a "storm-proof way to elevate city buildings"

I think this is a bunch of absurd new rules to cope with flooding that won't work. Shop windows will "dip down into the floodplain"? Maybe I'm wrong, but can we change so much in order to salvage such a small area along the waterfront? http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130524/REAL_ESTATE/130529918?template=print A storm-proof way to elevate city buildings The Department of City Planning has... [more]

I think this is a bunch of absurd new rules to cope with flooding that won't work. Shop windows will "dip down into the floodplain"? Maybe I'm wrong, but can we change so much in order to salvage such a small area along the waterfront? http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130524/REAL_ESTATE/130529918?template=print A storm-proof way to elevate city buildings The Department of City Planning has come up with a zoning proposal to make it easier for owners of multistory buildings to elevate their properties so they can meet new 100-year floodplain mandates from the federal government. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matt Chaban City Planning Department The city certified a slew of proposed zoning changes to prepare for another storm like Sandy. Published: May 24, 2013 - 10:47 am Up and down the coast of New York and New Jersey, property owners are being forced to raise their homes and businesses above a new 100-year floodplain drawn up and mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the five boroughs, elevating multistory buildings present a particular problem. "FEMA does this all over the country, but by-and-large, New York looks different than a lot of these places," said Howard Slatkin, the Department of City Planning's director of sustainability. "In addition to small homes, we've got rowhouses and apartment buildings and a streetscape we want to maintain." On Monday, the city put forward its plan to address these problems by certifying a slew of proposed zoning changes that would allow for the elevation of buildings. For the past seven months, Mr. Slatkin and a team at the City Planning Department have been wrestling with the challenge of coming up with a way to fortify the city against future storms without destroying the urban character that makes New York unique. If buildings must be raised five, eight, even 12 feet up on stilts, planners fear it could deaden New York's vibrant street life along coastal areas. In other words, will Jane Jacobs float? The proposal "will relieve conflicts between zoning and steps owners of buildings in flood zones can take to make their buildings more flood resilient," said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "It will enable [owners] to rebuild or retrofit [properties] to new flood protection standards and help restore the same amount of living and working space they were previously permitted." The proposals will now be vetted over the next six months through the city's public review process, with input from the community boards in affected coastal areas across the city from Staten Island to the Bronx. The provisions will only be until a year after FEMA issues its final flood maps, expected in 2015, because the zoning changes are being undertaken through an expedited emergency zoning program. The city will study the provisions it puts in place now to create a more thorough zoning proposal to be implemented in the future. The city has already waived some zoning rules through an executive order following the storm, but these new zoning changes will be more permanent and nuanced. Many of the problems are technical ones. The city's zoning code is a 2,000-plus page tome of rules and regulations on where and how buildings can be built. Those rules include such picayune details such as forbidding mechanical systems in pitched roof spaces of attached and detached garages. Now that boilers and air conditioning units, commonly built in basements, are at risk of flooding, properties in flood zones can relocate their mechanicals to such spaces. In the case of larger buildings, the mechanicals could be placed on higher floors, and the space designed for the machinery will not count against the overall building size. "All of this is really such a new and different set of issues for the city to focus on," Mr. Slatkin said. The bigger challenges revolve around elevating buildings themselves. In the case of detached and semi-detached homes, the city has devised a number of strategies for them to be raised without looking barren to pedestrians. City Planning recommends creating porches or sloped yards to disguise the new stairs required to reach raised first floors. When homes are raised, parking and storage will be allowed in the new space created beneath the buildings, but nothing permanently habitable—"maybe a ping-pong table for the kids," said Mr. Slatkin. In the case of apartment buildings and shops, property owners are expected to include windows or displays that dip down into the floodplain so as not to present blank walls to passersby. Meanwhile, ramps cannot block the street and will likely need to be placed inside buildings, but the space they take up will not count against the buildable space within the building. Staten Island architect Timothy Boyland welcomed the proposed zoning changes. "The proposed 'flood resilience text amendment' allows building owners to retain the amount of living space they currently have as they rebuild to more resilient standards," Mr. Boyland wrote in an email. "This addresses a concern that many property owners have expressed, that their reconstructed home will have lost significant value." However, Mark Ginsberg, a board member of the AIA New York Chapter who consulted on the zoning proposals, believes the city should look more into the future—the proposal only calls for raising the buildings past the new 100-year floodplain. Mr. Ginsberg thinks the 500-year floodplain would be more appropriate. "It's only a two- to three- foot difference, which isn't much, but when you're dealing with climate change and global warming, as we saw with Sandy, these storms can be unpredictable," he said. "Why take any chances? Let's do it right, right now." By in large, Mr. Ginsberg welcomes the changes, though. "The city has really gone above and beyond here," he said. [less]