Zoning Resolution for New York City
The Zoning Resolution for New York City ( Engl. Zoning Law ) is a building regulation of the city government of New York City . It regulates the use of land, the intensity of use and the physical form of the development (for example, the building height, distances to the street and other buildings) and other aspects of land use, such as the minimum size of courtyards and gardens or the provision of Parking lots. Building standards are not part of this regulation; these are specified in the building code .
history
The 1916 zoning resolution for New York City was the first zoning resolution in the United States. She was groundbreaking for urban planning throughout the US and shaped decisively the skyline of Manhattan with the characteristic downgrades ( setbacks ; the buildings are thinner with increasing altitude) to skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building . Attempts to control the physical structure of the city had already existed - through various Tenement House Acts , the city administration had tried as early as 1867 to enforce certain minimum structural standards for apartment buildings .
The Zoning Resolution for New York City was implemented in 1916 by Edward Bassett, one of the founding fathers of modern urban planning, and the Mayor of Manhattan, George McAneny.
The reasons for this were that there were complaints about incompatible land uses (e.g. residential areas next to heavy industry), which led to health risks for local residents, and the construction of ever taller skyscrapers , such as the construction of the Equitable Building , which was completed in 1915 .
One saw a development on the part of the city administration, in the course of which more and more houses would get higher and higher and stand very close together, so that the streets between them looked like narrow ravines and got less and less light. The Zoning Resolution therefore stated that buildings must be downgraded the higher they get.
The entire city was also divided into different districts ( zones ), in which only certain land uses were allowed. For example, heavy industry was banned in a residential area.
In the course of time, however, the zoning resolution of 1916 was no longer able to cope with the requirements of urban planning. The growth of the population of New York from 5 million in 1916 to almost 8 million in 1961, the introduction of social housing and, in particular, the massive spread of the automobile made a fundamental revision of the Zoning Resolution necessary, which (theoretically) had a (completely unrealistic) population of New Yorks would have allowed 55 million people.
content
The Zoning Resolution currently in force was issued on December 15, 1961 and replaced the previous Zoning Resolution from 1916. However, the Zoning Resolution is subject to constant adjustment and revision by the New York City Department of City Planning, so the Zoning Resolution in its current version only largely corresponds to the original version from 1961.
The zoning resolution consists of two parts: the zoning text , in which the individual types of use are defined and the usage restrictions and the building shape for the individual zoning districts are specified, and the zoning map , on which the boundaries of the individual zoning districts are graphically displayed for the whole of New York Urban area are set.
There are basically three different types of zoning districts:
- Residential areas ( residence districts ), marked with an "R" on the zoning map - commercial or industrial use is generally not permitted in residential areas;
- Commercial areas ( Commercial Districts ), marked with a "C" - with few exceptions, a residential use is permitted in marked with "C" areas, however, no industrial use;
- Industrial areas ( Manufacturing Districts ), marked with an "M" - in almost all industrial areas, commercial use is permitted with conditions, but residential use is prohibited almost everywhere;
- there is no zoning in parks ;
- additional regulations apply to land along the coasts or larger bodies of water.
A zoning district is defined more precisely by trailing numbers and letters, whereby the intensity of use usually increases with increasing number: For example, R1 districts are residential areas with detached single-family houses, R10 districts are apartment buildings without (theoretical) height restrictions. Trailing letters in a zoning designation (e.g. R6A) indicate contextual districts that have special design regulations, such as height restrictions, minimum heights for the facade, etc.
Latest developments
Contextual districts are a relatively new development of traditional zoning to achieve a more homogeneous cityscape. Other innovations in recent years are inclusionary zoning , which seeks to build more public housing by allowing investors to build taller and taller buildings if they provide a certain percentage of housing for low- and middle-income residents.
In mixed-use districts , attempts are being made to enable different types of space to be used in order to maintain a livelier cityscape or to facilitate the transition from former industrial areas, in which more and more lofts are being taken over by artists, to residential areas.
In recent years, design elements have also increasingly been included in the zoning. For example, design guidelines for the design of bank zones and large parking lots were included in the zoning resolution.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ New York City Department of City Planning: Zoning Handbook, New York, 2006, p. 2.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from April 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from April 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zonehis.shtml#districts
- ↑ http://nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zonehis.shtml#ztoday