Downtown Floor Area Ratio

A two story building on the same lot where each floor was 500 square feet.

Downtown floor area ratio.

The floor area ratios are set forth by nyc planning in the zoning resolution zoning code. Floor area ratio or far is a measure of development intensity expressed as the ratio of gross building floor area to site area. Floor area ratio is a way of expressing the relationship between the size of the lot to the floor area of the buildings on the lot. Floor area ratio far is the measurement of a building s floor area in relation to the size of the lot parcel that the building is located on.

For example if a 10 000 square foot building occupied a 20 000 square foot site its far would be expressed as 0 50 indicating that there is 1 square foot of building area for each two square feet of land area. Far is the reason why buildings with the same size lot but in different zoning districts can be drastically different in size. Additionally far ends up kind of being another way of keeping score. Floor area ratio far is the ratio of a building s total floor area gross floor area to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built.

Zoning bonuses to increase the size of individual downtown construction projects are allocated through a higher floor area ratio far which reflects the total square footage of the building divided by the area of the lot. The successes of the tfar program in los angeles can be attributed to the underlying height district in downtown s central business district. The terms can also refer to limits imposed on such a ratio through zoning. The higher the far generally speaking the more intensity of use on the lot.

The floor area ratio of a 1 000 square foot building with one story situated on a 4 000 square foot lot would be 0 25x. Because the base floor area ratio far is set fairly low there is a strong demand among developers for unused floor area. It is often used as one of the regulations in city planning along with the building to land ratio. Simplify and update the downtown floor area bonus system.

The floor area ratio is one of those little tools that get put into the zoning code mix generally employing a mix of maximums and minimums to ensure a proper goldilocks size and to shape. Far is expressed as a decimal number and is derived by dividing the total area of the building by the total.