Remodeling a house in Flatbush, Brooklyn

What this page covers

This page is for owners of single-family and two-family houses in Flatbush, especially the free-standing frame houses of the historic districts, who are planning kitchen, bathroom or whole-interior work. Flatbush is a Brooklyn neighborhood, so building permits come from the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB). The figures below are for two DCP neighborhood tabulation areas (NTAs): Flatbush (BK1401) and Flatbush (West)-Ditmas Park-Parkville (BK1402). NTAs are statistical areas built from census tracts. Their names and edges are not official neighborhood boundaries, and East Flatbush and Midwood are separate NTAs not covered here. Structural alterations, additions and new construction are not planned services. Availability and service-area approval have not been established.

LPC designations

Six districts with different dates

The Brooklyn page lists every Brooklyn district and explains which interior work LPC says it reviews. What matters here is that these six districts cover specific blocks, were designated decades apart, and are described in separate reports. A house on the next block can be outside all of them.

What the lot data shows

How much of the area is designated

In BK1402, 35% of lots with homes are class A1, two-story detached one-family houses, and inside each of its five districts at least 94% of lots with homes are one- or two-family houses. Yet nearly half of the NTA's homes are on elevator-building lots. In BK1401, elevator buildings hold about two-thirds of homes. So the same street name can mean a free-standing frame house or a large apartment building, and the two need different briefs. More than 90% of lots with homes in both NTAs record a year built before 1940; DCP says the field is accurate to the decade, not the year.

No lot with homes in either NTA is flagged on FEMA's 2007 or 2015 flood maps in PLUTO. That is an area reading, not an address check.

What a designation report can tell you about your house

Each district's LPC designation report describes the district as a whole and then the buildings in it. The 2025 Ditmas Park West and Beverley Square West reports have a building-profiles section. The 1979 Prospect Park South and 1981 Ditmas Park reports describe houses entry by entry, with siding, porch, bay and window details. For an interior project, that entry is a quick record of what LPC described on the outside of your house when the district was designated.

Both older reports also note that many houses had already lost original siding to artificial shingles or aluminum, had porches enclosed or had details removed. So the house you see today may not match the report, and the report may not match what lies under later siding. A kitchen or bath plan in these houses often touches the outside: a range-hood or bath-fan duct through a clapboard wall, a replaced or enlarged window, a new side door. List those items separately and ask LPC and your design professional how they would be reviewed. See the kitchen ventilation guide and renovating an older home.

Address worksheet before asking for proposals

1. Search the exact address on LPC's Discover NYC Landmarks map and note the district name, if any.
2. If it is designated, find the district's designation report and the entry or profile for your house. Save it with the brief.
3. Note whether the house is free-standing, semi-detached or attached, and whether it is one- or two-family on the Certificate of Occupancy, if there is one.
4. List every item that changes the outside: duct and vent exits, windows, doors, porch work, exterior lights, condenser locations.
5. Note plumbing that moves. Moved fixtures usually raise DOB filing questions, and in a designated house they can also raise LPC questions.
6. Mark which rooms the household needs during the work. See the living at home guide.

Room scope examples are on kitchen remodeling and bathroom remodeling. For another Brooklyn district page, see Bay Ridge, which covers a single row-house district.