New York City has had three major versions of the Zoning Resolution adopted in 1916, 1961, and the current version revised substantially in 1989..
The zoning code for the City of New York is known as “The Zoning Resolution”, a term often confusing to people. Just think Zoning Code, which is what such is referred to everywhere else.
New York City’s first Zoning Resolution was adopted in 1916. See Text of 1916 Zoning Resolution.
By 1960, there were hundreds of amendments to the 1916 version.
In 1955, amendments were made to incorporate parts of the Cabaret Law.
In 1961, a new Zoning Resolution was adopted, which has undergone various amendments. The provisions relating to use groups are included herein..
As to the Cabaret Law and dancing and music restriction, there was a major amendment in 1989 actually enacted in 1990. These amendments added the offensive provisions relating to dancing and music, which need to be removed. See Chevigny – Gigs: Jazz and the Cabaret Laws in New York City for a discussion of the background to the 1989 amendments.
The current Zoning Resolution is 3400 pages long. Extracts of provisions relating to dancing and use groups have been created by this site.
A very common misconception is that the regulation of dancing and music is confined to Use Group 6 and Use Group 12. That is not true at all as shown in the “extract of Zoning Resolution provisions relating to dancing and music” and also by the 1989 amendment to the Zoning Resolution as shown at the end of the 1989 City Planning Commission report which details the changes to the regulation of dancing and music for: Use Groups 6C, 9A, and 12B, 10, 17, T, F, L, LC, G, T, and L1 (and M2 and M3.) The latter is a markup of prior regulations, and demonstrates that it was the 1989 amendments which added all provisions relating to dancing. Prior to 1989, the Zoning Resolution was silent as to dancing.