Key takeaways
- The Department has proposed a rule on containment netting. The public hearing was held on October 5, 2026 and the comment period is closed. It is not adopted.
- The rule comes from Local Law 47 of 2025, which added section 3307.6.2.1 to the Building Code and directed the Department to make rules for netting.
- Netting would be an option, not a substitute everywhere: the Department describes it for areas with no public access, or for use on a building exposure adjoining the one where facade work is taking place.
- The rule would cover the design, materials, installation, adjustment, maintenance, repair and inspection of the netting.
In this article
Every conversation about sidewalk sheds in New York eventually arrives at the same question: does the whole block really need a shed for work happening on one face of one building? Containment netting is the city's attempt at an answer, and the rule that would govern it has been written and heard.
Where it comes from
Local Law 47 of 2025 — the same law behind the 40-foot shed cap — added section 3307.6.2.1 to the Building Code and required the Department to write rules for containment netting.
The proposal is published on the City's rulemaking portal as Containment Netting. The hearing was held on October 5, 2026, comments closed the same day, and the rule has not been adopted. Until it is, netting is not an alternative to anything.
What it would permit
The Department describes the rule as setting optional conditions for using containment netting in place of a sidewalk shed, in two situations: areas with no public access, and use on a building exposure adjoining the exposure where facade work is to occur.
Read that carefully, because it is narrower than the headline. This is not netting instead of a shed over a busy sidewalk. It is netting where nobody is walking, and netting on the faces next to the one being worked on — the faces that currently get shedded because the rule extends coverage around the corner.
For a building with a shed wrapped around three sides for work happening on one, that is the saving.
What the rule would govern
The Department's summary says the rule covers the requirements for the design, materials, installation, adjustment, maintenance, repair and inspection of the netting. The detail sits in the proposed text rather than in the summary, and the comments filed on it raise the usual questions a first draft attracts — who the qualified person performing inspections is, and how precisely some of the dimensional requirements are meant to be read.
Those are comments, not the Department's position, and the final text may answer them. What is already clear is the shape: netting will carry a maintenance and inspection regime of its own. It is not a one-time installation that gets forgotten until the job ends.
What to do now
Nothing, except plan. The rule is not adopted and netting is not yet an alternative to a required shed.
What is worth doing is noticing which of your buildings would benefit if it is adopted: the ones where a shed runs around faces nobody is working on, or over areas the public cannot reach. Those are the jobs where the economics change, and knowing which they are means being ready on the day the rule lands rather than three months later.
We will publish an update here when the rule is adopted or withdrawn.
The other two pieces of the same law are the 40-foot cap on shed coverage and the proposed standard shed designs; the permit rules are in 90-day shed permits.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use netting instead of a shed today?
No. The rule is proposed. Until it is adopted, the sidewalk shed requirements apply as they stand.
Would netting replace the shed over the sidewalk?
The Department describes the netting option for areas with no public access, or on an exposure adjoining the one where facade work occurs. It is not presented as a replacement for protection over an accessible sidewalk.
Who inspects the netting?
The proposal assigns inspections to a qualified person, and the definition of that term was one of the points raised in comments. The final text will settle it.
What law is this under?
Local Law 47 of 2025, which added section 3307.6.2.1 to the Building Code and required the Department to make these rules.
Where can I read the proposal?
On the City's rulemaking portal, at the link in the first section of this article.
Conclusion
This is a proposal worth tracking rather than acting on. If it is adopted in the shape described, the saving is not on the working face but on everything around it — the parts of a shed that exist because the rule wraps, not because anyone is working there. For owners carrying long facade programs, that is a real number.
Written by the engineers and laboratory technicians of Metric Consulting and Inspection, a Class 1 special inspection agency with a DOB-licensed concrete testing laboratory in Hicksville, New York, serving NYC construction since 2003.