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Zoning Lot Mergers

By Caroline G. Harris and Marc Israel
March 06, 2007

The Zoning Resolution of the City of New York provides a mechanism for the transfer of unused development rights from one owner's property to another adjacent owner's property. That mechanism is a zoning lot merger.

The Zoning Resolution uses 'zoning lot,' not tax lot, as the basis for all zoning calculations. A zoning lot is a tract of land comprised of one or more tax lots within a single block.

Although it can have a wider meaning, the term 'development rights' typically refers to Floor Area. Floor Area is explicitly defined in zoning as the gross area of the building minus specified exclusions The maximum amount of Floor Area permitted on a zoning lot is based on the 'Floor Area Ratio' ('FAR') applicable to the lot (i.e., lot area multiplied by FAR equals the maximum Floor Area for the lot). FAR is determined both by the zoning district in which the property is located and the use to which the property is put. For example, a vacant 10,000 square-foot lot in a zoning district with a maximum commercial FAR of 8.0 can contain a commercial building with 80,000 square feet of Floor Area. If the adjacent lot were the same size, but had an existing building of only 50,000 square feet of Floor Area, its 30,000 square feet of unused Floor Area also could be utilized on the adjacent lot through a zoning lot merger.

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