BSA

The Board of Standards and Appeals is the city body empowered to grant relief from the strict text of the zoning and construction codes in individual cases. Its best-known instrument is the zoning variance — permission to depart from use or bulk rules where a lot's unique conditions create practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship — along with special permits in its jurisdiction and appeals from determinations of the Department of Buildings.

In a lot's paper trail, BSA actions are long-lived: a variance granted decades ago can still define what stands on a lot today, often with recorded conditions that bind successor owners. Diligence on any property whose existing building seems to defy its district's rules usually leads either to a grandfathered non-complying condition or to a BSA grant in the records.