NYC Rule on Basement Space

Apologies upfront for continuing this never-ending discussion. Why is it that in all of the discussions on the legality (or not) of utilizing basement space, there is never a mention of NYC’s specs on a specific property which clearly show if a basement is allowable living space. Following is an example of the record on a legal 2 family with a first and second floor and a basement.
Lot Shape: Regular Residential Units: 2
Lot Square Footage: 2,000 Finished Sq.Footage: 3,072
Commercial Units: N/A Commercial Sq. Ftg.: N/A
Story Height: 2.00 Garage Sq. Footage: N/A
Building Frontage: 20.00ft Unfinished Sq. Ftg.: 0
Building Depth: 50.00ft Neighborhood Type: Residential
Construction Type: Brick
Note: Finished Square footage 3,072 and Unfinished square footage 0 hence the basement in this case is allowable living space. Conversely, there are many homes that show a portion as “unfinished square footage” and that portion (the basement) presumably would not be allowable living space.
The NYC site is:

http://nycprop.nyc.gov/nycproperty/nynav/jsp/selectbbl.jsp

By Hank | 02/15/2010 11:09 AM