An important reminder for garage owners in New York City: a new inspection program for parking structures will take effect soon—likely in the first quarter of 2022. While we await the precise kickoff date for this program, another legislative milestone has been passed and it’s not too soon for owners to act.*

The new program (Article 323) will require periodic inspection of all parking structures within the five boroughs. Our advice:  Be proactive in getting your garage inspected and repaired now. Repair defects early and, when the time comes, you’ll be able to file a clean report and avoid the inspection and repair rush.

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.

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 call us at (212) 505-1133.

*On October 7, 2021, the New York City Council enacted a major revision to the NYC Construction Codes, which includes a new section (Article 323) mandating the periodic inspection of parking structures. A Local Law number will be assigned when the legislation is signed into law by the Mayor. The program will be similar in form to the Department of Building’s Facade Inspection and Safety Program (aka FISP). Article 323 will take effect on January 1, 2022. The DOB will then promulgate its new rule detailing the inspection and reporting requirements of Article 323.