Applicant required special permit because proposed addition would violate sliver law’s height limit. On January 6, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved a proposal by 161 West 78th Street LLC to build a one-story addition atop an existing five-story brownstone at 161 West 78th Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District of Manhattan. The twelve-foot addition would not be visible from the street and would increase the building’s height to 70 feet. While the underlying R8B zoning permits a maximum building height of 75 feet, the owner required a special permit because the addition would violate the sliver’s law additional height regulation.

The sliver law applies to certain zoning districts and limits buildings with a width of 45 feet or less to the height equivalent of either the width of the street it fronts or to the height of an abutting structure if it is taller than the street’s width. Because the brownstone is only nineteen feet wide and West 78th Street is 60 feet wide, the owner was limited to enlarging the building to a maximum height of 60 feet. (read more…)