If you’re a parking garage owner in New York City’s five boroughs, you know that free parking is only a thing in Monopoly. Yes, parking structures are revenue centers, so all the more reason to inspect and maintain them—especially now that most will be subject to a new city inspection program.

As part of its update of the NYC Building Code, and in line with the recently enacted New York State rule, the DOB has included a new section (Article 323) mandating the periodic inspection of parking structures. The code, currently under review by the City Council, will become effective 12 months after it is enacted. Assuming the code is enacted this year, several sections, including Article 323, will become effective January 1, 2022.

At SUPERSTRUCTURES, our team of New York State professional engineers has years of experience identifying and remediating parking garage problems. We are ready to help garage owners fulfill this mandate.

Article 323 will require condition “assessments” by a qualified professional engineer (PE) conducted at least once every six years, and after each notification of an unsafe condition. Initial assessments for new parking structures are to be conducted in the second year following the issuance of the initial Certificate of Occupancy (CO), or Temporary CO. Assessment reports are filed with the DOB by the PE together with a filing fee.

During the first condition assessment, the PE develops an “annual observation checklist” containing “baseline items” to be inspected during subsequent “annual observations” conducted between condition assessments by an agent (not necessarily a PE), retained by the owner. Reports of annual observations are to be maintained at the parking structure.

Based on conditions observed during the assessment, parking structures will be classified:

• Safe
• Immediately Unsafe. This requires notification of the DOB, installation of safeguards, and commencement of repairs.
• Safe with repair and/or engineering monitoring (by a registered design professional) with a subsequent assessment occurring no more than three years from the initial inspection. Safe with repair and/or engineering monitoring reports cannot be filed for the same parking structure for two consecutive filing periods, unless the second report contains the PE’s attestation that all defects identified in the prior report have been corrected.

The DOB will promulgate a new Rule detailing inspection and reporting requirements. It’s expected to resemble DOB Rule 103-04 governing the City’s Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP, aka Local Law 11), already familiar to many owners and facilities managers.

For more information, please contact us via our website, email us at parking@superstructures.com, contact principal Vikrant Sampat, PE at vsampat@superstructures.com, or phone us at (212) 505-1133.