Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is defined as which of the following?

• A. The density of nonresidential land use, exclusive of structured parking, measured as total nonresidential building floor area divided by the total buildable land area.
• B. The density of residential land use, exclusive of structured parking.
• C. The ratio of building height to lot width.
• D. The ratio of total nonresidential floor area to the site area including structured parking.

Answer: (A)

Floor Area Ratio measures how densely a site is developed by comparing the floor area of nonresidential space to the site's buildable land area. It uses total nonresidential floor area as the numerator and the buildable land area as the denominator, and excludes structured parking from the floor area counted. This captures the density of nonresidential use on the site and is the proper way to express FAR in this context. The other ideas describe different concepts: residential density, a height-to-width dimensional ratio, or including parking in the floor area, which are not what FAR represents here.