● Special Fifth Avenue District

The Special Fifth Avenue District was created to assure the continuation of Fifth Avenue as Manhattan's major retail street as well as to preserve it as a showcase of national and international prestige shopping. The district encourages the concentration of high quality department stores, retail clustering, restaurants and related activities that complement the unique character of the avenue. Incentives are given to provide hotel and residential uses above commercial uses.

To maintain the design character of Fifth Avenue, attempts were made to maintain the existing uniformity of front wall lines on both sides of Fifth Avenue. Plazas and arcades are discouraged along the Avenue. To improve pedestrian and vehicular circulation, mid-block connections in the form of portes-cochere, through-block arcades and covered pedestrian spaces are encouraged. Like the Greenwich Street District, a unique feature of the district is the reliance on a certification procedure rather than a special permit for authorizing bonuses.

● Brooklyn Center Development District

The Brooklyn Center Development District was established to promote the orderly development of Downtown Brooklyn in accordance with an urban renewal plan approved by the Planning Commission and Board of Estimate.

The major features of the district are such mandatory lot improvements as bridges and shopping arcades to facilitate pedestrian circulation in the area, and provisions for transfer of floor area between lots within the district in accordance with the over-all design concept for the district. The basic floor area ratio for the district is increased because of the required mandatory improvements.

● Special South Street Seaport District

The purpose of the Special South Street Seaport District is to make it possible to preserve and restore the Seaport's historic buildings in accordance with an approved development plan. The low scale of the Seaport would be retained by transferring development rights above the low buildings to specified neighboring locations for commercial development.

● Special Park District

The Special Park District was created to preserve two small private parks in Tudor City and other private parks in the Midtown area. The owner can transfer or sell the allowable building rights from the park property to other parcels in the Midtown core. Bulk of the receiving building could be increased up to 20 percent.

Only parks in existence as of July 1, 1972 are eligible for the special zoning. Once the development rights are transferred, the developer must continue to maintain his park and open it to the public.

● Special Park Improvement District

The Special Park Improvement District was created to preserve the character and architectural quality of Fifth and Park Avenues and to foster park and mall improvements in the area.

Developers in this area would normally receive a 20 percent bulk bonus for including a public plaza or arcade in their building. However, such open space was redundant along Fifth and Park Avenues and plazas were considered potentially destructive of

● **Special Lincoln Square District**

The Special Lincoln Square District was established to protect the character of the area surrounding Lincoln Square as an international center for the performing arts. The district accomplishes its objective by offering special floor area bonuses by permit from the Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate for the provision of pedestrian malls, galleries, covered plazas, pedestrian oriented circulation improvements and inclusion of low- and moderate-income housing in new development. The district mandates the height of building walls along certain streets, location of arcades and types of commercial use at street level in order to guide the orderly redevelopment of the affected area.

● **Special Limited Commercial District**

The Special Limited Commercial District attempts to preserve the character of commercial areas within Historic Districts. This is accomplished by restricting commercial uses to those compatible with the Historic District, mandating that all commercial uses be in completely enclosed buildings and limiting the size and illumination of signs within the Special District. One such special district was mapped in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

● **Special Battery Park City District**

The Special Battery Park City District was created to govern a large development in an area close to the business core of Lower Manhattan in harmony with a Master Development Plan adopted by the City Planning Commission for that area. Regulations reflect vertical separation of land uses, development of pooled open spaces and a rational circulation system accommodating all major movements of pedestrians and vehicles.

● **Special United Nations Development District**

The Special United Nations Development District attempts to guide the development of a midtown area adjacent to the United Nations in accordance with a development plan for the district approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate. A major feature of the development proposal is a unified design concept. The basic floor area ratio for the district is increased to promote special public amenities needed in the area and to implement the development plan.

● **Special Greenwich Street Development District**

The Special Greenwich Street Development District was established to foster and promote the orderly expansion of commercial development in an area of Lower Manhattan adjacent to Battery Park City and the World Trade Center.

This district attempts to implement an integrated plan for improved pedestrian and vehicular circulation as well as encourage development of a variety of retail and service establishments to meet the needs of the area's working population. This is accomplished through a fine-grained series of mandatory and elective pedestrian circulation and lot improvements relating to each property in the district for which floor area bonuses are offered.

Some unique features of this district are its provisions for involving both the developer and appropriate public agencies in the construction of certain pedestrian circulation improvements and the district's reliance on an administrative certification procedure rather than a legislative special permit approval for authorizing floor area bonuses in each case.

● Special Brooklyn Center Development District

● Special Park District

The Special Park Improvement District was created to preserve the character and
architectural quality of Fifth and Park Avenues and to foster park and mall improve-
ments in the area.

Developers in this area would normally receive a 20 percent bulk bonus for including a public plaza or arcade in their building. However, such open space was redundant along Fifth and Park Avenues and plazas were considered potentially destructive of the continuous facade along Fifth Avenue. The district substitutes a contribution to a special park improvement fund instead of provision of the plaza bonus.

● Special Planned Community Preservation District

The Special Planned Community Preservation District provides protection to the unique character of well-planned communities that have been developed as a unit with large landscaped open spaces and with superior relationship of buildings, open spaces, commercial uses, pedestrian and vehicular circulation which have been threatened by development pressures. No demolition, new development, enlargement or alteration of landscaping or topography is permitted within the District except by special permit of the City Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate. The Preservation Districts have been mapped in Sunnyside Gardens, Fresh Meadows, Parkchester and Harlem River Houses.

● Special Scenic View District

The Special Scenic View District is intended to prevent obstruction of outstanding scenic views as seen from a public park, esplanade or mapped public place. No buildings or structures would be allowed to penetrate a scenic view plane except by special permit of the City Planning Commission and the Board of Estimate. The mapping of a Special Scenic View District has been approved for the area west of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in order to protect the waterfront view of the Lower Manhattan skyline, Governor's Island, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

● Special Natural Area District

The purpose of the Special Natural Area District is to preserve natural features, such as aquatic, biologic, geologic and topographic features having ecological and conservation values by reviewing all new developments and site alterations on primarily vacant land. Natural features are protected by limiting modifications in topography and by preserving plant and marine life and natural water courses and by requiring clustered development to maximize the preservation of natural features.

Under this legislation, the City Planning Commission must certify that all new developments in mapped natural area districts meet applicable preservation standards.

Special Natural Area Districts have been mapped in the greenbelt area of Staten Island and in Riverdale (Bronx). These areas are endowed with steep slopes, rock outcrops, creeks and a variety of botanic environments.

● The Special Coney Island Mixed Use District

The Special Coney Island Mixed Use District was established to stabilize residential development while protecting the area's industrial base.

The District allows limited new residential infill, and requires special permits for new large industrial developments. Existing residential buildings are allowed enlargements, alterations and repairs and new residential buildings are allowed if they are next to an existing residential or community facility use.

New manufacturing is limited to certain light industries compatible in a mixed industrial residential neighborhood.

● Special South Richmond Development District

The Special South Richmond Development District was established to systematically guide development of predominantly vacant land in the southern half of Staten Island. The Special District maintains the densities established by the underlying zones and insures that new development is compatible with existing communities.