The Department of City Planning is proposing a city-wide zoning text amendment to preserve and enhance the streetscape character of residential neighborhoods.  The text amendment closes loopholes in front yard planting requirements, responds to concerns of Community Boards and elected officials related to inappropriate curb cuts and front yard parking pads, and clarifies parking requirements for new dwelling units created in existing homes, and for older residential buildings developed before there were parking requirements. The proposal would also help achieve some of the goals of the Mayor's PlaNYC.


What do the changes entail?
The proposed text amendment would:

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1. Eliminate loopholes in the front yard planting requirements that allow the minimum percentage of a front yard that must be planted to include planting strips less than one foot wide and plantings in driveways.

2. Apply stricter front yard parking rules in single and two family districts by prohibiting parking in front yards. Parking could only be placed in a driveway that extends into the side yard, or, for semi-detached houses, in a driveway leading to a garage in the front of the house. No parking would be permitted in front of row houses in single and two family districts.

3. Reinforce the prohibition on curb cuts for all buildings on lots less than 40 feet wide in R4B through R8B districts. These are rowhouse districts characterized by planted front yards and no front yard parking. A court decision found, for the purposes of curb cut regulations in ZR 25-633, that the prohibition applies only to new buildings, not existing buildings

4. Introduce curb cut rules for residential parking spaces in medium and higher density R6, R7 and R8 districts and their commercial equivalents, where no curb cut rules exist today. The new rules would prevent continuous curb cuts that are unsightly, create pedestrian/vehicular conflicts, eliminate on-street parking spaces, and reduce retail continuity in commercial districts. The proposal would allow one or two curb cuts to parking lots or garages with multiple parking spaces, rather than an unlimited number of curb cuts, where each can access just a single space.

5. Add streetscape character and emphasize pedestrian movement findings for curb cut authorizations for Manhattan Community Districts 1 through 8 and in portions of Queens Community Districts 1 and 2.

6. Ensure that a new parking space is provided for each new dwelling unit added to an existing residential buildings in R3 and R4 districts, and that parking that would be required today cannot be eliminated for apartment buildings built prior to 1961.