Inside DOB News & Media Navigating DOB Careers at DOB

Project Categories: Alterations - Residential and Community Facility

Residential Community Facilities are generally community facilities with sleeping accommodations and may include the following as outlined in BC 310.1 and ZR 22-13:

Transient, not-for-profit single room occupancy facilities (SROs), college or school dormitories (BC Occupancy Classification R1, ZR Use Group 3) that have more than two dwelling units. This group includes transient not-for-profit occupancies and supervised non-profit congregant living adult homes & homeless shelters.
Not-for-profit apartment buildings or long term stay half-way houses (BC Occupancy Classification R2, Zoning Resolution Use Group 3) that have more than 2 dwelling units. This group includes supervised, government agency owned and operated, or not-for-profit congregant living adult homes, long-term stay apartments hotels, student apartments, convents or monasteries with over 20 occupants.
Mostly 1- and 2-family homes, group homes or similar (BC Occupancy Classification R3, typically ZR Use Group 3 and for some Group Homes Use Group 2). This group includes long-term stay residential buildings with no more than two dwelling units, including convents and monasteries with fewer than 20 occupants, group home community facilities, etc.

Mixed Buildings and Mixed Use Buildings

A mixed building, as defined in ZR 12-10, includes only residential use groups (private or community facility) and commercial use groups located within a ZR commercial district. A mixed use building could contain any combination of two or more Building Code occupancy classifications. For example, a mixed-use building with a primary residential community facility use could also contain any combination of the following uses: non-conforming manufacturing or commercial, institutional, or non-residential community facility.

Refer to Manufacturing, Commercial or Educational and Institutional Community Facility Alteration Project Guidelines for the requirements pertaining to those uses.
For assembly spaces within these buildings, refer to the Place of Assembly Guidelines.

Alteration Project Work

An alteration work application always results in the issuance of a new or amended Certificate of Occupancy (CO) and may include any combination of the following:

Vertical and Horizontal Enlargements. An addition to the floor area of an existing building
Conversions. An expansion of a use, or a new use in an area not previously used for such purpose. A conversion is a change of use as defined by the Zoning Resolution (ZR), and/or a change in the occupancy classification as defined in the Building Code (BC). A use or occupancy classification of a building is any purpose for which it is designed, arranged, maintained or occupied.
Egress Modifications. Any substantive change in the exiting width, length of travel distance, location, or occupancy load of exits, or any change in number of required exits in a building.
Floor Area Reductions. A reduction to an existing building’s floor area that impacts the Certificate of Occupancy. For example, the complete elimination of one or more stories from a building or the demolition of a public assembly space.
When proposed alteration work in a prior code building increases the existing floor surface area, as defined in AC 28-101.4.5, by more than 110 percent, such building must be designed in accordance with the 2014 Construction Codes as if it were a new building.

Alteration work may include other remodeling/renovation projects in the scope of work, which are better described under the various Renovation Project Guidelines. Similarly, building systems such as new or modified plumbing, mechanical, or electrical systems could be part of an Alteration Project and are better described under the various Building System Guidelines. An alteration project shall not be filed as a renovation project.