The City Planning Commission has been designating special zoning districts since 1969 to achieve specific planning and urban design objectives in defined areas with unique characteristics. Each special district designated by the Commission stipulates zoning requirements and/or zoning incentives tailored to distinctive qualities that may not lend themselves to generalized zoning and standard development.

While special districts remain a widely used affirmative zoning technique in New York City, they have changed over time as new zoning tools became available. Some special districts have been eliminated; others have been modified and absorbed within new special districts. Today, increasingly fine-tuned contextual zoning districts can often preserve a neighborhood’s special character without need for special district zoning.

Bronx
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island