Planning a house renovation on City Island

What this page covers

This page is for owners of one- and two-family houses on City Island who are planning kitchen, bathroom, flooring or whole-house interior work. City Island is a Bronx neighborhood, not a municipality, so building permits come from the NYC Department of Buildings. Raising a house, additions, structural, exterior and waterfront work are not planned services. Service availability has not been established.

Neighborhood data

Mostly older houses

City lot data puts 1,068 one- and two-family house lots in this tract: 810 one-family and 258 two-family. On 669 of them (about 63%) the recorded year built is before 1940, and on 978 it's before 1980. So for most City Island houses, the first planning question is what an older house hides behind its walls, floors and ceilings, not which finish to pick. Paint is one item: for paid work that disturbs paint in housing built before 1978, EPA lead-safe rules apply. Read renovating an older home before you write the brief.

Flood maps

Flood flags on about a third of house lots

PLUTO flags a lot when some part of it lies in the 1% annual chance floodplain on FEMA's maps. In tract 516.01, 375 of 1,198 lots with homes are flagged on FEMA's 2015 Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map and 425 on the 2007 effective map. For one- and two-family lots the counts are 321 and 368. In the other five tracts of the same NTA, 110 of 3,400 lots with homes are flagged on the 2015 map. In this statistical area, flood exposure is concentrated on the island.

A flag doesn't mean the house itself is in the floodplain, only that part of the lot touches it. Look up the exact address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center and read the city's NYC Flood Maps page, which says flood insurance is still based on the 2007 maps while FEMA revises the 2015 preliminary maps. Keep both results.

If the address is in a special flood hazard area, a DOB rule treats alteration work costing 50% or more of the structure's market value as a substantial improvement, and every alteration application must say whether the work is one. In an older house, a whole-interior renovation can approach that line. Settle it with a design professional before the scope is fixed.

See basement finishing and moisture before planning any below-grade room.

Zoning

The Special City Island District

The Zoning Resolution maps a special district over City Island. Its stated purposes are to keep the island's nautical and waterfront character by limiting permitted uses, to keep its low-rise character by regulating building height, and to protect City Island Avenue with special rules for setbacks and signs. The underlying zoning rules stay in force except where the special district changes them.

Two provisions matter most to a house owner. No building may be taller than 35 feet, measured from the base plane, unless the City Planning Commission authorizes or permits a change. And in flood zones, where this chapter conflicts with the city's flood-zone zoning rules, the flood-zone rules control.

• Interior-only work: the chapter is written around new buildings, enlargements, height, uses, signs and parking. Whether any of it touches your interior scope at your address is a question for a design professional, not this page.
• Where height and flood meet: raising a house or its mechanical equipment changes its height and its flood status at once. That work isn't a planned service here, but if a design professional suggests it, ask how the 35-foot limit and the flood-zone rules apply together.
• A house with a store or office: the special district limits which commercial uses are allowed. If the building has a commercial space, confirm its permitted use before planning changes to it.

Landmarks Preservation Commission

Individual landmarks, no historic district

City lot data shows no lots in this tract tagged as being in an LPC historic district, but it lists 5 individual-landmark lots, 4 of them with a one- or two-family building class. Designation here is house by house.

The check is an address search on LPC's Discover NYC Landmarks map. For a designated house, LPC's permit comes first, and DOB can't act on its own application until LPC has issued it. Interior work can still reach LPC: its permit page names interior work that requires a DOB permit and interior work with an exterior effect, for example a new vent or louver. On an island house, a relocated boiler flue or dryer vent is a typical example to raise.

A brief for a City Island house project

1. Write down the house's recorded year built and collect whatever DOB records, surveys or past plans you have.
2. Run three address lookups (FEMA's 2007 and 2015 maps, and LPC's map) and save each result with the date.
3. List rooms, what stays and what changes. Mark anything below the main floor, any equipment that would move, and anything that creates a new exterior vent or opening.
4. Ask a design professional early whether the full scope could count as a substantial improvement.
5. Ask bidders to price the same brief. See how to compare remodeling estimates and whole-home renovation: what first.

Scope examples: home renovation, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling and basement remodeling. The Bronx page covers borough-wide permits and licensing.