I have a little bit of a technical question, I have a building located in an inclusionary housing designated area (Brooklyn Community District 1). The building is zoned commercial C4-4A with a FAR 4, the equivalent zoning for C4-4A is R7A which has a FAR 3.45 and a FAR 4.6 with the inclusionary housing bonus (but lets disregard the inclusionary housing bonus for this question). If I wanted to develop a mixed use building with commercial and residential, would my permitted commercial FAR stay at 4 or would it be 3.45 due to the inclusionary housing location?
Example: If I develop 1.0 FAR of commercial use, how much FAR would I have left for residential?
Thanks in Advance
Non Sequitur
Nov 9, 19 7:12 pm
what did your architect say?
BulgarBlogger
Nov 9, 19 9:51 pm
Do you have a commercial overlay? I am licensed in New York State and do a lot of zoning. It gets incredibly complicated to give you a quick and reliable answer for free without spending some time- something any competent architect shluld and would have to charge you for. Spend the money for a feasibility study. Don't be cheap trying to figure it out yourself.
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 10:17 pm
you're not even asking the question correctly.
hire a professional.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 9, 19 11:10 pm
The commercial portion of the residential building would be governed by the commercial FAR requirements, whereas the residential per the residential equivalent requirements.
Please note thst hotels, though considered residentsl R-1 occupancies in the building code) are commercial zoning uses.
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 11:12 pm
I thought you got a lot of good work. seem desperate to me explaining a bad question. I'm thinking you don't even know how to design? are you one of those outer borough rubber stampers, like Russian or some shit (even though it say Bulgar, maybe bulgarian)....how's your English?
BulgarBlogger
Nov 9, 19 11:28 pm
lol not a rubber stamper. I know the NYC zoning resolution really well, and do a lot of code review. Indeed, fhe question wasn't phrased very well by the OP, but if you read between the lines, its quite simple. Jealous you weren't able to figure it out?
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 11:30 pm
you sure?
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 11:35 pm
yeah, you're slavic or some retard shit like Russian, you looked between the lines when there was nothing between the lines. are you still sure?
BulgarBlogger
Nov 9, 19 11:36 pm
Since it sounds like you know something I don't- why don't we just lay the carss
BulgarBlogger
Nov 9, 19 11:36 pm
cards* out on the table. Tell me where I'm wrong.
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 11:36 pm
you killed the fun bruh...lets confuse this one time poster I say!
Happy Anarchy
Nov 9, 19 11:37 pm
to be fair. I'm an asshole.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 4:06 pm
Happy you seem pretty angry, take it easy.
Thank you Bulgar, I appreciate the effort. The reason I am here is to resolve a conflict I am having with my my Architects zoning analysis. He is telling me that if I develop a mixed use (comm/residential) building, that my commercial FAR would be 3.45. Now I went through every article and every chapter of the zoning resolution and I can't seem to find anywhere, where it states that my commercial FAR will change in anyway.
I wanted to see if any anyone here can help me figure this out.
Thanks again
There is no commercial overlay, this is a C4-4A, equivalent to a R7A. Located in Brooklyn community district 1 (w/ voluntary inclusionary housing).
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 4:14 pm
Let me ask you: why are YOU doing your architect's work? Do you do self diagnose yourself before going to the doctor too?
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 4:16 pm
So if your parcel is 50wide by 130 deep; say you have a 30' rear yard setbacks
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 4:16 pm
So if your parcel is 50wide by 130 deep; say you have a 30' rear yard setbacks
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 4:25 pm
scratch the above; you need to figure out how many stories you can have, regardless of use. Then you work backwards. So if you determine you can have an 10-story building, but only want commercial on the first floor, the first story will be the commercial FAR, while the other 9 will be residential-equivalent FAR. This gets a bit tricky due to height factor zoning, so a more-in-depth analysis needs to be done. You'll most likely end up with a "base-and-tower" building configureation, in which the base will have a maximum-height street before hitting the sky exposire plane, while the tower will be set back from the street wall and conform to height facot requirements.
I've never worked with him before, my contractor had him do a zoning analysis. When I received it I thought it was off that he lowered my commercial FAR from 4 to 3.45. I am not going to just say OK and let go of 1,300 square of development air rights in a prime area of williamsburg.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 4:50 pm
Thanks Rick, I appreciate the help.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 4:51 pm
Thanks Bulgar, I appreciate the help.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 4:56 pm
Can you send me a link to any information for contacting
the AHJ officer?
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 4:58 pm
"My contractor..." That is your first problem. You put the cart before the horse. Why not just work with an architect first? Shaking my head...
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 5:02 pm
Robert- Rick isn't licensed and hasn't gone to architecture school. He knows nothing about the NYC zoning or code regulations, as his work experience extends to exempt buildings and light commercial facilities not requiring an architect in Oregon. So take what he says with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, I am licensed in multiple states, including NY and CA and have a firm ha dle on the zoning and code issues in NYC. Take that for what it is, but in my experience- trying to cut corners in this city is a penny wise, a dollar short. Take it from a fellow Jew: stop bein cheep.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 5:03 pm
hire a competent architect and always consult with an architect first.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 5:11 pm
I am not looking to cut corners or hang my contractors architect. I just want to double verify what my FAR is.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 5:14 pm
Until Friday morning, I was positive my commercial FAR was 4, I just want to know where or who can verify it for me. I would more than happy to pay if someone can help.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 5:27 pm
if things don't work out with your current architect, PM me and I can take a look at it for you on an hourly basis.
robertcohen
Nov 10, 19 5:30 pm
Sure, please email me your info and a good time to call.
Bulgar, did you email me or was that someone else. Please put Bulgar in the email so I know its you.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 7:15 pm
The quality housing program is the answer to the question about the FAR requriements.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 8:09 pm
omg- this is exactly what I am yalking about. You are not inlynu licensed, but trying to give a professional opinion on a complicated subject matter and specific question for a property in a city that you are entirely unfamiliar with. The page you sent is supposed to be a zoning overview. The only thing that governs is the ZONING TEXT, not some webpage that is published for general information only. Look at the Quality Housing Program if you're intereseted. Any district with a letter suffix,
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 8:10 pm
residential district with a letter suffix is contextual, and therefore needs tk complg with the requirements of Quality Housing. The FAR under Quality Housing for R7A has a base FAR of 3.45
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 6:37 pm
By-the-way: a C4-4A district is a contextual commercial district, which means that any residential equivalent will have a letter suffix, which means that it needs to conform the requirements of the quality housing program.
BulgarBlogger
Nov 10, 19 7:52 pm
Rick, while people on this forum are NOT obliged or required in any way to either give or receive advice seriously, nor are they obliged to be correct about any advice they give, nobody on here knows who js licensed and whonis not. SO: when you start participating in conversations in a way that makes others potentially believe that the advice you are giving is coming from a licensed professional, that sentiment makes licensed architects like myself feel like you are speaking on behalf of all of us. You need to either out a dislaimer before all your posts, or stop participating in a way that makes others believe your your comments are definite or legitimate. That's like going to a medical forum and epecting to hear advice from a Doctor, only to find out that seemingly valid advice is coming from a Med School drop out.
l
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 2:43 am
a disclaimer would be useful. might I recommend the following: Richard Balkins is not an architect; he has no education, experience, or professional credentials in architecture that would remotely qualify him to give advice or input on any question about or related to the discipline of architecture, whether said question is professional, academic, theoretical, or technical. He holds an associates degree that took him several years to acquire, lives with his parents at the age of 38, and calls himself a “building designer,” despite having never designed a building. Consider all of this before accepting anything he says as relevant, informed, or of even the slightest utility.
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 7:55 am
wow, two whole associate’s degrees! one of which took you 11 years to complete. and let’s not forget that all-important and completely unverifiable decade of self-directed study. you demonstrate with every comically long-winded and desperate post that you know absolutely nothing about architecture and have no standing to give advice to anyone that might come here.
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 3:32 pm
no idea where you got the idea that I’m not licensed. I am.
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 3:35 pm
for those of us who actually went to architecture school and worked in real offices, licensure is astoundingly easy to achieve.
eeayeeayo
Nov 11, 19 3:53 pm
Richard do you have a driver's license?
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 4:00 pm
Balkins just accused another person of having poor reading comprehension and poor retention of facts. let’s all just bask in that delicious irony.
placebeyondthesplines
Nov 11, 19 4:39 pm
ah, banished from this one too. godspeed you fucking dipshit.
tduds
Nov 11, 19 12:23 pm
Like moths to a flame with this thread.
Robert: get a second opinion. Pay for it. Sounds like Bulgar has the knowledge to help you. Hope it works out.
threeohdoor
Nov 11, 19 3:54 pm
Pay for secondsies. Bulgar is on the right track with Quality Housing but he is also right that when you add the phrases "Quality Housing," "Inclusionary Housing," "Overlays," "Mixed-Use," "Qualifying Ground Floors," etc, you get real tangled real fast.
I'll also note that depending on who your examiner is and which expediter you use, your results may vary. The Brooklyn DOB is a clusterf*** and zoning "approvals" can send mixed messages.
Apurimac
Nov 11, 19 10:35 pm
Check ZR 35-31. Your architect is right unless your in the waterfront BK-1 area.
Your FAR cap is 3.45 unless you provide inclusionary.
I have a little bit of a technical question, I have a building located in an inclusionary housing designated area (Brooklyn Community District 1). The building is zoned commercial C4-4A with a FAR 4, the equivalent zoning for C4-4A is R7A which has a FAR 3.45 and a FAR 4.6 with the inclusionary housing bonus (but lets disregard the inclusionary housing bonus for this question). If I wanted to develop a mixed use building with commercial and residential, would my permitted commercial FAR stay at 4 or would it be 3.45 due to the inclusionary housing location?
Example: If I develop 1.0 FAR of commercial use, how much FAR would I have left for residential?
Thanks in Advance
what did your architect say?
Do you have a commercial overlay? I am licensed in New York State and do a lot of zoning. It gets incredibly complicated to give you a quick and reliable answer for free without spending some time- something any competent architect shluld and would have to charge you for. Spend the money for a feasibility study. Don't be cheap trying to figure it out yourself.
you're not even asking the question correctly.
hire a professional.
The commercial portion of the residential building would be governed by the commercial FAR requirements, whereas the residential per the residential equivalent requirements.
Please note thst hotels, though considered residentsl R-1 occupancies in the building code) are commercial zoning uses.
I thought you got a lot of good work. seem desperate to me explaining a bad question. I'm thinking you don't even know how to design? are you one of those outer borough rubber stampers, like Russian or some shit (even though it say Bulgar, maybe bulgarian)....how's your English?
lol not a rubber stamper. I know the NYC zoning resolution really well, and do a lot of code review. Indeed, fhe question wasn't phrased very well by the OP, but if you read between the lines, its quite simple. Jealous you weren't able to figure it out?
you sure?
yeah, you're slavic or some retard shit like Russian, you looked between the lines when there was nothing between the lines. are you still sure?
Since it sounds like you know something I don't- why don't we just lay the carss
cards* out on the table. Tell me where I'm wrong.
you killed the fun bruh...lets confuse this one time poster I say!
to be fair. I'm an asshole.
Happy you seem pretty angry, take it easy.
Thank you Bulgar, I appreciate the effort. The reason I am here is to resolve a conflict I am having with my my Architects zoning analysis. He is telling me that if I develop a mixed use (comm/residential) building, that my commercial FAR would be 3.45. Now I went through every article and every chapter of the zoning resolution and I can't seem to find anywhere, where it states that my commercial FAR will change in anyway.
I wanted to see if any anyone here can help me figure this out.
Thanks again
There is no commercial overlay, this is a C4-4A, equivalent to a R7A. Located in Brooklyn community district 1 (w/ voluntary inclusionary housing).
Let me ask you: why are YOU doing your architect's work? Do you do self diagnose yourself before going to the doctor too?
So if your parcel is 50wide by 130 deep; say you have a 30' rear yard setbacks
So if your parcel is 50wide by 130 deep; say you have a 30' rear yard setbacks
scratch the above; you need to figure out how many stories you can have, regardless of use. Then you work backwards. So if you determine you can have an 10-story building, but only want commercial on the first floor, the first story will be the commercial FAR, while the other 9 will be residential-equivalent FAR. This gets a bit tricky due to height factor zoning, so a more-in-depth analysis needs to be done. You'll most likely end up with a "base-and-tower" building configureation, in which the base will have a maximum-height street before hitting the sky exposire plane, while the tower will be set back from the street wall and conform to height facot requirements.
also check out this bulletin for the 50% rule regarding multiple cellar levels...https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/bldgs_bulletins/bb_2012-008.pdf
I've never worked with him before, my contractor had him do a zoning analysis. When I received it I thought it was off that he lowered my commercial FAR from 4 to 3.45. I am not going to just say OK and let go of 1,300 square of development air rights in a prime area of williamsburg.
Thanks Rick, I appreciate the help.
Thanks Bulgar, I appreciate the help.
Can you send me a link to any information for contacting the AHJ officer?
"My contractor..." That is your first problem. You put the cart before the horse. Why not just work with an architect first? Shaking my head...
Robert- Rick isn't licensed and hasn't gone to architecture school. He knows nothing about the NYC zoning or code regulations, as his work experience extends to exempt buildings and light commercial facilities not requiring an architect in Oregon. So take what he says with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, I am licensed in multiple states, including NY and CA and have a firm ha dle on the zoning and code issues in NYC. Take that for what it is, but in my experience- trying to cut corners in this city is a penny wise, a dollar short. Take it from a fellow Jew: stop bein cheep.
hire a competent architect and always consult with an architect first.
I am not looking to cut corners or hang my contractors architect. I just want to double verify what my FAR is.
Until Friday morning, I was positive my commercial FAR was 4, I just want to know where or who can verify it for me. I would more than happy to pay if someone can help.
if things don't work out with your current architect, PM me and I can take a look at it for you on an hourly basis.
Sure, please email me your info and a good time to call.
[email protected]
Bulgar, did you email me or was that someone else. Please put Bulgar in the email so I know its you.
The quality housing program is the answer to the question about the FAR requriements.
omg- this is exactly what I am yalking about. You are not inlynu licensed, but trying to give a professional opinion on a complicated subject matter and specific question for a property in a city that you are entirely unfamiliar with. The page you sent is supposed to be a zoning overview. The only thing that governs is the ZONING TEXT, not some webpage that is published for general information only. Look at the Quality Housing Program if you're intereseted. Any district with a letter suffix,
residential district with a letter suffix is contextual, and therefore needs tk complg with the requirements of Quality Housing. The FAR under Quality Housing for R7A has a base FAR of 3.45
By-the-way: a C4-4A district is a contextual commercial district, which means that any residential equivalent will have a letter suffix, which means that it needs to conform the requirements of the quality housing program.
Rick, while people on this forum are NOT obliged or required in any way to either give or receive advice seriously, nor are they obliged to be correct about any advice they give, nobody on here knows who js licensed and whonis not. SO: when you start participating in conversations in a way that makes others potentially believe that the advice you are giving is coming from a licensed professional, that sentiment makes licensed architects like myself feel like you are speaking on behalf of all of us. You need to either out a dislaimer before all your posts, or stop participating in a way that makes others believe your your comments are definite or legitimate. That's like going to a medical forum and epecting to hear advice from a Doctor, only to find out that seemingly valid advice is coming from a Med School drop out.
l
a disclaimer would be useful. might I recommend the following: Richard Balkins is not an architect; he has no education, experience, or professional credentials in architecture that would remotely qualify him to give advice or input on any question about or related to the discipline of architecture, whether said question is professional, academic, theoretical, or technical. He holds an associates degree that took him several years to acquire, lives with his parents at the age of 38, and calls himself a “building designer,” despite having never designed a building. Consider all of this before accepting anything he says as relevant, informed, or of even the slightest utility.
wow, two whole associate’s degrees! one of which took you 11 years to complete. and let’s not forget that all-important and completely unverifiable decade of self-directed study. you demonstrate with every comically long-winded and desperate post that you know absolutely nothing about architecture and have no standing to give advice to anyone that might come here.
no idea where you got the idea that I’m not licensed. I am.
for those of us who actually went to architecture school and worked in real offices, licensure is astoundingly easy to achieve.
Richard do you have a driver's license?
Balkins just accused another person of having poor reading comprehension and poor retention of facts. let’s all just bask in that delicious irony.
ah, banished from this one too. godspeed you fucking dipshit.
Like moths to a flame with this thread.
Robert: get a second opinion. Pay for it. Sounds like Bulgar has the knowledge to help you. Hope it works out.
Pay for secondsies. Bulgar is on the right track with Quality Housing but he is also right that when you add the phrases "Quality Housing," "Inclusionary Housing," "Overlays," "Mixed-Use," "Qualifying Ground Floors," etc, you get real tangled real fast.
I'll also note that depending on who your examiner is and which expediter you use, your results may vary. The Brooklyn DOB is a clusterf*** and zoning "approvals" can send mixed messages.
Check ZR 35-31. Your architect is right unless your in the waterfront BK-1 area.
Your FAR cap is 3.45 unless you provide inclusionary.