NYC sidewalk shed rules 2026: 90-day permits and deadlines

What changed for NYC sidewalk sheds in 2026

Two things changed. First, the permit. Sidewalk shed permits issued or renewed on or after Feb 2, 2026 expire every 90 days and no longer renew automatically. The owner has to apply for each renewal, and each application needs a progress report. Second, the deadline. A shed put up to protect the public from a facade condition now carries three milestones: construction documents, a work permit application for the repair, and completed repairs. For facade sheds first permitted on or after Jan 12, 2026: construction documents within 5 months, permit application within 8 months, repairs complete within 2 years. Penalties are $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000.

Before 2026 a shed permit could be renewed year after year with no work behind it. That is how the city ended up with sheds older than the leases of the tenants walking under them. Local Law 48 of 2025 ended automatic renewal. 1 RCNY 102-07, the DOB rule that sets out how the milestones, progress reports and extensions work, took effect Aug 13, 2026. Together they are what people mean by the new NYC sidewalk shed law.

The duties fall on the building owner, not on the contractor that put the shed up. But the contractor is the one DOB expects to see on site in every permit period, so the schedule below matters to both.

The shed timeline from day 0 to 24 months

The milestones run from the date the facade shed was first permitted. The renewals run every 90 days from each permit date. Both clocks run at once.

The penalty figures are the three amounts in 1 RCNY 102-07 for the three milestones in order. Extension fees and the request window are below.

The 90-day renewal and the progress report

Each renewal needs a progress report. Each renewal needs a progress report with milestones ($90 fee). No acceptable report means a $2,500 penalty. Owners keep a weekly work log. The report shows which milestone the project is at, what work was done in the period, and what is planned for the next one. DOB uses it to decide whether the permit period was productive.

The weekly work log is the paper behind the report. The owner keeps it week by week, listing the work done under the shed. If nothing was done, the log says so, and the next progress report shows a period with no work. From the second renewal of a permit issued after Jan 12, 2026, that is a problem: work must happen in every permit period. A shed that sits with no work behind it is no longer a holding position. It is a record DOB can act on at the next renewal.

For a contractor, the renewal record is a useful signal. A shed that has been renewed twice with no repair permit filed is a building where the owner has a deadline and no one doing the work.

The three milestones and their penalties

The milestones follow the order a facade job actually runs in.

5 months: construction documents. The owner needs a design professional to survey the facade, decide the scope and draw it up. For an Unsafe condition this usually means the same engineer or architect that filed the FISP report. Missing it costs $5,000.

8 months: permit application. The repair needs a work permit, and a work permit needs a contractor on record. This is the milestone that forces the owner to pick a facade contractor. Missing it costs $10,000.

24 months: repairs complete. Two years from the first shed permit, the work has to be done. Missing it costs $20,000, on top of whatever earlier milestones were missed.

The amounts come from For facade sheds first permitted on or after Jan 12, 2026: construction documents within 5 months, permit application within 8 months, repairs complete within 2 years. Penalties are $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000. They sit alongside the Local Law 11 civil penalties for an uncorrected Unsafe condition, which are listed in the Local Law 11 penalties guide. An owner who misses the shed milestones is usually also past the 90-day facade deadline, so the two schedules stack.

Extensions: fees and the request window

An owner who cannot meet a milestone can ask for more time, but only inside a fixed window and only for a fee. Milestone extension fees are $410, $465 and $1,425. Requests go in 60 to 20 days before the deadline, through DOB NOW: Safety from Nov 2, 2026. The three fees match the three milestones in order: the cheapest for the construction documents, the middle one for the permit application, and the highest for completing the work.

The window matters more than the fee. A request sent later than 20 days before the deadline, or earlier than 60 days before it, is outside the rule. In practice the owner needs to know by about two months out whether the next milestone is at risk, which is the kind of planning the progress reports are meant to force.

Which sheds are exempt

The shed milestone rules do not apply to sheds on one and two family homes, or to sheds for new building, enlargement or demolition work. The exemption follows the reason for the shed. A shed around a new building or a demolition site comes down when that job ends, and the job already has its own permit and schedule. A shed on a one or two family home is outside the program because those buildings are outside FISP.

Everything else that is a facade shed is in. That covers sheds put up for an Unsafe facade filing, sheds for SWARMP repairs, and sheds an owner puts up ahead of a facade inspection. The 90-day permit rule applies to all shed permits regardless of reason; only the milestones have the exemption.

How the shed rules connect to Local Law 11

Most sheds in the program start with a facade filing. When a QEWI finds an Unsafe condition, the owner must put up public protection immediately and keep it until an amended Safe or SWARMP report is approved. An Unsafe condition must be corrected within 90 days of filing the Unsafe report. Owners are liable for civil penalties from day 90 unless an extension is approved. So an Unsafe filing starts two clocks at once: the 90-day facade correction deadline under FISP, and the shed milestone schedule under 1 RCNY 102-07. The facade deadline comes first. The shed milestones carry on after it, with their own penalties, until the repair is finished.

The Local Law 11 guide explains the ratings and the cycle. The SWARMP vs Unsafe guide covers why a SWARMP condition left alone becomes an Unsafe one and a shed. The Cycle 10 deadlines guide has the filing windows by block number, which is where the next wave of Unsafe filings and sheds will come from.

What this means if you sell facade work

The old shed economy rewarded waiting. An owner could renew a shed indefinitely and put off the repair. The new rules reverse that. Within 8 months of the first permit the owner must have a contractor on a permit application, or pay. Within 2 years the work must be done, or pay again. Every 90 days the owner must show DOB what was done.

That makes the shed permit record a dated list of owners with a legal reason to hire. The permits are public. So are the FISP filings behind them. The sidewalk shed data page counts sheds by age so you can see how many are in the window. The facade restoration leads feed lists, each week, the buildings with a shed up and no repair permit on file, which is the 8-month milestone seen from the other side.

Numbers behind this guide: NYC sidewalk sheds by age.