communities throughout the United States as other growing cities found that New York’s problems were not unique.

But, while other cities were adopting the New York model, the model itself refused to stand still. The Zoning Resolution was constantly amended to be responsive to major shifts in population and land use caused by a variety of factors: continuing waves of immigration that helped to swell the city’s population from five million in 1916 to almost eight million in 1960; new mass transit routes and the growth corridors they created; the emergence of technology and consequent economic and lifestyle changes; the introduction of government housing and development programs; and, perhaps more than anything else, the rise of the automobile, which revolutionized land use patterns and created traffic and parking problems never imagined in 1916.

Lever House, 1952

By mid-century, many of the underlying planning principles of the 1916 document no longer stood the test of time. If, for example, the city had been built out at the density envisioned in 1916, it could have contained over 55 million people, far beyond its realistic capacity. New theories were capturing the imaginations of planners. Le Corbusier’s “towers-in the- park” were influencing urban designers of the time and the concept of incentive zoning—trading additional floor area for public amenities—began to take hold. The last, still vacant areas on the city’s edges needed to be developed at densities that recognized the new, automobile-oriented lifestyle. And demands to make zoning approvals simpler, swifter and more comprehensible were a constant.

Eventually, it was evident that the original 1916 framework needed to be completely reconsidered. After lengthy study and public debate, the current Zoning Resolution was enacted and took effect in 1961.

The 1961 Zoning Resolution (30.6 MB) was a product of its time. It coordinated use and bulk regulations, incorporated parking requirements and emphasized the creation of open space. It introduced incentive zoning by adding a bonus of extra floor space to encourage developers of office buildings and apartment towers to incorporate public plazas into their projects. In the city’s business districts, it accommodated a new type of high-rise office building with large, open floors of a consistent size. Elsewhere in the city, the 1961 zoning dramatically reduced achievable residential densities, largely at the edges of the city.

Although based upon the leading planning theories of the day, aspects of those zoning policies have revealed certain shortcomings over the years. The emphasis on open space has sometimes resulted in buildings that overwhelm their surroundings, and the open spaces created by incentive zoning provisions have not always been useful or attractive. Urban design theories have changed as well. Today, tower-in-thepark developments, set back far from the city street, are often viewed as isolating and contrary to the city’s vitality.

Time passes, land uses change and zoning policy accommodates, anticipates and guides those changes. In a certain sense, zoning is never final; it is renewed constantly in response to new ideas— and to new challenges.

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Zoning Enforcement
The NYC Department of Buildings has primary responsibility for enforcing the Zoning Resolution and for interpreting its provisions. Among its responsibilities, the Department of Buildings::

• Grants applications for building permits when the provisions of the Zoning Resolution, the Building Code and other applicable laws are met;
  
  
• Reviews and grants applications for certificates of occupancy, allowing legal occupancy of new or altered structures;
  
  
• Interprets the provisions of the Zoning Resolution, subject to appeal to the BSA, and promulgates procedures and guidelines for its administration;
  
  
• Orders the remedy of zoning violations and, as appropriate, prosecutes violations at the Environmental Control Board and, with the NYC Law Department, before the courts; and
  
  
• Maintains public records of all building permits, certificates of occupancy, inspections, violations and other property profile information.

In some cases, administrative and enforcement responsibilities are delegated to other agencies with special expertise. For example, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection enforces industrial performance standards related to air quality, and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development administers Inclusionary Housing provisions.


Zoning Modifications and Waivers
CPC Authorizations
Under circumstances specified in the Zoning Resolution, the City Planning Commission may, at its discretion and by resolution at a public meeting, modify certain zoning requirements for a particular development provided that specific findings have been satisfied. For example, lot coverage controls in the Special Hillsides District may be modified if the CPC finds that development would not be possible without the modification, that preservation of hillsides having aesthetic value would be assured, and that the modification would not impair the natural topography, drainage or essential character of the area. Authorizations do not require public hearings and are not subject to ULURP, but are informally referred to affected community boards for comment.

CPC Special Permits
As specified in the Zoning Resolution and subject to satisfaction of specified findings, the City Planning Commission may grant special permits modifying use, bulk or parking controls. Examples include: transfers of unused development rights from landmark sites to adjacent properties; development of public parking garages; and floor area bonuses for certain public amenities. Because they generally involve significant planning issues, special permit applications must contain site plans and the CPC may stipulate certain conditions and safeguards prior to granting the permit.

Special permits under CPC jurisdiction are reviewed by the affected community board(s) and borough president(s) and by the CPC pursuant to ULURP, and may also be reviewed by the City Council.

BSA Special Permits
The Board of Standards and Appeals may grant special permits for modification of certain zoning regulations which are generally more limited in scope or impact than those reviewed by the City Planning Commission. The modifications must satisfy findings spelled out in the Zoning resolution and may include, for example: limited expansion of a building into a district where it would not otherwise be permitted; limited enlargement or conversion of a building to a size not otherwise permitted; or adjustment of off-street parking requirements. Special permits granted by BSA are referred for comment to affected community boards but are not subject to ULURP or City Council review.

BSA Variances
When development of a particular parcel of land pursuant to zoning would be impractical or cause the owner undue hardship, the Board of Standards and Appeals may grant a variance from use and bulk provisions to the extent necessary to permit a reasonable use of the parcel. A variance may be granted, following a public hearing, only for a specific development and may be for a specified period of time. In order to grant a variance, the board must find that:

• The practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship is caused by unique physical circumstances;
  
  
• The practical difficulty or hardship was not caused by the property owner or his predecessors;
  
  
• A variance is necessary to realize a reasonable return (except in the case of a non-profit applicant);
  
  
• The essential character of the neighborhood will not be altered, use of adjacent property will not be substantially impaired, and public welfare will not be detrimentally affected; and
  
  
• The variance given is the minimum necessary to provide relief.
  
  

For more information about variances, go to BSA.

Zoning Amendments

Illustrative 'sketch map' of zoning map amendment

An amendment to the zoning text or zoning map, unlike a variance, is a legislative action not limited to a specific development and it generally affects a larger geographic area than a variance. It is generally unconditional, has no time limit and affects all property equally within the area subject to the change. Amendments to the zoning text or maps, sometimes called "rezonings," are often proposed by the Department of City Planning and other public entities to effect broad changes in public land use policy or to address changing land use conditions. Amendments may also be proposed by private applicants to facilitate development proposals.

Pursuant to Sections 200 and 201 of the City Charter, amendments can be initiated by a taxpayer, community board, borough board, borough president, the Land Use Committee of the City Council, the City Planning Commission or the Mayor. Zoning map amendments may be adopted only after public review by the affected community board(s), borough president(s), the City Planning Commission and the City Council pursuant to the ULURP time clock and other provisions. Zoning text amendments must be approved by the Commission and adopted by the City Council, following a ULURP-like review process that does not set a time limit for CPC review.

The Zoning Resolution is amended frequently, both to keep zoning up-to-date in a rapidly changing city and to fulfill the City Planning Commission’s charter-mandated responsibility "for the conduct of planning relating to the orderly growth, improvement and future development of the city."

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