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The Governor's proposal to end Floor Area Ratio caps will in effect upzone our residential neighborhoods. If not stopped, it could potentially change forever the character of our communities, potentially leading the way to huge towers in low rise and historic areas, thereby robbing residents, businesses and visitors of light, air, and quality of life.
Aerial photo of Soho, Noho, and the East Village by David Oppenheimer.
Action alert:
New York State residents are now confronted with a new, radical upzoning proposal via Governor Hochul’s proposed state budget. The proposal calls for removing the State’s FAR - Floor Area Ratio - cap of 12 on residential buildings throughout the City New York State. Note that the West 57th Street 100 story-plus supertalls were built under an FAR of 10 due to local zoning restrictions, and imagine the impact of development with no limits.
Currently different areas of the City have different FAR limits. So, for (a simplified) example, in an R8 residential district, as found in parts of the Lower East Side, a developer is typically allowed to build a building that’s up to 8 times the floor area of the lot the building will sit on. This translates (roughly) into an 8 story building if the building covers the entire lot, or a 16 story building if the building covers only half the lot.
Removing the State’s current FAR cap will allow the City to rezone to increase FAR beyond 12. This will encourage wild west development in our residential neighborhoods. It will allow new, ever-taller mega luxury towers to be plopped down incongruously into our communities not protected by local restrictions. It will provide new incentives to upzone neighborhoods, demolish historic buildings and replace them with colossal glass structures.
The governor’s budget needs to be negotiated with the state legislature by April 1.
Please send a letter in opposition to this upzoning to your state elected officials by using the pre-drafted letter at the "Take Action" link on this page, or change the wording of the letter to suit yourself.
And please share it widely among your friends and social networks.
This is important. Thank you in advance for taking action.
Send a Message to Your New York State Elected Official
If you would like to help preserve the historic districts of the Lower East Side you can donate to LESPI HERE.
Thank You