Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 95, no. 2455: Articles]: April 3, 1915

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REAL ESTATE BUILDERS AND NEW YORK, APRIL 3, 1915 piVHiiilliiliiiiH^^ iiiiilMI liillliilllH^ I THE NEW CODE OF CITY ORDINANCES The Mayor Signs the Recodification Bill, Which Includes the Building Code as Amended up to the Present Date—Old and New Laws Rearranged for the First Time in Eight Years liiiiiiiiiiiiiiin iEiHilM THE city's long struggle for an in¬ telligible and tip-to-date Code of Or¬ dinances reached a most satisfactory stage on Tuesday of this week, when Mayor Mitchel signed the ordinance constituting a new code and returned it to the Board of Aldermen with the fol¬ lowing message: "I have approved the proposed Code of Ordinances and return it to you here¬ with. It is my duty to congratulate the committee upon their diligence and abil¬ ity in producing this revised code for the city. You may well feel proud of the re¬ sult attained." The new code went into effect imme¬ diately upon its approval by the Mayor, and bj^ its terms repeals all other gen¬ eral ordinances or parts thereof. For these reasons, it is advisable that the public generally, and our readers in par¬ ticular, should become acquainted with the provisions of the new codification, which will have an important and con¬ stant bearing upon their interests and responsibilities. A Forgotten Duty. Section 57 of the Greater New York Charter provides that the general ordi¬ nances shall be reduced to a code and published. It also directs the Board of Aldermen to appoint a committee that shall compile and publish such ordi¬ nances annually. The Code of Ordi¬ nances repealed by the new codification became effective on Jan. 1, 1906. Since then, it had not been revised, nor had there been prepared and published in any year the required compilation of the general ordinances. This mass of gen¬ eral ordinances was an enigma to law¬ yers and laymen alike. The provisions of the old code were not arranged subjectively, as conveni¬ ence demanded, but were imperfectly correlated, according to the jurisdictions of the officers charged with their en¬ forcement. It was divided into sixteen parts, containing, with the amendments made since Jan. 1. 1906, over 250,000 words. This was greater than the vol¬ ume of the Charter, as amended and supplemented to date. As in the case of the Charter, the old code was con¬ gested by needless repetitions, obsolete provisions and other redundant material. Its phraseology was antiquated, and, in many instances, so involved as to be almost unintelligible. The Plan of the Code. In form, the new Code of Ordinances has been moulded on the lines of the Consolidated Laws. The provisions re¬ lating to particular subjects have been correlated and divided into chapters, which have been arranged in alphabeti¬ cal order. By statute the Sanitary Code, the Park Ordinances and the Regulations of the Municipal Explosives Commission must constitute separate and independent chapters of the Code of Ordinances, and each has its own scheme of section numbering. For these reasons, it was not feasible to number all sections of the recodifica¬ tion in a single series, in the fashion of the Charter, That there might be a ASST. CORPORATIOX COUNSEL MacXULTY. Who drafted the new code of ordinances. uniformity in this particular, the sec¬ tions of each chapter of the new code have been numbered in a separate series and grouped in appropriate "arti¬ cles." The new code contains twenty-eight chapters numbered and entitled as fol¬ lows: 1. Ceneral provisions. 14.Licenses. 2. Administrative pro- 15.Markets. visions. 10. Municipal civil •'• ^'e^hibitTns'' ""* 1^- P ^'-''k''^'' P-^k^-y^ exniDuions. ^^^^ ^^^^ streetb. 4. Bridges. js. Police. 5. Building code. jo. Railroads. 0. Charities. oi). Sanitary code. (. Corrections. 21. Sewers and drains. S. Docks. oo street cleaning. 0. Electrical control. 03 streets 10. Explosives and haz- ^4' Trafhc regulations. ardouB trades. 05 water supply. 11. Firearms. 20. Weights and meas- 12. Fires and fire pre- ures. vention. 27. Miscellaneous. l^^. Hospitals. 2S. Repeal. The Building Laws. The Building Code was omitted from the original draft of the new code, be¬ cause it was in process of revision on the date when the preliminary report of the Committee on Codification was sub¬ mitted to the Board of Aldermen. Sub¬ sequently, however, the Committee on Buildings of the Board decided to un¬ dertake the amendment of the code sub¬ ject, rather than to attempt to prepare an omnibus revision thereof for sub¬ mission as a single ordinance. This change in plan necessitated the inclu¬ sion of the Building Code, as amended to date, in the general recodification of ordinances. Its text has been corre¬ lated and rearranged in articles and sec¬ tions, in conformity with the general plan of the new code and in the order suggested by Mr. Rudolph P. Miller, the technical adviser of the Committee on Buildings, but without change lU sub¬ stance; except that there has been trans¬ ferred to the Building Code chapter all ordinance provisions relating to the con¬ struction and alteration of motion pic¬ ture theatres and open-air motion pic¬ ture theatres contained in the motion- picture ordinance, approved by Mayor Gaynor, July 8, 1913. Thirty-two Articles. The new compilation of the Building Code contains al! of the amendments thereof, to date, and is divided into thirty-two articles numbered and en¬ titled as follows: Article. 1—General provisions. J^Materials. 0—Strength of materials. 4—Classification of buildings. o^Restricted areas. G—Height, size and arrangement. T^Light and ventilation. 8—Exit facilities. t>—Projections beyond building line. 10—Safeguards during construction. 11—Partition fences and walls. 12—Excavations and foundations. l^—Masonry walls. 14—Wood construction. 15—Iron or steel construction. 16—Reinforced concroto construction. IT—Fireproof construction. IS—Firewalls and shafts. 19—Chimneys, flues and heating appliances. 20—Construction above roof. 21—Construction generally. 22—Frame con-^truction. 2^—Buildings of a public character. 24—Motion picture theatres. 25—Theatres and other places of amusement. 26^Miscellaneous structures. 27—Elevators. • 2S—Fire extinguishing appliances. 20—Plumbing and other systems of piping. oO—Altering, changing or demolishing buildings. 31—Unsafe buildings and collapsed structures. .'!2^Enforcemont of chapter. An Inexpensive Work. The splendid service rendered to the city by the production of the new Code of Ordinances is particularly notable, in that the work was accomplished with¬ out burdening our taxpayers with the huge outlay for municipal "experts." "efficiency" engineers and other superior persons, imported from the prairies and the everglades, usually required for an important local undertaking. The new code was prepared under the supervi¬ sion of the Committee on Codification of Ordinances of the Board of Alder¬ men, consisting of William H. Pendry, Chairman Lauren Carroll, Joseph W, Spencer, Frederick H. Stevenson, Wil¬ liam H. Chorosh, Tsidor M. Rosenblum, John Kochendorfer. Harry Robitzek. Louis Jacobson. Arnon L. Squiers, Louis Wendel, Jr.. and Clarence Schmel¬ zel, with Frank J. Martin as clerk. The planning and drafting of the code was the work of A. C. MacNulty. Assistant Corporation Counsel, who acted as counsel to thc committee. Aside from the salaries of these officers and the cost of the necessary printing, the ac¬ tual expense of the recodification was less than $1,000. The Board of Aldermen reco.gnizes that the new code requires revision of substance in many of its provisions. Several ordinances having this end in view are now pending, and others are in preparation. The leaders of the board hope that, before the end of the year, the code will be made as complete and satisfactory in substance as it is now in form and arrangement.