New Sidewalk Shed Rules Pose Challenges for Co-ops and Condos

The much despised sidewalk sheds are the bane of co-ops and condos undertaking building repairs, but new rules passed by the City Council to remove unsightly scaffolding could create more challenges and costs for boards. The regulations significantly reduce the duration of sidewalk shed permits for facade repairs from one year to three months. They add new penalties of up to $20,000 each time a plan, permit and facade repair isn’t completed within a specific timeline.

The changes will hit boards hard. “It will add to the cost of the projects and the administrative work required,” says Rebecca Poole, membership director at the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums. Some engineers claim that while well-intentioned, the changes are misguided. “It is not going to change the duration of a construction job,” says Eric Vonderhyde, principal at Bertolini Architectural Works. “It’s just going to generate paperwork and fees.”

Currently, buildings over six stories must have facade inspections every five years. In the first major change to facade inspection cycles in 45 years, the new law allows the Department of Buildings (DOB) to establish a revised inspection cycle between six and 12 years, with implementation set for Oct. 1, 2026.

Longer inspection cycles may give boards some relief on inspection costs, but attorney Marc H. Schneider, CEO and managing partner of Schneider Buchel, says shorter scaffold permits will have downsides. “It means more money if they need to be renewed and more pressure to secure contractors in a tight market so they can get the work done quicker.”

Stephen Varone, principal at Rand Engineering and Architecture, believes that linking facade inspections to shed regulations is a mistake. “Inspections only result in sheds if we find unsafe conditions, so to say we should do fewer inspections is to say we should have more unsafe conditions,” he points out.

Mayor Eric Adams has framed new penalties as “meaningful incentives” to complete facade work within two years, but some engineers say the reality is more complex. “If a building can’t afford to do a project and that’s what is delaying repairs, adding another layer of fees isn’t going to be very helpful,” Vonderhyde says. While a two-year timeframe for a facade project isn’t unreasonable and there are carve outs for the most common delays, Eugene Ferrara, president of the consulting and engineering firm JMA Consultants, says the rules do nothing to address the main reason facade repairs are delayed: timely access agreements from neighboring property owners.

Access is often necessary for engineering work and safety compliance. However, negotiating terms and fees can stall a project for months. “We have almost 20 projects at any one time delayed because of access agreements,” Ferrara says. Currently, unresolved access disputes must be settled in court, a route that takes time and money. Some industry experts say a better solution would be for the DOB to facilitate arbitration or to develop a standardized fee schedule to get access agreements done quicker.

In response, the DOB points to bills currently before the State legislature aimed at accelerating and streamlining access negotiations. “We look forward to the State Assembly and Senate taking up these bills, and making changes to help better facilitate access agreements between neighbors,” says DOB press secretary, Andrew Rudansky. Similar versions of these bills have been put forward in previous sessions but have not passed either house.

The new laws also mandate improvements to shed design, including raising the minimum height to 12 feet and ensuring sheds are well lit. The DOB is also tasked with introducing new designs and colors for sidewalk sheds to make them more attractive, and must also provide clear guidance on the use of containment netting as an alternative to sheds. Varone says the new rules should be focused more on aesthetics than on inspections, permits and penalties. “If you just had lighter, brighter, more attractive sheds, a lot of the complaining about all these ugly sheds wouldn’t exist any more,” he says.