New York Construction Report staff writer
New York City’s “Get Sheds Down” campaign to remove scaffolding and sidewalk sheds, is working and 173 miles of structures have been taken down in the last year. According to the city, 259 of the sheds had been in place at least five years.
While legitimate scaffolding or sidewalk sheds on active construction cites are not being targeted, those that remain up when work has been completed will not be tolerated.
“This is a public space and you are going to have to essentially pay for the public space if you leaving your sheds up,” said Jimmy Oddo, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Building.
“If you have a shed up and you’re not doing any work and we see that … you are going to get fined aggressively.”
“Ten thousand dollars. That’s how much money businesses are losing when they stay covered up by ugly sidewalk sheds and scaffolding, according to a new study from Mastercard,” Adams said. “And those that saw sheds go down, saw revenues go up. It’s simple: #GetShedsDown is good for business.
“Our plan is to flip the script on property owners so work gets finished and sheds come down.”
The city’s “Get Sheds Down” program is enforcing existing law, and city council is working on additional incentives, requiring building owners to use nicer-looking ones, and to show every 90 days that they’re doing work that requires their use.
“They’re going to have to continue to show the Department of Buildings that they’re doing the work, and if they’re not, they’re going to hear from us,” said Keith Powers, NYC Council.
