Maximum Allowed FAR

Hi Brownstoners, Can someone decipher this for me? “FAR as built is .84”; and “maximum allowed FAR is 1.35” Clearly this is my first time in this rodeo… Thanks!

peaceout

in About Brooklyn 10 years and 5 months ago

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carmenf | 10 years and 5 months ago

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To piggyback on what jcarch said- lot coverage is not the only factor. For example, we’re building under our maximum allowed lot coverage and square footage because we have an axillary building, and the rear facade of our house has to be 30 feet from the beginning of that building. There’s a lot of things at play. An architect will walk you through this.

jcarch | 10 years and 5 months ago

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Be aware that there are some circumstances where you may have available FAR that you can’t take advantage of because of height/setback/lot coverage conditions. You need to look at all these issues together to know what can or can’t be done with a property. jcarch ———————— http://www.brownstoner.com/jamescleary

shahnandersen

in About Brooklyn 10 years and 5 months ago

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But note: Permissible as far as zoning, but not necessarily building code if the structure of the house cannot take an added floor. One might be able to add an extension instead if the rear yard requirement (usually 30′) is met.

mario71 | 10 years and 5 months ago

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And in your case it seems to indicate that it is built only to 62% of the allowable (0.84 versus 1.35) which means that if you have 2 floors maybe you could add a third. Not that that’s necessarily a good idea, but a permissible one.

slopefarm | 10 years and 5 months ago

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From http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/glossary.shtml “Floor Area Ratio (FAR)* The floor area ratio is the principal bulk regulation controlling the size of buildings. FAR is the ratio of total building floor area to the area of its zoning lot. Each zoning district has an FAR which, when multiplied by the lot area of the zoning lot, produces the maximum amount of floor area allowable on that zoning lot. For example, on a 10,000 square foot zoning lot in a district with a maximum FAR of 1.0, the floor area on the zoning lot cannot exceed 10,000 square feet.”