A Qualifying Ground Floor is a building who’s second floor is at least 13 feet above curb level. The NYC Zoning Resolution has certain code benefits for these types of buildings.
In New York City Zoning the Qualifying Ground Floor only applies too residential buildings within the Quality Housing Program who’s Second Floor is 13 feet or more above curb level. We have another post you may want to read if you are interested in learning more about the Quality Housing Program.
The Quality Housing Program is often abbreviated as QHP and Qualifying Ground Floor as QGF.
Qualifying Ground Floor Example
The Building Height and Base Height of a QHP building is a little higher in cases of buildings with a Qualifying Ground Floor,
Lets look at an example of a building in an R6A Zoning District.
Base Height
The typical base height in R6A is 40 – 60 feet but with a QGF it is 40 – 65 feet.
Building Height
The typical building height in R6A is 70 feet but with a QGF it is 75 feet.
Building Height for Inclusionary Housing
The typical building height in R6A with Inclusionary Housing is 80 feet but with a QGF it is 85 feet.
We have another post if you want to see more about the Inclusionary Housing Program.
Qualifying Ground Floor NYC Zoning
As an architect, I study Building and Zoning Codes closely, but these are complicated and quite involved issues. In this article, we reviewed some of the basic concepts with regards to a Qualifying Ground Floor. This post does not assume to cover every possible issue or condition, but provide a general overview of the topic.
Thank you for reading our blog post on Qualifying Ground Floor Building Heights.
I hope this was helpful. If you would like to speak with an architect, you can contact us at Fontan Architecture directly.
This post was written by Jorge Fontan AIA a Registered Architect and owner of New York City architecture firm Fontan Architecture. Jorge Fontan has earned 3 degrees in the study of architecture including two degrees from the City University of New York and a Masters Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. Jorge has a background in construction and has been practicing architecture for 20 years where he has designed renovations and new developments of various building types.
