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Mamdani eyes fewer, shorter-lived NYC sidewalk sheds with new scaffolding rules
By
Ryan Kost
Published Mar 7, 2026
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By
Ryan Kost
Published Mar 7, 2026
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New York City is overhauling its sidewalk shed regulations — moves meant to limit how far the structures can extend from buildings and to ramp up enforcement against owners who leave them in place indefinitely.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the changes Friday while standing outside Highbridge Gardens in the Bronx, a NYCHA complex where 4,100 linear feet of shed had lingered for more than five years. Sidewalks sheds, he said, cover more than 380 miles of streets or 7,500 city blocks, and some have stayed up for more than 15 years because of "outdated regulations that make it easier to leave a building in disrepair than to fix the issues that are actually at hand.”
“We are interrogating every single rule and regulation that we have to answer the question of ‘Is this necessary to keep New Yorkers safe?’ And if the answer is no, then it deserves to be changed,” Mamdani said.
Currently, a shed must extend at least half the height of the building under repair, meaning a tall tower can push a shed dozens of feet into surrounding open space. But starting this August, sheds will be capped at 40 feet from a building's facade regardless of height.
The new cap, the mayor said, would significantly reduce how much sidewalk and green space gets consumed, particularly on NYCHA campuses where buildings are tall and open grounds are shared by residents.
The city is also stepping up enforcement on perma-sheds. A new Department of Buildings rule will allow the agency to penalize owners for keeping sheds up too long and require public updates on shed status every 90 days.
Well-maintained buildings under 40 years old will shift from mandatory facade inspections every five years to every 12, with abbreviated visual check-ins every three years in between. Buildings commissioner Ahmed Tigani said the change is grounded in an 18-month analysis of tens of thousands of facade inspections.
New York City has nearly 8,000 active sidewalk sheds, about 1,000 fewer than five years ago.
— Liz Kim contributed reporting.
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Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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