Thank you for visiting PlanNYC.
As of July 7, 2010, we have suspended daily news updating on this website, and will not be adding new developments or policy and legislative debates.
PlanNYC, a student-run website based at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, has proudly served New Yorkers for five years. During that time, the growth of online information on land use and development issues, along with advances in technology such as RSS feeds and news alerts, have created many opportunities for New Yorkers to stay informed about housing and land use debates in the City. As a result, the daily news updating on this site has become less unique and less critical to our users.
We are pleased to keep the existing PlanNYC content online as a resource; all content on the site is current of July 6, 2010, but will not be updated after that date.
We hope you continue to use the data and research available at the Furman Center (which you can find at www.furmancenter.org), and we welcome your ideas and suggestions for how we can continue to provide objective information and analysis about land use and housing policy debates in New York City.
For additional information or questions, please email furmancenter@nyu.edu.
New York City Building Code: 2008 Update
A building code is a set of construction regulations enforced by law to ensure safe building practices through design and construction guidelines. The code has a tremendous amount of influence over how buildings get constructed in New York City. The New York City Building Code is only one of two in the United States created by the municipality itself, rather than just an adoption of standard model codes set at the state or national level. This is, in part, due to the huge expense of creating a building code and New York City’s unique construction and real estate market.
In 2008, New York City dramatically revised the City's building code. The revision, which was initiated by Mayor Bloomberg in 2005, was the first amendment to the building code since 1968. Prior to this overhaul, the code had been amended ad-hoc over the years. This created confusion, overlap, and loopholes that diminished the power and safety provisions of the code.
The Bloomberg Administration assembled a taskforce — the Model Code Program — to draft the new code. The role of the Model Code Program was to look at the International Building Code, as well as get recommendations from the field and practitioners, to address inconsistencies in the old code. Additionally, the new code was supposed to be easier to understand and open New York City to international markets.
Through the Model Code Program, New York City adapted the international code to address density, lot size, and structural issues unique to the five boroughs. Using the International Building Council’s format, the City Council now revises the codes every 3 years to accommodate technology and policy changes in the construction field (as mandated by Local Law 99/2005). Additionally, the Building Department allows online application filing and longer licensure periods to streamline the construction process.
The main objective of the overhaul was to make the code safer, more sustainable, and energy efficient. Supporters of the code’s revision pointed to a number of fires and other tragedies as justification for the overhaul.
Some worried that new regulations and requirements unnecessarily increased construction and housing costs due to the more stringent safety requirements and “green” infrastructure. Mayor Bloomberg disagreed with this view and argued that the new code would help reduce construction and housing costs while also providing a more sustainable building stock over time. He thought this could be achieved through the use of sustainable design, lowering energy costs, and access to new construction material markets.
The revised building code took effect on July 1, 2008. Changes included a new building classification system, stronger construction safety provisions, third-party inspections, the expansion of automated sprinklers to specific residential units, emergency systems for buildings over 125 feet, and new guidelines for steel and concrete construction.
Last Updated: July 6, 2010