Protected views- are they protected?

I've never heard of a "floor ratio". What is that?

With ever-changing laws regarding zoning, FARs, developer incentives to build more affordable housing, changing legality of air right transfers, etc., you should consider parkland view-protected, and absolutely nothing else.

FAR = Floor/Area Ratio ... how much floor space you can build on a given lot space, sf for sf, regardless of how you configure the building.

Different neighborhoods allow different development densities; some (last I heard) have no FAR restrictions; some (including CPS) have much tighter ones than in earlier generations, which is why the St. Moritz, for example, didn't do a teardown.

alan- sometimes it is fairly safe to consider views over brownstones (especially in historic preservation areas) as protected.

The other problem with FAR is the NYC practice of allowing air rights from one building to be sold to a developer allowing the developer to build greater than the original FAR of the development plot would allow.

Some of the more egregious examples of this have stirred outcry in the past (i.e. sliver buildings), but don't know if anything has really been done to limit the practice.

I think the only thing they've done is tighten it up to allow transfer only from adjacent buildings, and to tighten up the definition of "adjacent". I only support air-right transfers from landmarked buildings. I also expect that (based on absolutely nothing), if it's not already happening, some buildings that sold off their rights will eventually want to build taller and will win the right to do so.

Are there are agencies that I can call to inquire about the potential for how high a building can be build? I am looking at the upper west side. Thanks