The following words, terms, and phrases, when used in this title, shall have the meanings set forth in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning. The singular number shall include the plural and the plural the singular.
ACCESSORY BUILDING: A subordinate building which is incidental to and customary in connection with the principal building or use and which is located on the same lot or zoning lot with such principal building or use.
ACCESSORY USE: A subordinate use which is incidental to and customary in connection with the principal building or use and which is located on the same lot or zoning lot with such principal building or use.
APARTMENT HOUSE: See definition of Dwelling, Multiple.
BASEMENT: A story having part but not more than one-half (1/2) of its height below grade. A basement is counted as a story for the purposes of height regulation if subdivided and used for dwelling purposes.
BED AND BREAKFAST INN: An owner occupied single-family residence or portion thereof used for the renting of three (3) or fewer rooms to six (6) or fewer adults on an overnight basis for compensation.
BOARD: The zoning board of appeals of the city of Abingdon.
BOARDING HOUSE: See definition of Lodging House.
BUILD: To erect, convert, enlarge, reconstruct or structurally alter a building or structure.
BUILDABLE WIDTH: The width of a lot left to be built upon after the side yards are provided.
BUILDING: Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls built for the support, shelter, or enclosure of persons, animals, chattels, or property of any kind. The term "building" does not include any vehicle, or trailer (with or without wheels), or any movable device, such as machinery or equipment. The term shall include the word "structure" and the word "premises".
BUILDING, HEIGHT OF: The vertical distance from the grade to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, or to the deck line of a mansard roof, or to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for gable, hip and gambrel roofs.
BUILDING OFFICIAL: The individual designated by the mayor to administer this title. The term shall include the term "building inspector".
CELLAR: A story having more than one-half (1/2) of its height below grade. A cellar is not counted as a story for the purposes of height regulation.
CLINIC: An establishment where a number of physicians, dentists, or other healthcare professionals associate themselves together to practice their respective professions in a joint endeavor, in which patients are not lodged overnight.
CODE: The city code of the city of Abingdon.
COMMISSION: The plan commission of the city of Abingdon.
COUNCIL: The city council of the city of Abingdon.
DAYCARE HOME: A facility which meets the requirements (including definition and licensing) of the appropriate governing agency of the state of Illinois. Also, any facility receiving one to three (3) children and any facility receiving only children from a single household.
DISTRICT: A part of the city wherein regulations of this title are uniform.
DWELLING: Any building or portion thereof which is designed and used exclusively for residential purposes.
DWELLING, MULTIPLE: A building designed for occupancy by more than two (2) families.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY: A building designed for occupancy by one family.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY: A building designed for occupancy by two (2) families.
DWELLING UNIT: One or more rooms in a dwelling intended to be occupied as separate living quarters by a single family as defined herein.
FAMILY: Two (2) or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption occupying a dwelling unit as an individual housekeeping organization. A family may include not more than two (2) persons not related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
FARM: An area which is used for the growing of the usual farm products such as vegetables, fruit, trees, and grain, and their storage on the area as well as the raising thereon of the usual farm poultry and farm animals, such as horses, cattle, sheep and swine, and including dairy farms. The word "farming" includes the operating of such an area for one or more of the above uses with the necessary accessory uses for treating or storing the produce; provided, however, that the operation of such accessory uses shall be secondary to that of the normal farming activities; and provided further, that "farming" does not include the extraction of minerals, the feeding of collected garbage or offal to swine or other animals, intensive livestock raising, confined swine or cattle or poultry operations, commercial feedlots, or large batteries of rabbit hutches.
FILLING STATION OR SERVICE STATION: Any building or premises used for the sale, at retail, of motor vehicle fuels, oils, or accessories, or for the servicing or lubricating of motor vehicles, or installing or repairing parts and accessories. The term does not include the repairing or replacement of motors or bodies (or portions of bodies) of motor vehicles, or the painting of motor vehicles. The term also does not include public garages.
FIXED MOBILE HOME: A structure designed for permanent habitation and so constructed as to permit its transport by trailer or on wheels temporarily attached to its frame from the place of its construction to the location at which it is intended to be a permanent habitation and designed to permit the occupancy thereof as a dwelling place for one or more persons. Such a structure shall have the hitch and wheels removed and shall be placed on a concrete block foundation, with or without supporting piers, without which such modifications, no occupancy permit for such structure shall be issued.
FLOOR AREA: The total number of square feet of floor space within the exterior walls of a building, excluding space in cellars or basements not used for business or commercial purposes.
FRONTAGE: All the property on one side of a street or highway, between two (2) intersecting streets (crossing or terminating), or for a distance of four hundred feet (400') on either side of a proposed building or structure, measured along the line of the street, or if the street is dead ended, then all of the property abutting on one side between an intersecting street and the dead end of the street, but not including property more than four hundred feet (400') distant on either side of a proposed building or structure.
GARAGE, PRIVATE: An accessory building housing not more than four (4) vehicles owned and used by occupants of the main building. Of the four (4) vehicles, only one may be a commercial vehicle.
GARAGE, PUBLIC: Any building or premises, except those used as private or storage garages, used for equipping, repairing, hiring, selling, or storing motor driven vehicles. The word "repairing" shall not include an automotive body repair shop, and shall not include the rebuilding, dismantling, or storage of wrecked or junked vehicles.
GARAGE, STORAGE: Any building or premises used for housing only motor driven vehicles, other than trucks and commercial vehicles, pursuant to previous arrangements and not to transients, and at which automobile fuels and oils are not sold and motor driven vehicles are not equipped, repaired, hired, or sold.
GRADE: The average level of the finished surface of the ground adjacent to the exterior walls of the building; except when any wall approximately parallels and is not more than five feet (5') from a road line, then the elevation of the road at the center of the wall adjoining the road shall be the grade.
HOME OCCUPATION: A. Any activity carried on for gain by a resident conducted as an accessory use in the resident's dwelling or accessory building, and which is clearly subordinate to the residential use of the dwelling unit; or
B. A gainful occupation or profession customarily carried on wholly within the principal building or within a building accessory thereto only by members of the immediate family occupying the premises and subject to the following restrictions:
1. There shall be no exterior display; no exterior signage; no exterior storage of material, unless all material is completely covered or contained within a fenced area such that no materials can be viewed by the general public and, in any event, no such material shall remain, whether covered or contained, for a period exceeding twenty four (24) hours.
2. There shall be no exterior indication of the home occupation or variation from the residential character of the principal building, and no offensive noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odors, heat or glare shall be produced.
C. The following uses are deemed not to be and are excluded from the definition of "home occupation" herein:
Automobile repair, whether major or minor;
Automobile wrecking yard;
Junkyard;
Used car lot; or
Welding shops.
HOTEL: A building in which lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensation, and which is open to transient guests, in contradistinction to a "boarding house" or "lodging house" as herein defined.
INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING: A building exclusively occupied by a nonprofit corporation or a nonprofit establishment for public use.
JUNKYARD: Any land or structure used for salvaging operations including, but not limited to, the storage or sale of wastepaper, rags, scrap metal, and discarded materials; or the dismantling, storage, and salvaging of unlicensed, inoperative vehicles.
KENNEL: An establishment where dogs are boarded for compensation or where dogs are bred or raised on a commercial scale.
LODGING HOUSE: A building where lodging is provided (or which is equipped regularly to provide lodging by prearrangement for definite periods), for compensation, for three (3) or more, but not exceeding twelve (12) individuals, not open to transient guests, in contradistinction to hotels open to transients.
LOT: A parcel of land occupied or intended for occupancy by a use permitted in this title, including one main building, together with its accessory buildings, and the open spaces and parking spaces required (if applicable) by this title, and having its principal frontage upon a street or road.
LOT, CORNER: A lot abutting upon two (2) or more streets or roads at their intersection.
LOT, DEPTH OF: The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
LOT, DOUBLE FRONTAGE: A lot having a frontage on two (2) nonintersecting roads, as distinguished from a corner lot.
LOT OF RECORD: A lot or parcel of land, the deed to which has been recorded in the office of the county recorder of Knox County.
LOT WIDTH: The width of a lot at the building line.
MANUFACTURED HOME OR MODULAR HOME, QUALIFYING: A prefabricated home meeting all the requirements of the international residential code, as published by the International Code Council, Inc., as adopted by the city council, appropriate for use as a dwelling to be placed in residential districts R-1, R-2, and R-3. Any manufactured home or modular home failing to meet all requirements of said international residential code shall be deemed nonqualifying, and shall be classified as a mobile home.
MOBILE HOME: A structure designed for permanent habitation and so constructed as to permit its transport on wheels, temporarily or permanently attached to its frame, from the place of its construction to the location, or subsequent locations, at which it is intended to be a permanent habitation and designed to permit the occupancy thereof as a dwelling place for one or more persons.
MOBILE HOME PARK: An area where one or more mobile homes can be or are intended to be parked, designed, or intended to be used as an area in which one or more families live.
MOTEL, MOTOR COURT, MOTOR LODGE, OR TOURIST COURT: Any building or group of buildings containing guestrooms or dwelling units, some or all of which have a separate entrance leading directly from the outside of the building, with a garage or parking space conveniently located on the lot, and designed, used, or intended, wholly or in part, for the accommodation of vehicle transients traveling by motor vehicle.
NONCONFORMING USE: Any building or land lawfully occupied by a use at the effective date hereof, or amendment hereto, which does not conform after the effective date hereof, or amendment hereto, with the use regulations of the district in which it is situated.
NURSING HOME: A home for the aged or infirm, in which three (3) or more persons, not of the immediate family, are received, kept, or provided with food and shelter or care, for compensation, but not including hospitals, clinics, or similar facilities.
PARKING SPACE: A surfaced area, enclosed or unenclosed, not less than nine feet (9') wide and twenty feet (20') long, together with a surfaced driveway or access aisle connecting the parking space with a street, road, or alley and permitting ingress and egress of an automobile without the necessity of moving any other vehicle. The words "surfaced area" and "surfaced" as used herein mean an area improved with concrete, brick, asphalt, macadam, crushed stone, gravel, or other similar material.
PLAT: A map or drawing as required in title 9, chapter 9 of this code.
PLAT, LOT: A drawing of a lot showing its dimensions, the building arrangement thereon, and such other information as may be necessary for enforcement of this title and title 9, chapter 9 of this code.
PREMISES: A lot, together with any building(s) thereon.
PRIVATE CLUB OR LODGE: A building owned or operated by a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Illinois, not for pecuniary profit, solely for the promotion of some fraternal, social, educational, recreational, or cultural enrichment purpose. This definition includes accessory recreational uses including, but not limited to, dance, gymnastics, class instruction, bingo, and receptions.
ROOMING HOUSE: See definition of Lodging House.
SATELLITE EARTH STATION: An antenna, the purpose of which is to receive television or radio signals from orbiting satellites.
SHED, STORAGE: An accessory building used for the storage of tangible personal property.
STORY: That portion of a building, other than a cellar, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it or, if there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it.
STORY, HALF: A space under a sloping roof which has the line of intersection of roof decking and wall face not more than three feet (3') above the top floor level.
STREET: A public way which affords the principal means of access to abutting property. The street centerline is a line halfway between the street lines.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION: Any change, except those required by law, that would prolong the life of the supporting members of a building or structure, such as the bearing walls, columns, beams, or girders, not including openings in bearing walls as permitted by other regulations.
STRUCTURE: Anything constructed or erected in such a manner that a permanent location on the ground is required, or which is attached to something having a permanent location on the ground.
TRAILER: Any vehicle designed to be hauled along a highway for the transportation of property or materials, and not to be used for human habitation.
YARD: An open space on the same lot with a building, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of the building from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided in this title.
YARD, FRONT: A yard across the full width of the lot extending from the front line of the main building to the front line of the lot. On corner lots, the front yard shall face the shortest street dimension of the lot; except, that if the lot is square or almost square, i.e., has dimensions in a ratio of from three to two (3:2) to three to three (3:3), then the front yard may face either street.
YARD, REAR: A yard extending the full width of the lot between the rear line of the main building and the rear lot line.
YARD SALE OR GARAGE SALE: Any holding or selling of personal property, articles, materials, or other items for sale to the public in general on a property zoned residential. The term includes, but is not limited to, all sales titled "apartment", "attic", "back yard", "basement", "house", "lawn", "patio", "porch", or "room" sales. The term does not include auctions, bankruptcy sales, or estate sales.
YARD, SIDE: A yard between the main building and a side line of the lot, and extending from the inner front yard line to the inner rear yard line.
YARD WIDTH OR DEPTH: The shortest horizontal distance from a lot line to the main building.
ZONING LOT: A contiguous tract of land located within a single block, which may consist of two (2) or more lots of record, and which is designated by its owner as a tract to be used or developed or built upon as a unit, under single ownership and control, and has been assigned a single property identification number by the assessor. (2006 Code § 10-1-1; amd. Ord. 2013-9, 9-3-2013; 2016 Code)