If a building has 5 stories, floor area per story is 8,000 sf, and the lot area is 60,000 sf, what is the FAR?

• A. 0.50
• B. 0.67
• C. 1.00
• D. 0.75

Answer: (B)

FAR compares how much total floor area a building has to the size of the lot, showing how densely the site is developed. First find the total floor area by multiplying stories by floor area per story: 5 × 8,000 = 40,000 square feet. Then divide by the lot area: 40,000 ÷ 60,000 = 0.666..., which rounds to 0.67. So the FAR is about 0.67. This means the building’s total floor area equals roughly 67% of the lot size. Values like 0.50 or 1.00 would require different total floor areas (30,000 or 60,000 sf, respectively), so they don’t match this scenario.