Zoning in Riverdale, Bronx

What is Riverdale zoned?

Riverdale is almost entirely residence districts, and much of it is zoned for detached houses: of 3,030 tax lots in the 2020 Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil NTA, R3A covers 26%, R1-2 19% and R1-1 11% (PLUTO 26v2). These districts allow a standard FAR of 0.75 (ZR 23-21), and 971 lots also sit in Special Natural Area District 2. Check any Riverdale address free on Zohgo.

Riverdale has the lowest-density zoning of any neighborhood on our list, the largest lots, and a special district written to protect its hillsides and trees.

Tax lots

3,030PLUTO 26v2

Most common

R3A26% of lots

Commercial overlay

223lots (7%)

Median lot

5,000 sq ftlot area

All 3,011 non-park lots in the Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil NTA have a residence district as their main district; PLUTO shows no commercial or manufacturing district here, only overlays. There are 11 main districts. Lots are big by city standards: the median lot is 5,000 sq ft overall, 9,152 sq ft in R1-2 and 13,714 sq ft in R1-1. Apartment-scale districts (R6, R6A, R7A and R5) cover 508 lots (17%).

Zoning districts in Riverdale by tax lot

Zoning district (zonedist1)	Tax lots	Share	Standard residential FAR	Max building height (standard)
R3A	790	26.1%	0.75	35 ft ridge (25 ft walls)
R1-2	583	19.2%	0.75	35 ft ridge (25 ft walls)
R4	373	12.3%	1.00	35 ft
R1-1	330	10.9%	0.75	35 ft ridge (25 ft walls)
R6	259	8.5%	2.20 (3.00 near wide st.)	55 ft (75 ft near wide st.)
R3-1	220	7.3%	0.75	35 ft ridge (25 ft walls)
R2	207	6.8%	0.75	35 ft ridge (25 ft walls)
R6A	128	4.2%	3.00	75 ft
R5	67	2.2%	1.50	45 ft (35 ft base)
R7A	54	1.8%	4.00	85 ft
All other districts (1)	19	0.6%
Total	3,030	100%

Source: PLUTO 26v2, field zonedist1, lots inside the 2020 NTA boundary. "Standard" FAR and height are the ZR 23-21 / 23-22 and 23-42x limits for standard residences; affordable, senior and qualifying sites can go higher. Other districts: PARK.

What the main districts allow

R3A (26%). FAR 0.75, or 1.00 on a qualifying residential site (ZR 23-21). One- or two-family detached houses and zero lot line buildings (ZR 22-122).
R1-2 (19%) and R1-1 (11%). FAR 0.75 (ZR 23-21). Single-family detached houses only on standard lots (ZR 22-122).
Height in R1 to R3A. The pitched-roof envelope of ZR 23-421: perimeter walls up to 25 feet, sloping planes to a ridge at 35 feet. In R1 and R2 districts without a letter suffix, on lots of at least 9,500 sq ft and 100 feet wide, or with a slope of at least 5%, the reference plane may be set up to 5 feet above the base plane (ZR 23-421), a rule that fits Riverdale's large, sloping lots.
R4 (12%). FAR 1.00, or 1.50 on a qualifying residential site; 35 feet for buildings outside the pitched-roof envelope (ZR 23-21, 23-422).
R6 (9%) and R6A (4%). R6: FAR 2.20, or 3.00 within 100 feet of a wide street. R6A: 3.00. Both reach 3.90 for qualifying affordable or senior housing (ZR 23-22). R6A tops out at 75 feet; R6 at 55 feet on narrow streets and 75 feet near wide streets (ZR 23-432).

The rule that most shapes Riverdale houses: on standard zoning lots of 4,000 sq ft or more in R1 to R3 districts, the floor area tied to any single dwelling unit cannot exceed an FAR of 0.60 (ZR 23-21, note 1). In single-family R1 districts that effectively makes 0.60, not 0.75, the limit for one house.

What can you build on your Riverdale lot?

Zohgo shows the zoning district, FAR, height and setbacks for any NYC address in about a minute. Free to start, sign in with Google or Apple.

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Worked example: a single-family R1-2 lot

Step	Calculation	Result
Lot	100 ft x 100 ft (median R1-2 lot in PLUTO: 9,152 sq ft)	10,000 sq ft
District FAR	10,000 x 0.75 (ZR 23-21)	7,500 sq ft
Cap for one dwelling unit	10,000 x 0.60 (ZR 23-21, note 1)	6,000 sq ft
Houses allowed	R1: single-family detached only (ZR 22-122)	1 house, up to 6,000 sq ft
Height	25 ft walls, 35 ft ridge (ZR 23-421)
Compare: R3A lot of 3,000 sq ft	3,000 x 0.75; under 4,000 sq ft, so no 0.60 cap	2,250 sq ft, 1 or 2 family

Special Natural Area District 2 rules (below) can further limit where and how much you build on lots inside it. The example ignores yards, coverage and the separate ADU rules.

Commercial overlays

Commercial overlay (overlay1)	Tax lots	Share of all lots
C1-2	186	6.1%
C2-2	34	1.1%
C1-3	2	0.1%
C1-4	1	0.0%
Any overlay	223	7.4%

223 lots (7%) carry a commercial overlay, almost all C1-2 (186 lots) or C2-2 (34). The commercial FAR on an overlay lot follows the district beneath it: 1.00 in R1, R2, R3-1 and R3A, and 2.00 in R4 and above (ZR 33-121, column A).

Special Natural Area District 2

PLUTO lists Special Natural Area District 2 as the main special district on 971 lots (32% of the NTA), mostly in R1-2 (577 lots) and R1-1 (330).
Its purposes include guiding development in areas of outstanding natural beauty, protecting aquatic, botanic, geologic and topographic features, and reducing hillside erosion, landslides and storm water runoff by conserving vegetation and natural terrain (ZR 105-00).
The district's rules are in ZR Article X, Chapter 5. For a lot in NA-2, check them before relying on the underlying district numbers on this page.
Mandatory Inclusionary Housing: no lot in this NTA is inside an adopted MIH area (DCP MIH dataset). UAP is the City of Yes program that lets a development or enlargement outside a Mandatory Inclusionary Housing area exceed the standard FAR, but only by the amount of affordable housing it provides (ZR 27-111). It is relevant to the R6, R6A and R7A lots.

How we defined Riverdale and counted lots

Boundary: the official 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Area Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil (BX0803), published by NYC City Planning on NYC Open Data. Real-estate listings often draw Riverdale differently, so treat the edges as approximate.
Lots: every tax lot in PLUTO version 26v2 (pulled October 26, 2026) whose latitude and longitude fall inside that boundary, 3,030 lots in total. Every lot in the area's census tracts had coordinates, so none were dropped. A cross-check using PLUTO's 2020 census tract field gave almost the same count.
District: PLUTO's "zonedist1", which is the district covering the largest part of each lot. 108 lots are split by a district, overlay or special district boundary (PLUTO "splitzone"); each is counted once, under its main district. Special districts only appear in PLUTO when they cover at least 10% of a lot (PLUTO Data Dictionary).
Lot counts measure how many parcels are in a district, not land area. A large lot and a small one each count as one.

Riverdale zoning FAQ

What is the most common zoning in Riverdale?

R3A, with 790 of the 3,030 tax lots (26%) in the 2020 Riverdale-Spuyten Duyvil NTA in PLUTO 26v2. R1-2 (583 lots) and R4 (373) follow, then R1-1 (330).

How big a house can I build in R1-2?

The district FAR is 0.75, but on standard lots of 4,000 sq ft or more no single dwelling unit may exceed the equivalent of 0.60 FAR (ZR 23-21). Since R1 allows only single-family detached houses (ZR 22-122), a 10,000 sq ft lot supports one house of up to 6,000 sq ft.

What is the Special Natural Area District in Riverdale?

Special Natural Area District 2 is a special purpose district (ZR Article X, Chapter 5). Its purposes include protecting aquatic, botanic, geologic and topographic features and reducing hillside erosion and storm water runoff by conserving vegetation and natural terrain (ZR 105-00). PLUTO shows it on 971 Riverdale lots.

Can I build a two-family house in R3A?

Yes. ZR 22-122 allows one- or two-family detached residences and zero lot line buildings in R3A.

How tall can a house be in R1 or R3A?

Under the pitched-roof envelope of ZR 23-421, perimeter walls can rise to 25 feet and the roof ridge to 35 feet above the base plane.

Sources

Lot counts are our own tabulation of PLUTO 26v2 inside the 2020 NTA boundary, pulled October 26, 2026. PLUTO is updated a few times a year, so counts will drift.

NYC Open Data: Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output (PLUTO), version 26v2, queried October 26, 2026: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/64uk-42ks
NYC Open Data: 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (NTAs): https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/9nt8-h7nd
NYC DCP: PLUTO Data Dictionary, August 2026 (26v2) (PDF): https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/dcp/assets/files/pdf/data-tools/bytes/pluto_datadictionary.pdf
NYC Open Data: Mandatory Inclusionary Housing areas (DCP): https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/m79g-k9r4
ZR 23-21: Floor area regulations for R1 through R5 Districts: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-21
ZR 23-22: Floor area regulations for R6 through R12 Districts: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-22
ZR 23-432: Height and setback requirements (R6-R12): https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-432
ZR 23-52: Maximum number of dwelling units: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-52
ZR 33-121: Commercial overlay (C1, C2) floor area ratios: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-iii/chapter-3/33-121
ZR 23-421: Pitched-roof envelopes (R1-R5): https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-421
ZR 23-422: Flat-roof envelopes (R3-2, R4, R4B, R5, R5B, R5D): https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-3/23-422
ZR 22-122: Use Group II limits by residence district: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-2/22-122
ZR 105-00: Special Natural Area District, general purposes: https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-x/chapter-5/105-00
ZR 27-111: Definitions, including "UAP development": https://zr.planning.nyc.gov/article-ii/chapter-7/27-111