Buying Land in Richmond County, New York (Staten Island)

Staten Island: coterminous with Richmond County since 1898, and still the least dense borough

Richmond County has been the same territory as the Borough of Staten Island since New York City's 1898 consolidation, the same basic arrangement as Queens County/the Borough of Queens elsewhere in this project's coverage: no independent county legislature or executive, a Borough President's office serving a land-use-advisory and civic role, and a Richmond County District Attorney as the main other distinctly "county" elected office. Zoning runs through the same citywide NYC Zoning Resolution and ULURP process (local Community Board, then Borough President, then City Planning Commission, then City Council) that governs every other borough -- there's no separate Richmond County zoning code.

Where Staten Island genuinely differs from the rest of New York City -- and from how Queens is treated elsewhere in this batch -- is in how much of the borough remains undeveloped, forested, or preserved as parkland, a real and sourced distinction worth understanding rather than treating every NYC borough as identically dense and built out. It also differs in a more technical way that matters directly to a South Shore land buyer: a special zoning overlay unique to this borough, described below.

The Special South Richmond Development District: a borough-specific zoning overlay

Roughly a third of Staten Island's land area -- covering South and Mid-Island neighborhoods including Tottenville, Annadale, Eltingville, Arden Heights, Great Kills, Bay Terrace, and Richmond Valley -- sits within the Special South Richmond Development District (SSRDD), a 1975-era zoning overlay layered on top of the citywide Zoning Resolution to preserve the area's natural landscape as it suburbanized. Its underlying rules went essentially unchanged for nearly 50 years until the City Council adopted a modernization, the South Richmond Zoning Relief plan, on November 2, 2023 -- new wetland-adjacent buildable-area standards for larger lots, and a homeowner-friendly bypass of City Planning Commission review (straight to the Department of Buildings) for small improvements like pools and decks on lots under an acre. See our dedicated zoning page for Richmond County for what actually changed and what to verify on a specific parcel.

The Staten Island Greenbelt: real open space, with real private inholdings

The Staten Island Greenbelt is a system of contiguous public parkland and natural areas across the borough's central hills, covering roughly 2,800 acres and jointly cared for by NYC Parks and the nonprofit Greenbelt Conservancy -- trails, natural areas, and public facilities spanning a meaningful share of the borough's interior. Staten Island's total protected parkland, including the Greenbelt alongside the federal Gateway National Recreation Area and other parks, is cited at roughly 12,300 acres, a scale of preserved open space genuinely unmatched by any other NYC borough and the basis for Staten Island's occasional description as "the borough of parks."

One detail worth understanding precisely: not every acre inside the Greenbelt's mapped boundary is publicly owned parkland. Several privately-owned parcels sit within the Greenbelt's boundaries and continue to operate as private uses -- specifically documented examples include the Pouch Boy Scout Camp, the Richmond County Country Club's golf course, and Moravian Cemetery. If you're evaluating a parcel described as being "in" or "near" the Greenbelt, don't assume that description alone tells you whether the parcel itself is public parkland, a private inholding, or ordinary adjacent private property outside the mapped boundary entirely -- confirm the parcel's actual ownership and any applicable Designated Open Space zoning overlay directly with NYC Parks or DCP.

The Bluebelt: natural drainage infrastructure as an alternative to storm sewers

A separate, distinct NYC DEP program -- the Staten Island Bluebelt -- uses a network of existing streams, ponds, and wetlands as active stormwater management infrastructure, rather than building conventional storm sewer systems, across parts of the borough (particularly the South Shore and Mid-Island areas). The program has acquired over 250 acres of natural waterway land specifically for this purpose, and the total watershed area it manages exceeds 12,000 acres -- a genuinely distinctive infrastructure approach that reflects Staten Island's topography and remaining open space rather than the conventional piped-sewer approach used in the rest of the city.

For a land buyer, the practical relevance is that a parcel near mapped Bluebelt streams, ponds, or wetlands may carry different development, drainage, or wetland-related review requirements than an otherwise comparable Staten Island lot -- this functions similarly to how a national wetlands-buffer consideration would apply elsewhere, but is specifically administered here through NYC DEP's Bluebelt program rather than a state DEC wetlands permit. Confirm directly with DEP whether a specific parcel sits within or adjacent to a mapped Bluebelt watershed area before assuming standard citywide drainage rules are the only consideration.