Commercial FAR vs Residential FAR: Residential Equivalents in NYC

On a commercial lot, the housing you can build and the commercial space you can build come from two different tables, and the residential equivalent is the bridge between them.

What a residential equivalent is

Commercial districts that allow housing do not have their own residential bulk rules. Instead, the Zoning Resolution assigns each one a "residential equivalent," a Residence District whose bulk rules (floor area, height, yards and the rest of Article II, Chapter 3) apply to the residential part of the building. For C1-6 to C1-9, C2-6 to C2-8 and all C3, C4, C5 and C6 districts, the equivalents are listed in the table in ZR 34-112. A building with only homes uses Article III, Chapter 4; a building mixing homes with commercial or community facility space uses Article III, Chapter 5, which points back to the same table (ZR 34-01, 35-01, 35-23).

The result is that a commercial lot has separate numbers for different uses, and they often point in opposite directions. C4-11 allows 3.40 FAR for commercial use but its R11 equivalent allows 12.00 for housing; C6-6 allows 15.00 for commercial use but its R10 equivalent caps standard housing at 10.00 (ZR 33-122, 34-112, 23-22).

The full table: residential equivalent, residential FAR and commercial FAR

Residential equivalents: ZR 34-112. Residential FAR: ZR 23-21 (R3-2 and R5, where the second number is for qualifying residential sites) and ZR 23-22 (R6 to R12, standard residences and qualifying affordable or senior housing; "near wide street" means within 100 ft of a wide street). Commercial FAR: ZR 33-122. * In the commercial column, not listed separately in ZR 33-122, so the number of the district without the suffix applies under ZR 11-25; in the R8 row, 8.64 applies outside Mandatory Inclusionary Housing areas within 100 ft of a wide street for UAP developments or qualifying senior housing. ** R11A is not listed separately in the ZR 23-22 FAR table, so the R11 numbers apply under ZR 11-25. Special purpose districts can change all of these. C3A uses R3A bulk instead of the table (ZR 34-03).

C1 and C2 overlays work differently

• C1-1 to C1-5 and C2-1 to C2-5 have no entry in the table. Their residential bulk is that of the Residence District they are mapped in (ZR 34-111).
• Two exceptions apply: on qualifying residential sites in the Greater Transit Zone, where the overlay is mapped in R1 to R5, R5 bulk applies; and on non-qualifying residential sites, where the overlay is mapped in R1 or R2, R3-2 bulk applies (ZR 34-111).
• The commercial and community facility FAR of an overlay also depends on the Residence District underneath, from the ZR 33-121 table. See C1 and C2 overlays.

How the numbers combine in one building

• In a mixed building, commercial and community facility floor area follows Article III, Chapter 3, and residential floor area follows Article II, Chapter 3 for the equivalent district. The total of all of them may not exceed the greatest FAR permitted for any one use on the zoning lot (ZR 35-31).
• On a lot with both commercial and community facility uses, commercial floor area still cannot exceed the ZR 33-122 commercial amount (ZR 33-123).
• In C1 and C2 districts mapped in R6 without a letter suffix, or in R7-1, a building with both housing and community facility space whose total floor area exceeds 2.5 FAR (in R6) or 3.5 FAR (in R7-1) may have no more than 1.0 FAR of community facility space (ZR 35-33).

Height follows the equivalent too

• Where the commercial district is mapped within, or has a residential equivalent of, an R6 to R12 district with a letter suffix, every building on the lot, commercial ones included, follows the ZR 23-43 height and setback rules for that district (ZR 33-03).
• Where the equivalent has no letter suffix, commercial and community facility buildings may use either the commercial sky exposure plane of ZR 33-432 or the residential rules of ZR 23-42 or 23-43 as modified by ZR 35-60 (ZR 33-03). Residential portions follow the residential rules of the equivalent.

Worked example: same lot, three answers

Take a 10,000 sq ft lot within 100 ft of a wide street, outside a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area, and compare three districts that share the R8 equivalent (ZR 34-112):

• C1-7: commercial-only building 10,000 x 2.00 = 20,000 sq ft; standard housing 10,000 x 7.20 = 72,000 sq ft (ZR 33-122, 23-22).
• C4-8: commercial 10,000 x 3.40 = 34,000 sq ft; housing 72,000 sq ft (ZR 33-122, 23-22).
• C6-2: commercial 10,000 x 6.00 = 60,000 sq ft; housing 72,000 sq ft, or 86,400 sq ft for a UAP development at 8.64 (ZR 33-122, 23-22).
• In all three, a mixed building with standard housing can total 72,000 sq ft, the greatest FAR for any use present. In C1-7 that might be 20,000 sq ft of retail and 52,000 sq ft of housing; in C1-7, commercial uses are also limited to two stories (ZR 35-31, 32-421).

Residential equivalents FAQ

Related pages

• C4 zoning
• C6 zoning
• C5 zoning
• C1 and C2 overlays
• R8 zoning