Floor Area Ratio

Published February 2000

The gross square footage of a building divided by the square footage of the building site. A general planning specification used principally in urban situations to limit the density of building in a particular zone. If the FAR equals 1.0 for a 100,000-square-foot site, the maximum square footage in a building that can be built on that site is 100,000 square feet. If the FAR equals 2.0 for the same site, then the maximum amount of building space is 200,000 square feet.