For the purpose of this Zoning Code, certain terms and words are defined herein. Words used in the present tense include the future and the singular includes the plural and the plural the singular. The words "used for" include the meaning "designed for". The word "structure" includes the word "building" and the word "shall" is mandatory, not directory.
(1) "Accessory use or building" means a subordinate use or building customarily incidental to and located on the same lot occupied by the main use or building. “Accessory buildings” include unattached private garages. (Ord. 02-160. Passed 12-9-02.)
(2) "Alterations", as applied to a building or structure, means a change or rearrangement in the structural parts or in the existing facilities, or an enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height or the moving from one location or position to another.
(3) "Alterations, structural" means any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
(4) "Alley" means any roadway or public way dedicated to public use and twenty feet or less in width.
(5) "Court, open" means an open, unoccupied space other than a yard, on the same lot with a building, unobstructed from the lowest level to the highest point of the building.
(6) "Apartment house" (See Multiple-Family Residence).
(7) "Basement" means a portion of a building partly underground, but having less than one-half of its clear floor-to-ceiling height above finished grade. A basement shall not be considered a story for purposes of height measurement.
(8) "Boarding house" means a building, other than a hotel, where, for compensation and by prearrangement for definite periods, meals or lodging and meals are provided for three or more persons but not exceeding twenty persons.
(9) "Borrow pit" means any place or premises where dirt, soil, sand, gravel or other material is removed by excavation or otherwise below the grade or surrounding land for any purpose other than that necessary and incidental to grading or to building construction or operation on the premises.
(10) "Building" means any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls and intended for the shelter, housing or enclosure of persons, animals or chattel.
(11) "Building line" means a line defining the area of a lot within which a principal structure may be erected under the provisions of this Zoning Code.
(12) "Carport" means an open attached shelter, one story or less in height, for housing not more than two automobiles.
(13) "Clinic" means an establishment where patients who are not lodged overnight are admitted for examination and treatment.
(14) "Club" means buildings and facilities owned or operated by a corporation, association, person or persons for a social, educational or recreational purpose, but not primarily for profit or to render a service which is customarily carried on as a business.
(15) "District" means any section of the City for which the zoning regulations governing the use of buildings and premises, the height of buildings, the size of yards and the intensity of use are uniform.
(16) "Family" means any number of individuals living and cooking together on the same premises as a single housekeeping unit, but it shall not include a group of more than five individuals not related by blood or marriage.
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65.)
(17) “Driveway” means a private road leading from the street to a building, garage, structure, parking lot or access drive. Driveways shall consist of an all-weather dustless surface constructed of concrete, asphalt, or commercial paver material installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications.
(18) “Driveway Apron” means the area of driveway located within the City’s right- of-way. Driveway aprons shall consist of an all-weather dustless surface constructed of concrete or asphalt a minimum of 6 inches in thickness and in accordance with the City of Amherst Construction Standards.
(Ord. 0-18-26. Passed 7-23-18.)
(19) "Farming" means the use of land for agricultural purposes, including uses for farming, dairying, pasturage, apiculture, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture and animal and poultry husbandry conducted on a lot of not less than five acres. The raising of mink shall not be considered farming and shall not be permitted within the use districts of the City.
(Ord. 87-3. Passed 1-12-87.)
(Ord. 87-3. Passed 1-12-87.)
(20) "Garage, private" means a building on the same lot as the main building designed or used for the storage of motor-driven vehicles. Not more than one vehicle so stored may be a commercial vehicle of not more than two-ton capacity. An attached garage or carport is considered a part of the main building and is subject to all yard restrictions. An unattached garage shall not be nearer than five feet from the side or rear lot line, provided the garage is at least ten feet from the main building.
(21) "Garage, sales and service" means a building or a portion thereof, other than a private garage, designed or used for equipping, servicing, repairing, hiring, selling, displaying or storing motor-driven vehicles, including work of a major type as defined under "service station".
(22) "Garage, repair" means a building or a part of a building used for the repair of motor-driven vehicles and doing work of a major type as defined under "service station".
(23) "Height of building" means the vertical distance from the average contact ground level at the front wall of the building 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 or gambrel roofs.
(24) "Home occupation". (EDITOR'S NOTE: This subsection was repealed by Ordinance 94-60, passed June 27, 1994. See Chapter 1130
for relevent provisions.)
(25) "Lot" means a parcel of land fronting on a public street which is or may be occupied by a building or buildings and accessory buildings or uses including the open spaces required in this Zoning Code. Only one main building and its accessory buildings may be erected on a lot in an R-1 or an R-2 District.
(26) "Lot, corner" means a lot fronting on two or more streets.
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65.)
(27) "Lot of record" means a lot which is a part of a subdivision, the plan of which has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder, or a parcel of land, the deed of which was recorded in the office of the County Recorder prior to the date of this Zoning Code.
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65; Ord. 66-38. Passed 7-11-66.)
(28) "Motor court or motel" means a building or group of buildings, on the same lot containing sleeping accommodations and parking facilities, but having no facilities for cooking.
(29) "Nonconforming use" means any building or land lawfully occupied by a use at the time of the passage of this Zoning Code (Ordinance 65-82, passed December 27, 1965) which does not conform to the use or other regulations of this Zoning Code in the district in which it is situated.
(30) "Nursing home" means a home for the aged, chronically ill or incurable, in which three or more persons not of the same family are received, kept or provided with food, shelter and care for compensation, but such home shall not include hospital, clinic or diagnostic care.
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65.)
(31) “Parking space” means an area not less than nine feet wide and not less than nineteen feet long, exclusive of driveways or access drives, permanently reserved for the temporary storage of one motor vehicle. Parking spaces shall consist of an all-weather dustless surface constructed of concrete, asphalt or commercial paver material installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications.
(Ord. 0-18-26. Passed 7-23-18.)
(Ord. 0-18-26. Passed 7-23-18.)
(32) "Public notice" means public notice of hearing of the time and place thereof, published once in a newspaper of general circulation in the Municipality, not less than ten nor more than thirty days prior to the date of such hearing.
(33) "Residence" means any building or portion thereof designed for or used as the residence of one or more persons, but not including a tent, cabin, trailer or trailer coach, mobile home, tree house or a room in a hotel or motel.
(34) "Residence, single-family" means a building designed for or used for residential purposes by one family or housekeeping unit.
(35) "Residence, two-family" means a building designed for or used for residential purposes by two families or housekeeping units.
(36) "Residence, multi-family" means a building designed for or used for residential purposes, by three or more families or housekeeping units.
(37) "Service station" means a building designed to perform services for motor vehicles. It includes underground storage of gasoline and the dispensing of the same through pumps, the storage, servicing and sale of motor lubricants and parts or accessories to motor vehicles and the performing of minor changes and adjustments which do not involve repairs or changes of a major type. Repairs or changes of a major type are defined to be such as: body, fender, clutch, transmission, differential, axle, spring or frame repair, overhauling of engine or motor repair, overhauling of engines requiring the removal of cylinder heads or crank case pan, repairs to radiators requiring the removal thereof, painting and body and fender work other than minor incidental work generally referred to as retouching.
Only one stall is permitted for the washing of cars in a service station.
(39) "Story" means that portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above.
(40) "Street" means a public thoroughfare or right of way which affords the principal means of access to abutting property and is greater than twenty feet in width.
(41) "Trailer" means a vehicle used or intended for use as a conveyance upon the public street or highway and so designed, constructed or added to by means of portable accessories in such a manner as will permit the occupancy thereof as a movable sleeping space.
(42) "Structure" means anything constructed, the use of which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground.
(43) "Structural alteration" means any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders, or any substantial change in the roof or in the interior walls.
(44) "Trailer park" means a tract or parcel of land open to the public, upon which two or more trailer coaches, occupied for dwelling or sleeping purposes, are located, regardless of whether or not a charge is made for such accommodations.
(45) "Yard" means an open space at grade between the edges of a building and the adjoining lot lines, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided herein. The least width of any yard shall be measured at right angles to the lot line and to the nearest building edge.
(46) "Yard, front" means an open space extending the full width of the lot between the edge of a building and the front lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as hereinafter specified.
(47) "Yard, rear" means an open space extending the full width of the lot between the edge of a building and the rear lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as hereinafter specified.
(48) "Yard, side" means an open space extending from the front yard to the rear yard between the edge of a building and the nearest lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except as hereinafter specified.
(49) "Yards, corner lot." On any corner lot, a front yard shall be designated on one of the streets on which the lot abuts. The yard facing the intersecting street shall be known as a side front yard and shall be of a depth not less than one-half that required for the front yard. All other yards on a corner lot shall be side yards.
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65.)
(Ord. 65-82. Passed 12-27-65.)
(50) "Zoning Code" means Ordinance 65-82, passed December 27, 1965, as amended and codified herein as Title Five
of Part Eleven - Planning and Zoning Code.