The New York City Zoning Resolution sets regulations for developing a property, including all developments and improvements, from a new building to a small home addition. These regulations can sometimes be burdensome and result in unnecessary challenges for the owner. NYC has a system known as a Zoning Variance, where you can request a special authorization to develop a property in contradiction with a specific zoning regulation.
Zoning Variance
In New York City, a Zoning Variance is filed with the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) after the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) disapproves the application. The BSA will review the project and determine if they will grant a variance. A Zoning Variance is a discretionary action, and the BSA can deny the variance.
A Zoning Variance provides relief from a specific zoning regulation for a specified extent of noncompliance. As architects, we submit drawings illustrating the exact proposed development. The BSA may request a redesign to limit the extent of the variance, or they may approve it as proposed. Either way, it is at their discretion to determine the outcome.
I am Jorge Fontan, an architect in New York and owner of NYC-based architecture firm Fontan Architecture. At our office, we work on various project types, including applications for Zoning Variances. In this post, I will review a Side Yard Zoning Variance we obtained for a client.
Zoning Hardship
One of the requirements for a Zoning Variance is that there must be a hardship. In the example below, the zoning regulation in question created a hardship, making the property difficult to build on.
Our client purchased a property that was 21 feet wide. He wanted to build a new home for his family on this property.
21 x 100 Foot Property
This property was in a zoning district requiring an eight-foot yard on one side. The problem is that an eight-foot side yard on a twenty-one-foot wide property only leaves thirteen feet to build on.
Zoning Side Yard Requirement
The resulting house would be only thirteen feet wide. We measure the thirteen feet to the outside of the walls therefore the interior usable space would be well under thirteen feet wide. We argued to the Board of Standards and Appeals that a thirteen-foot-wide house was unreasonable and clearly a hardship.
Zoning Hardship
Minimum Variance Necessary
The Zoning Resolution outlines multiple requirements for a Zoning Variance besides hardship. During our review process at BSA, the board brought up a concern for “Minimum Variance Necessary,” another one of the requirements for a Variance. They suggested we provide a four-foot side yard instead of an eight-foot yard. This four-foot yard would result in a seventeen-foot wide house, which would be an improvement from thirteen feet, but we wanted to build a twenty-one-foot wide house using the entire lot width.
After some great effort, we proved that a seventeen-foot wide house would not be sufficient and required the entire twenty-one feet. The BSA eventually agreed with us and conceded the point.
Approved Zoning Variance
The BSA approved our Variance application and granted us the zoning variance for the full twenty-one feet of the property. Obtaining the side yard variance was a great victory for this property as the resulting house would have been excessively narrow.
The final approved development was a three-story, twenty-one-foot-wide house with no side yards at all.
Zoning Variance Application
Below is a copy of the plans approved by the Board of Standards and Appeals for our granted Zoning Variance.
Approved Zoning Variance Plan
Zoning Variances
The most important thing I can tell you about Getting a Zoning Variance in NYC is that there is no guarantee the application will be approved. These requests are referred to as “discretionary actions” because it is at the board’s discretion whether or not to approve the application. Nobody can guarantee you a Zoning Variance.
We have another post discussing a Floor Area Zoning Variance in NYC if you want to see another example of one of our approved BSA Variances.
Thank You for Reading Our Blog Post on Obtaining a Side Yard Zoning Variance in NYC.
I hope this was helpful. If you would like to speak with an architect about a potential project, you can contact us at Fontan Architecture directly.
Contact Fontan Architecture
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.
