Zoning and land use
Landmarks Preservation Commission approval
If a building is a landmark or sits in a historic district, LPC approval comes before any DOB permit. Here are the three permit types and what each covers.
What work needs Landmarks Preservation Commission approval?
Quick Answer
Discretionary approvals
Who does this land on?
Owners and buyers of brownstones and buildings in historic districts, commercial tenants installing storefronts and signage, and anyone whose renovation schedule assumes a single agency.
What governs it?
- The Landmarks Law in the Administrative Code, which designates landmarks and historic districts and requires a permit for regulated work
- The Landmarks Preservation Commission, which issues the permits and holds hearings on the larger ones
- The requirement that a Landmarks permit precede a Department of Buildings permit for the same work
- The distinction between staff-level permits for work meeting stated criteria and Commission-level review for work that does not
- The separate Zoning Resolution provisions that allow transfers of development rights from landmark sites
How does the process run?
- Confirm the status first: individual landmark, interior landmark, scenic landmark, or a building inside a historic district
- Scope the work and identify what is visible from a public thoroughfare, because visibility drives the review level
- Where the work needs a Department of Buildings permit but has no effect on the significant protected features, seek a certificate of no effect at staff level
- Where the work affects protected features but needs no Department of Buildings permit, seek a permit for minor work
- For anything altering the protected features beyond what staff may approve, apply for the Commission-level approval, which involves a public hearing and a vote
- Take the Landmarks permit to the Department of Buildings and file the construction application against the approved drawings
- Build to the approved drawings exactly, because a departure is enforceable by Landmarks separately from the Department of Buildings
Where does it bite in a transaction?
- A renovation budget and schedule assume one agency and one permit
- A storefront or sign is installed without Landmarks approval and has to come down
- Windows are replaced in kind on paper and in a different profile in fact
- A closing is scheduled around a Department of Buildings permit that cannot issue until Landmarks acts
Does Landmarks review interior work?
Only at a designated interior landmark, which is a separate and much narrower category than a historic district. In an ordinary historic district building, the Commission regulates the exterior. Work with no exterior effect in such a building is a Department of Buildings matter, subject to the usual codes.
Which permit level applies to your work?
It follows the scope, and at staff level the Department of Buildings permit is the dividing line. Work that needs a Buildings permit but has no effect on the significant protected features takes a certificate of no effect; work that affects protected features but needs no Buildings permit takes a permit for minor work; anything beyond what staff may approve goes to the Commission with a public hearing. Scope creep moves the file between levels.
How does landmark status affect development rights?
A landmark site is usually under-built relative to the district, and the Zoning Resolution has a specific mechanism permitting a transfer of the unused development rights, by special permit and with limits on where they may land. It is a public review process, and it is the main way landmark status turns into value.
What else should you read before you file or sign?
In the glossary
- Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)The Department of Buildings document that fixes a building's legal use and occupancy. Lenders and title companies read it to confirm the property c...
- Open permitA DOB permit filed for work that was never signed off. Closing it usually means a licensed professional filing for inspection or formally withdrawi...
- Violation (cited against the premises)An agency record that a condition at a property does not comply with a code or rule. It attaches to the premises and follows the property through a...
- EncumbranceAny interest in the property held by someone other than the owner, whether monetary such as a mortgage or lien, or non-monetary such as an easement...
Building types
- Townhouse and 1-4 family condo declarationA small building divided into condominium units, where outdoor space, party walls, multiple-dwelling registration and the certificate of occupancy ...
- Condo in a converted buildingA condominium created by converting an existing rental building, where non-purchasing tenants, the reserve fund and building-wide conditions carry ...
Zoning and land use
- Air rights and transferable development rightsAir rights move three ways in New York City: a zoning lot merger, a landmark transfer, or a special district mechanism. Each is a recorded real est...
- Changing the use on a certificate of occupancyA change in occupancy classification or use group needs an amended certificate of occupancy, even when no construction happens. Here is what that f...
- Certificate of no harassmentFor covered buildings, HPD must certify no tenant harassment before DOB issues a demolition or major alteration permit. It is a hard gate on the sc...
- ULURP, the uniform land use review procedureULURP is the public review process for rezonings and other listed land use actions, on a fixed clock that starts only after certification. Here is ...
- Zoning due diligence before you signSix records answer almost every zoning question on a New York City property, and all six can be pulled before the contract rather than after the de...
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Legal Disclaimer: This page is general information about New York practice. It is not legal advice, it does not account for the terms of any particular contract, building or transaction, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. This is attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.