Mount Vernon, NY Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

I(4), the fee-in-lieu-of-landscaping provision inside Chapter 267's Miscellaneous Provisions, Article IV, ties Mount Vernon's lot coverage limits directly to the permitting process: an application for a permit to construct, alter, add to, or change the use of a property cannot be granted if the maximum impervious surface coverage set for that zoning district is exceeded, or if the required landscaped buffer and screening area is missing. The actual percentage caps are set district by district in the Schedule of Dimensional Regulations that accompanies Chapter 267 as a separate attachment, so the coverage ceiling varies by which district a lot sits in.

I(4) adds is the enforcement path when a project exceeds that ceiling: the applicant must first obtain an area variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for the excess impervious coverage, then pay a landscaping fee to the issuing agency in lieu of providing the minimum required pervious surface. That fee is ordinarily due before the permit is issued, though the code allows it to be paid any time before a certificate of occupancy is issued for a project that was already under construction when this amendment took effect. 75 Multifamily Residence District, giving a real benchmark for how tightly the city caps paved and built-upon area in at least one zoning classification.