NYC E-Designation Program Details

“An E-Designation is a New York City zoning map designation that indicates the presence of an environmental requirement pertaining to potential Hazardous Materials Contamination, Window/Wall Noise Attenuation (Noise), or Air Quality impacts on a particular tax lot.  E-Designations are established on the Zoning Map by the Department of City Planning (DCP) and City Council as a part of a zoning change/action.”

The New York City E-Designation Environmental Review Program is administered and managed by New York City Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (OER).  A site (or a tax lot) may have an E-Designation for Hazardous Materials, Air Quality, and Noise or one or more of the three types of these environmental designations.

“Recorded Restrictive Declarations (RDs) are also reviewed by OER.  The institutional control mechanisms for both the E-Designation and RD programs have equivalent investigation and remedial requirements.”  “A Lead City Agency may accept the recording of a RD as an Institutional Control on a property in order to allow a zoning/variance action to be certified.  The RD acts by binding the owner to investigate and remediate after the zoning/variance action is certified”

As part of OER review process, sites with an E-Designation for Hazardous Materials typically require a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (Phase I ESA), a Phase II Investigation Work Plan (Phase II WP), implementation of an OER-approved Phase II Investigation, a Phase II, or a Remedial Investigation (RI) Report, a Remedial Action Work Plan (RAWP), implementation of an OER-approved Remedial Action (RA) and a Remedial Action (or Closure) Report.  The investigative and remedial components of the process must address potential and actual contamination in soil, groundwater and soil vapor.  The requirements for sites with minimal or no ground disturbance may be greatly reduced.  Upon OER’s approval of the RAWP, OER issues a Notice to Proceed (NTP) to New York City Department of Buildings (DOB).  Without a NTP, a building permit cannot be obtained from DOB.  Upon satisfactory completion of the Remedial Action and OER’s approval of the Remedial Action (or Closure) Report, OER issues a Notice of Satisfaction to DOB.  Without a Notice of Satisfaction, a Certificate of Occupancy cannot be obtained from DOB.  For sites with minimal or no ground disturbance with reduced requirements, OER may be possibly issue a Notice of No Objection (NNO) to DOB at the early stage of the process.  With a NNO in place, the environmental requirements for Hazardous Materials are satisfied and no additional notices from OER are required.

Sites with an E-Designation for Air Quality or Noise require a Remedial Action Plan for Air Quality or Noise, as applicable, and a post-construction Remedial Action Report.  The Remedial Action for Air Quality consists primarily of design and installation of heating systems that meet certain atmospheric air emission requirements.   The Remedial Action for Noise consists of design and construction of a building envelope, primarily exterior glass windows and doors that meet certain noise attenuation requirements in order to maintain site specific indoor noise levels.  The processes of issuance of a Notice to Proceed, a Notice of Satisfaction and a Notice of No Objection are similar to those of Hazardous Materials review.