Height/view restrictions in your city

IluvATX · #1 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 3:43 PM**

I'm curious to know what cities have height or view restrictions for new high rises. I know of DC and Austin, but surely more cities have them.

IluvATX · #2 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 3:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IluvATX

I'm curious to know what cities have height or view restrictions for new high rises. I know of DC and Austin, but surely more cities have them.

Can someone move this to city discussions?

mhays · #3 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 6:52 PM**

Seattle has very restrictive height limits. And even getting to those requires the typical highrise paying millions in fees, in addition to the millions in City fees they'll pay already.

Nearly all buildings go right to the limits. In zones that allow 400' for habitable space and 440' for architecture/mechanical/amenities, buildings use every inch of the 400' and most of the extra 40'. A smaller area allows 500/550'. Both were just raised 10%, and the first two 440/484' towers are underway. But we have flattop areas on the north side of Downtown where new towers are all the same height.

Outside of the core, there were zero highrise zones until recently. But we just upzoned the U District so the pre-limit highrises are finally being joined by others, one underway. Most of the city's denser nodes (where development is focused) are limited to 65' or similar. One outcome of that is no cupolas etc...if you can build 65' you'll build full floors for the whole thing.

toddguy · #4 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 6:56 PM**

What about the Crystal City area of Virginia?

10023 · #5 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 7:29 PM**

double post

10023 · #6 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 7:30 PM**

We have lots of them:

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do...iew-management

LMich · #7 Posted **Nov 4, 2018, 10:34 PM**

I'll re-up this one for you:

Does Your City Have Height Limits?

bnk · #8 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 12:40 AM**

Chicago for decades had numerous height restrictions in the past.

• Video Link

Luckily not anymore.

JAYNYC · #9 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 6:03 AM**

Pretty sure San Diego has height restrictions due to the airport's proximity to the city's downtown.

Sun Belt · #10 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 2:08 PM**

I was under the impression that every city had height restrictions to a degree.

The entire state of California has height restrictions along the coast, for example.

Maybe the question should be: Which cities do not have height restrictions anywhere in their city limits?

C. · #11 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 2:53 PM**

Jersey City has no height restrictions in Zone 1 and Zone 10 in the Journal Square neighborhood. However, there is density restriction in Zone 1 that limit buildings to a 25 FAR, so that does serve as a limit on height depending on how the building is designed. Zone 10 on the other hand has the provision for unlimited density bonuses, so I will say that's one of the true sites with no municipal limits on height.

The pesky FAA becomes vocal above 720 feet due to the proximity to Newark's airport, but that's a soft limit as there are ways to mitigate the FAA's concerns such as having the appropriate obstruction lighting. Developers have been pointing to precedent to avoid having to go through an aeronautical study at the FAA, but I wonder if that will change soon since the guys at 99 Hudson went through a study last month for their 1,100ft tower crane. The FAA concluded it would have no affect on aircraft departures and arrivals. It's a temporary structure, but the science is similar, so hopefully we'll see developers testing the new 1,100ft opening.

Cirrus · #12 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 3:40 PM**

Basically every city has extensive height limits, especially outside of downtown. Look up you city's zoning code and there's a 99% chance you'll find something.

DC has multiple layers of height limits. There's the federally-imposed citywide height limit, which is the width a building fronts on plus 20 feet. But on top of that, the city's local zoning has more strict height limits in some places, such as residential neighborhoods (which of course make up most of the city's land).

Crystal City, which someone brought up further up the thread, has an FAA-imposed height limit because it's right next to National Airport and nobody wants planes flying into buildings. Less obvious than Crystal City but no less important, nearby Rosslyn also has a height limit for the same reason (though it's higher than Crystal City's):

authentiCLE · #13 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 6:17 PM**

Yes, of course, what city doesn't? They just updated the zoning downtown. The height limit around Public Square in red is 900'. The limit along the water in blue is 175'. Everywhere else in yellow is 600'.

It's way more complicated outside the CBD. Mostly 35' through the neighborhoods with taller along commercial routes.

Obadno · #14 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 6:55 PM**

Phoenix' downtown is under the flight path of our airport as a result the FAA has about a 500-600 ft height limit on all buidlings in the core.

Our tallest is till on like 43 stories so we are not hitting the limit but we will never have anything over ~50 stories in the core, at least until we have verticle take-offs and landings for commercial flights.

This pic seems a bit squished making the buildigns slightly squatier than they look in real life.

Boisebro · #15 Posted **Nov 5, 2018, 7:38 PM**

According to the Boise Airport code:

Quote:

No object within eight (8) miles of any airport shall be more than five hundred feet (500') in height above the ground.

Downtown Boise is only about 4 miles from the airport, so this restriction affects any future development.

however... the airport is also 141 feet higher than downtown, so technically, Boise could get a 640-foot building in its CBD.

highly unlikely, though.

spoonman · #16 Posted **Nov 6, 2018, 9:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAYNYC

Pretty sure San Diego has height restrictions due to the airport's proximity to the city's downtown.

San Diego is extremely height restricted. Probably the most of any major city in that there is a max of 500ft over the entire downtown area (due to airport proximity). This has essentially limited buildings to a max of 45 floors and has resulted in roughly 5 or 6 twin tower projects already.

mhays · #17 Posted **Nov 7, 2018, 1:44 AM**

Residential floors can get to the 10' or 9'6" range with concrete buildings. Office floors are typically around 13' with concrete and can be more for steel. Both can be more if the developer isn't trying to cram in more floors.

Is that difference factored into these story counts?

TWAK · #18 Posted **Nov 7, 2018, 2:55 AM**

Airports really ruin it for some cities. San Jose for example, would there be a 50 story Adobe or Nvidia tower?

mhays · #19 Posted **Nov 7, 2018, 3:41 AM**

Boston's the main one. Of all the really major cities it's the most restricted by FAA (not including DC).

Mr Saturn64 · #20 Posted **Nov 7, 2018, 3:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by spoonman

San Diego is extremely height restricted. Probably the most of any major city in that there is a max of 500ft over the entire downtown area (due to airport proximity). This has essentially limited buildings to a max of 45 floors and has resulted in roughly 5 or 6 twin tower projects already.

I remember when I was at Balboa Park in San Diego, the planes were just barely flying overhead. It looked like they were going to land in the park.