New Masonry in Clay: the Fire Feature Sets the Paperwork

Both of the fast-growing northern towns name fireplaces on their list of work requiring a building permit and neither names a patio. The Town of Clay lists new buildings, all additions and alterations, mobile homes, garages and barns, pools, sheds and storage buildings, decks and porches, fences, signs, fireplaces, stoves and inserts, and demolition. The Town of Cicero lists decks, porches and garages, fireplaces, pellet stoves and wood stoves, storage sheds no matter the size, fences, swimming pools, and structural, plumbing or electrical alterations, and requires a permit before excavation or filling of more than 10 cubic yards. Cicero also requires a Floodplain Development Permit for any work in a 100 year flood zone, including work that would not otherwise need a permit.

Source: Town of Clay, New York, Department of Planning and Development, Building Permits Information, and Town of Cicero, New York, Department of Zoning and Planning, forms and permits, accessed 2026-09-14

New York caps the size of a legal outdoor fire. The Department of Environmental Conservation states that campfires, small cooking fires, or any other outdoor fire less than 3 feet in height and 4 feet in length, width or diameter are allowed, that all fires must consist of only charcoal or dry, clean, untreated and unpainted wood, that the burning of brush is prohibited from March 16 through May 14, and that towns, villages, cities and counties can pass ordinances that are stricter than Part 215. The underlying regulation, 6 NYCRR 215.3(c), permits small fires used for cooking and camp fires provided that only charcoal or untreated wood is used as fuel and the fire is not left unattended until extinguished.

Source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Open Burning, and 6 NYCRR section 215.3, Exceptions and restricted burning, via the Cornell Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-09-14

In the Town of Clay, 44.4 percent of the mapped soil area is classed poorly drained, somewhat poorly drained or very poorly drained, and 9.6 percent is classed well drained. The largest map units are Collamer silt loam on 2 to 6 percent slopes at about 19.7 percent of the town, Niagara silt loam on 0 to 4 percent slopes at about 17.1 percent, and Rhinebeck silt loam at about 8.6 percent, with Carlisle muck at about 4.1 percent.

Source: United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Survey Geographic Database for Onondaga County New York, survey area NY067, queried through the Soil Data Access service, accessed 2026-09-14

Ranked by the share of housing units built in 2000 or later, the era in which adhered stone veneer and segmental paver hardscape became the dominant new masonry products, the places of this metro spread very widely. Radisson, the census place inside the Town of Clay, leads at 32.4 percent, followed by the Town of Lysander at 25.8 percent, the Town of Van Buren at 21.9 percent, Baldwinsville village at 20.1 percent, the Town of Cicero at 19.1 percent, the Town of Clay at 15.4 percent, the Town of Camillus at 15.2 percent, the Town of Manlius at 11.6 percent, the Town of Marcellus at 11.3 percent, the Town of Skaneateles at 11.2 percent, Marcellus village at 9.9 percent, the Town of DeWitt at 8.7 percent, Skaneateles village at 8.4 percent, Fayetteville village at 8.1 percent, the Town of Salina at 7.0 percent, the City of Syracuse at 6.4 percent, Camillus village at 6.4 percent, Liverpool village at 6.1 percent, North Syracuse village at 4.7 percent, Manlius village at 4.5 percent, and both East Syracuse village and Solvay village at 0.0 percent. The county figure is 11.6 percent.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 Year Structure Built and table B25035 Median Year Structure Built, accessed 2026-09-14