Entitlement
Zoning, the design team, filings and approvals, carried in-house to a permit.
What a site may become is decided before anything is built: by the Zoning Resolution, by the Department of Buildings and, depending on the site, by Landmarks, the Board of Standards and Appeals and the Attorney General. L3CG Advisors carries that process as owner's representative on every L3 project, and for outside owners as an advisory engagement — the zoning read, the development plan, the design team, the filings and the approvals, through to the permit.
A zoning analysis and development plan; the design team under contract; the filed drawings and each agency's approval as it issues; a milestone schedule from filing to permit; and, before construction starts, the approved drawings, budget and schedule — the plan that gets built.
From the zoning read to the permit.
Five steps, in the same order on every site. What differs is which agencies sit on the route.
- Zoning read
- Development plan
- Design team
- Filing
- Permit
Zoning read
The lot is read against the Zoning Resolution: district, use groups, floor area ratio, height and setback rules, yards and lot coverage, parking, and any overlay, special district or landmark designation. The result is the as-of-right envelope — what may be built without asking anyone — and a list of what would need an approval. It confirms the buildable area carried over from Acquisition.
Development plan
The envelope is turned into a program: unit count and mix, floor plates, core and circulation, ground-floor use, parking or loading where required. Alternatives are tested against the business plan — more smaller units or fewer larger ones, a setback floor kept or given up — and the plan approved in Capital is fixed here.
Design team
The architect of record, structural and MEP engineers, expediter and the specialists the site requires are selected, scoped and put under contract with ownership. L3CG Advisors directs them as owner's representative: one set of instructions, one schedule, one record of decisions.
Filing
Drawings are developed from schematic to construction documents and filed with the Department of Buildings — after any approval that must come first: Landmarks for a designated building, the Board of Standards and Appeals for anything beyond as-of-right. Plan examination raises objections; each is answered in a documented round until the application is approved.
Permit
With the application approved, the contractor selected in Construction pulls the work permit. Before it does, the drawings, the bid-based budget and the schedule are signed off together — the pre-construction set that every later draw is measured against.
What the zoning allows.
Six rules decide the shape of a building before an architect draws a line. The read is done in-house, on every site, before the plan is made.
- 01
Floor area
The district's floor area ratio multiplied by the lot area gives the maximum floor area. Deductions — mechanical, cellar, some balconies — and bonuses, where a district offers them, are worked through line by line, because each one is a unit gained or lost.
- 02
Street wall
How high the building may rise at the lot line before it must step back, and by how much. The rule differs on a narrow street and a wide one; the plan is drawn to the rule that applies.
- 03
Sky exposure plane
Above the setback, an inclined plane the building may not pierce. It shapes the upper floors and often decides whether a penthouse level is worth its cost.
- 04
Height
In contextual and special districts, a fixed maximum. Elsewhere, the plane governs. Mechanical bulkheads and rooftop access are permitted above the limit within defined allowances.
- 05
Yards
The rear yard and, on corner and through lots, the side and front yards the district requires. They fix the depth of each floor plate and the light and air to the rear.
- 06
Use
Which uses the district allows on which floors — residential above, retail or community facility at grade — and the parking or loading the use group requires, or waives.
Representative section. Each site is read against its own district, overlays and designations.
Who draws, who seals, who files.
Every consultant contracts with ownership. L3CG Advisors scopes, selects and directs them as owner's representative.
Architect
Architect of record. The zoning analysis confirmed, the design from schematic through construction documents, and the drawings on file with the Department of Buildings under its seal.
Engineers
Structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, each under its own contract. On an enlargement, the structural engineer's finding on what the existing building can carry governs the plan.
Expediter
Prepares and tracks the filings, schedules plan examination and carries each objection back to the consultant who must answer it. The filing calendar is the expediter's, reported weekly.
Specialists
Surveyor, geotechnical engineer, environmental consultant, zoning or landmarks counsel where the site calls for them — engaged for a defined scope and released when it is done.
Which agencies, and when.
The Department of Buildings is on every route. The others depend on the site and the plan, and which of them apply is known at the zoning read, not discovered later.
Every submission, objection, response and approval, by agency and date, in one file the partner can read.
Every project. Plan examination and objections, the approved application, the work permit, inspections during construction and the certificate of occupancy at the end — one file, kept current from first filing to sign-off.
Designated buildings and historic districts. The Commission's permit comes before the Buildings application is accepted — at staff level for work that does not affect the street, a public hearing for work that does.
Anything the zoning does not allow as of right — a variance, a special permit. Community board review, then a public hearing. Months are added and the outcome is not certain, so the business plan is tested without it.
Condominium offering plans. The plan is submitted for review and accepted for filing before any unit is marketed. Carried with counsel and handed to Sales at launch.
A rezoning through the Department of City Planning is a separate and longer process; whether a site would need one is settled at screening.
Drawings, budget and schedule are signed off together before the permit is pulled. What is built is what was filed.
Construction documents complete and coordinated across architect and engineers, matched to the approved Buildings application.
Hard cost from bids against those documents, by trade; soft cost itemized; contingency sized to what remains open. It replaces the underwriting estimate from Capital.
Permit to certificate of occupancy by milestone, with the capital-call dates tied to it. From here it is carried by Construction.