In their interpretation and application, the provisions of this Zoning Ordinance shall be held to be minimum requirements. Where this Zoning Ordinance imposes a greater restriction than is imposed or required by other provisions of law or by other rules or regulations or ordinances, the provisions of this Zoning Ordinance shall control.
For the purposes of the Zoning Ordinance, certain terms and words are defined as follows; the words “used” and “occupied” include the words “intended, designed or arranged to be used or occupied.”
1. “Accessory building” means a building on the same lot with, detached from, and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal structure, but not including incomplete or inoperable motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, or trailers.
2. “Accessory structure” means a structure on the same lot with, detached from, and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal structure, but not including incomplete or inoperable motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, or trailers.
3. “Accessory use” means a use on the same lot with, and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use.
4. “Adult entertainment business” means and includes any of the following:
A. “Adult book store” means an establishment having ten percent or more of its stock in trade in books, films, videos, magazines, or other periodicals or materials which are distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting or describing sex acts or specified anatomical areas.
B. “Adult motel” means a motel wherein material is presented which is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on depicting or describing sex acts or specified anatomical areas.
C. “Adult motion picture arcade” means any place to which the public is permitted or invited wherein coin or slug-operated or electronically, electrically, or mechanically controlled still or motion picture machines, projectors, or other image-producing devices are maintained to show images to five or fewer persons per machine, at any one time; and where the images so displayed are distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting or describing sex acts or specified anatomical areas.
D. “Adult motion picture theater” means an enclosed building used for presenting material distinguished or characterized by emphasis on matter depicting or describing sex acts or specified anatomical areas.
E. “Sexual encounter center” means any business, agency or person who, for any form of consideration or gratuity, provides a place where three or more persons, not all members of the same family, may congregate, assemble or associate for the purpose of engaging in sex acts or exposing specified anatomical areas.
For the purposes of this section, the term “sex acts” means any sexual contact, actual or simulated, either natural or deviate, between two or more persons, or between a person and an animal, a penetration of the penis into the vagina or anus, or by contact between the mouth or tongue and genitalia or anus, or by contact between the finger of one person and the genitalia of another person, or by use of artificial sexual organs, or substitute thereof, in contact with the genitalia or anus. For the purpose of this section, the term “specified anatomical area” means and includes the following: human genitals, pubic region, buttocks, and female breasts below the point immediately above the top of the areola.
5. “Alley” means a public way, other than a street, twenty feet or less in width affording secondary means of access to abutting property.
6. “Alter” or “alteration” means any change, addition, or modification in construction on or occupancy, including relocation.
7. “Apartment unit” means a room or suite of rooms in a multiple dwelling intended or designed for use as a residence by a single family.
8. “Apartment hotel” means multiple dwelling containing both dwelling units and guest room units, used for permanent and temporary occupancy.
9. “Basement” means any floor level below the first story in a building, except that a floor level in a building having only one floor level shall be classified as a basement unless such floor level qualifies as a first story.
10. “Boardinghouse or rooming house” means a multiple dwelling containing three but not more than five guestrooms which are used by three but not more than five guests, where rent is paid in money, goods, labor or otherwise and complies with all the requirements for multiple dwelling units.
11. “Building” means any structure designed or intended for the support, enclosure, shelter, or protection of persons, animals or property but not including signs or billboards, towers or swimming pools.
12. “Building line” means the line parallel to the front lot line over which no portion of any building foundation may extend and which is a distance from the front lot line equal to the depth of the front yard required for the district in which such lot is located.
13. “Carport” means a roofed structure providing space for the parking of motor vehicles and enclosed on not more than two sides and is considered as part of the principal building thus subject to all yard requirements.
14. “Child day care” means the care, supervision, or guidance of a child under eighteen years of age by a person other than the parent, guardian, relative, or custodian for periods less than twenty-four hours per day, on a regular basis in a place other than the child’s home.
15. “Child day care center” means a facility providing child day care for seven or more children for compensation but not defined as a group day care home.
16. “Clinic, medical or dental” means a building or buildings in which physicians, dentists or physicians and dentists and allied professional assistants are associated for the purpose of carrying on their professions.
17. “Condominium” means one or more rooms occupying all or part of a floor or floors in a building of one or more floors or stories, and notwithstanding whether the rooms are intended for use or used as a residence or office for the operation of any industry or business, or for any other use not prohibited by law, where ownership of the general common elements of the structure, as defined under Chapter 499B of the Iowa Code, is shared by one or more persons, corporations or other legal entities capable of holding or owning an interest in real property.
18. “Convenience-food restaurant” means an establishment whose business is the sale of foods, frozen desserts, or beverages to the customer in a ready-to-eat state for immediate consumption either on or off the premises, whose design or principal method of operation includes both of the following characteristics:
A. Foods, frozen desserts, or beverages are usually served in edible containers or in paper, plastic, or other disposable containers.
B. The customer is not served food at his/her table by an employee but receives it at a counter, window, or similar facility for carrying to another location on or off the premises for consumption.
19. “Convenience store” means an establishment whose principal business is the sale of a portion of or all of the following: edible foodstuff, beverages, petroleum products for immediate use in automobiles, and other consumer goods associated with the sale of such products.
20. “Deck” means an exterior platform area abutting the wall of a building, accessible at or from above grade and attached to the ground, that is uncovered and unenclosed both above and below the exterior platform area.
21. “Department Director” means director of the department that administers the building codes, this Zoning Ordinance, and other codes and ordinances related to the development of the City. The Department Director is also the designated Zoning Administrator.
22. “Dock” means any elevated protrusion intended or used for purposes of loading and unloading goods, merchandise, cargo, or other tangible goods.
23. “Dormitory” means a building used as a group living quarters for a student body or religious order as an accessory use for a college, university, boarding school, orphanage, convent, monastery or other similar institutional use.
24. “Dwelling” means any building or any portion thereof which is designed or used exclusively for residential purposes, but not including a tent, cabin, trailer, mobile home, or recreational vehicle, apartment house, boardinghouse, or hotel.
25. “Dwelling, condominium” means a building, or group of buildings, in which units are owned individually, and the structure, common areas and facilities are owned by all the owners on a proportional, undivided basis.
26. “Dwelling, multifamily” means a residence designed for or occupied by three or more families, with separate housekeeping and cooking facilities for each.
27. “Dwelling, attached single-family” means a residence designed for or occupied by one family only which is erected on a separate lot and is joined to another such residence on one side by a vertical wall located on the lot line. The attached dwelling has yards on the remaining unattached sides.
28. “Dwelling, single-family” means a residence designed for or occupied by one family only entirely surrounded by yard on the same lot.
29. “Dwelling, two-family” means a residence designed for or occupied by two families only, with separate housekeeping and cooking facilities for each.
30. “Family” means an individual or two or more persons related by blood or marriage or a group of not more than five persons (excluding servants) who need not be related by blood or marriage living together in a dwelling unit. Family specifically includes all persons living in “family homes” or “elderly family homes” as those terms are defined under, respectively, Iowa Code Sections 414.22 and 231A.1.
31. “Flood” means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas resulting from the overflow of streams or rivers or from the unusual and rapid runoff of surface waters from any source.
32. “Flood elevation” means the elevation floodwaters reach at a particular site during the occurrence of a specific flood.
33. “Flood plain” means any land area susceptible to being inundated by water as a result of a flood.
34. “Flood plain management” means an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damages and promoting the wise use of flood plains, including but not limited to emergency preparedness plans, flood control works, floodproofing and flood plain management regulations.
35. “Floodproofing” means any combination of structural or nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures, including utility and sanitary facilities which will reduce or eliminate flood damage to such structures.
36. “Floodway” means the channel of a river or stream and those portions of the flood plains adjoining the channel, which are reasonably required to carry and discharge floodwaters or flood flows so that confinement of flood flows to the floodway area will not cumulatively increase the water surface elevation of the base flood by more than one (1’) foot.
37. “Floodway fringe” means those portions of the flood plain, other than the floodway, which can be filled, leveed, or otherwise obstructed without causing substantially higher flood levels or flow velocities.
38. “Foster child care” means care and education of not more than five children unrelated to the residents by blood or adoption.
39. “Garage, residential” means a private, enclosed structure intended for and used for the parking of the private motor vehicles of the families resident upon the premises.
40. “Gas station” means any building or premises used for the following:
A. The retail sale of liquefied petroleum products for the propulsion of motor vehicles and including such products as kerosene, fuel oil, packaged naphtha, lubricants, tires, batteries, antifreeze, motor vehicle accessories, and other items customarily associated with the sale of such products;
B. The rendering of services and the making of adjustments and replacements to motor vehicles, and the washing, waxing, and polishing of motor vehicles as incidental to other services rendered; and
C. The making of repairs to motor vehicles except those of a major type which are defined to be spray painting, body, fender, clutch, transmission, differential, axle, spring and frame repairs, major overhauling of engines requiring the removal of the engine cylinder head or crankcase pan, repairs to radiators requiring the removal thereof, or complete recapping or retreading of tires.
41. “Grade” or “ground level” means the reference plane representing the average of finished ground level adjoining the building at exterior walls. Where the finished ground level slopes away from the exterior walls, the reference plane shall be established by the lowest points within the area between the building and the lot line or, where the lot line is more than six feet from the building, between the building and a point six feet from the building.
42. “Group day care” means a private home providing child day care for more than six, but less than twelve children with no more than six children at one time being less than six years of age, unrelated to the residents by blood or adoption.
43. “Guest” means any person hiring or occupying a room for living or sleeping purposes.
44. “Guest room” means any habitable room or rooms used, or intended to be used, by a guest for sleeping purposes. Every one hundred square feet of superficial floor area in a dorm area is a guest room.
45. “Habitable room” means any room meeting the requirements of this Zoning Ordinance for sleeping, living, cooking or dining purposes, excluding such enclosed spaces as closets, pantries, bath or toilet rooms, service rooms, connecting corridors, laundries, unfinished attics, foyers, storage spaces, cellars, utility rooms or similar spaces.
46. “Hard-surfacing” means having a surface of asphalt or Portland cement pavement, or such other surfaces as approved by the building official or inspector, so as to provide a durable and dustless surface.
47. “Height” means the vertical distance of a structure other than a building measured from the average elevation of the finished grade within six feet of the structure to the highest point of the structure.
48. “Height of building” means the vertical distance from grade to the average height of the roof measured to the highest roof surface.
49. “Home occupation” means any occupation of a service character which is clearly secondary to the main use of the premises as a dwelling, and does not change the character thereof or have any exterior evidence of such secondary use. This occupation shall be carried on or conducted only by members of a family residing in the dwelling.
50. “Hotel” or “motel” means a multiple dwelling containing six or more guest rooms intended or designed to be used, or which are used, rented or hired out to be occupied; or which are occupied for sleeping purposes by guests.
51. “Junkyard” means any area where waste, discard or salvaged materials are bought, sold, exchanged, baled or packed, disassembled, kept, stored, or handled, including house-wrecking yards, used lumberyards, and places or yards for the storage of salvaged house-wrecking materials and structural steel materials and equipment; but not including areas where such uses are conducted entirely within a completely enclosed building, and not including automobile, tractor or machinery wrecking and used-parts yards, and the processing of used, discarded or salvaged materials as part of manufacturing operations.
52. “Kennel, dog” means any premises on which four or more dogs, six months or older, are kept.
53. “Landscape buffer” or “open space buffer” means an area which acts as a buffer between two different zone districts or two land uses of different intensity in mixed-use areas that visually separates one use from another or shields or blocks noise, lights or other nuisances and is required to include trees and shrubs and may include fences and/or berms.
54. “Lot” means a parcel of land of at least sufficient size to meet minimum zoning requirements for use, coverage, and area and provides such yards and other open space as are required. Such lot shall have frontage on a public street or public way and may consist of the following:
A. A single lot of record;
B. A portion of a lot of record;
C. A combination of complete lots of record and portions of lots of record; and
D. A parcel of land described by metes and bounds or plat of survey.
In no case of division or combination shall any residual lot or parcel be created which does not meet the requirements of this Zoning Ordinance.
55. “Lot, corner” means a lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection.
56. “Lot depth” means the mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
57. “Lot, double-frontage or through” means a lot having a frontage on two or more nonintersecting streets, as distinguished from a corner lot.
58. “Lot, interior” means a lot other than a corner lot.
59. “Lot lines” means the property lines bounding a lot.
60. “Lot of record” means a lot which is a part of a subdivision recorded in the office of the Polk County Recorder, or a lot or parcel described by metes and bounds, the description of which has been recorded.
61. “Lot, reversed-frontage” means a corner lot, the side street line of which is substantially a continuation of the front lot line of the first platted lot to its rear.
62. “Lot width” means the width of a lot measured at the building line and at right angles to its depth.
63. “Manufactured home” means a factory-built, single-family structure, which is manufactured or constructed under the authority of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 5403, Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, and is to be used as a place for human habitation, but which is not constructed with a permanent hitch or other device allowing it to be moved other than for the purpose of moving to a permanent site, and which does not have any permanently attached wheels or axles to its body or frame. A mobile home is not a manufactured home unless it has been converted to real property and is taxed as a site-built dwelling. For the purposes of these regulations, a manufactured home shall be considered the same as any site-built single-family detached dwelling.
64. “Mobile home” means any vehicle without motive power used or so manufactured or constructed as to permit its being used as a conveyance upon the public streets and highways and so designed, constructed, or reconstructed as will permit the vehicle to be used as a place for human habitation by one or more persons.
65. “Mobile home park” means any site, lot, field or tract of land upon which two (2) or more occupied mobile homes are situated, either free of charge or for revenue purposes, and includes any building, structure, tent, vehicle or enclosure used or intended for use as part of the equipment of such mobile home park.
66. “Nonconforming structure” means a structure or building the size, dimensions or location of which was lawful prior to the adoption, revision or amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, but which fails by reason of such adoption, revision or amendment, to conform to the present requirements of the zoning district.
67. “Nonconforming use” means a use or activity which was lawful prior to the adoption, revision or amendment of the Zoning Ordinance, but which fails, by reason of such adoption, revision or amendment, to conform to the present requirements of the zoning district.
68. “Nursery school” or “preschool” means a child day care facility which provides children ages three years through five years, for a period of time not exceeding three hours per day, programs designed to help the children develop intellectual skills, social skills and motor skills and extend their interest and understanding of the world about them.
69. “Nursing or convalescent home” means a building or structure having accommodations and where care is provided for invalid, infirm, aged, convalescent or physically disabled or injured persons, not including insane and other mental cases, inebriate or contagious cases.
70. “Occupancy” means the purpose for which a building is used or intended to be used. The term shall also include the building or room housing such use. Change of occupancy is not intended to include change of tenants or proprietors.
71. “Office” means a room or group of rooms used for conducting the affairs of a business, profession, service, industry, or government.
72. “Office park” means a tract of land designed and developed for the location of one or more office buildings and accessory uses, with the open space and public ways being designed, planned, constructed, and managed on an integrated and coordinated basis.
73. “Off-street parking area” means any area containing parking spaces, driveways or access drives devoted to the parking of motor vehicles whether free or for compensation.
74. “Open space buffer” – see “landscape buffer.”
75. “Outdoor storage” means the storing or safekeeping of any goods, material, merchandise, or vehicles in the same place for more than three days.
76. “Parking space” means a permanently surfaced area delineated to define its boundaries either within a structure or in the open, to be exclusive of driveway areas, except in one and two-family dwelling units. The space to be used for the parking of motor vehicles shall adjoin adequate area for ingress and egress and turning maneuvers which do not encroach on any public rights-of-way, except when such parking space abuts upon a public alley.
77. “Porch, unenclosed” means a roofed projection which has no more than the bottom three feet of each outside wall area enclosed by a material other than mesh screens.
78. “Premises” means any building or group of buildings, whether attached or unattached, under single ownership and served by common off-street parking facilities and driveway entrances and exits.
79. “Preschool” – see “nursery school.”
80. “Principal use” means the predominant or primary use of land or structures.
81. “Public way” means a street, alley or other parcel of land which has been deeded, dedicated or otherwise permanently appropriated to the public for public use that is open to the outside air, leads to a street, and that has both a clear width and height of not less than 10 feet (3048 mm).
82. “Restaurant” means a business where food and drink is prepared, served, and consumed primarily within the principal building.
83. “Rooming house” means the same as boardinghouse.
84. “Shed” means a detached accessory structure, with no door or entry wider than six-feet (6), used for shelter or storage of equipment or goods, but not for licensed motor vehicles.
85. “Sign” means an accessory use depicting a name, identification, description, display, illustration, structure, device which is affixed to or painted or represented directly or indirectly upon a building, or other allowed outdoor surface or a piece of land, and which directs attention to an object, product, place, activity, person, institution, organization, or business.
86. “Story” means that portion of a building included between the upper surface of a floor and the upper surface of the floor or roof next above. It is measured as the vertical distance from top to top of two successive tiers of beams or finished floor surfaces and, for the topmost story, from the top of the floor finish to the top of the ceiling joists or, where there is not a ceiling, to the top of the roof rafters.
87. “Story, first” or “story above grade plane” means any story having its finished floor surface entirely above grade plane, except that a basement shall be considered as a story above grade plane where the finished surface of the floor above the basement is:
A. More than six feet above grade; or
B. More than 12 feet above the finished ground level at any point.
88. “Street” means a public or private thoroughfare which affords the principal means of access to abutting property.
89. “Street line” means the right-of-way line of a street.
90. “Street, private” means any private way which shall be approved by the Council after recommendation by the Plan and Zoning Commission.
91. “Street, public” means any thoroughfare or public way which has been dedicated to the public or deeded to and accepted by the City for street purposes.
92. “Street sign” means a sign used to direct and manage traffic or to identify named roads , generally those that do not qualify as expressways or highways. Street signs are most often posted at intersections and driveways and are usually installed by the City, County or State in discharge of governmental functions as required by law, ordinance or other governmental regulation.
93. “Structural alterations” means any replacement or changes in the type of construction or in the supporting members of a sign or building, such as bearing walls or partitions, columns, beams or girders, beyond ordinary repairs and maintenance.
94. “Structure” means anything built, constructed or erected with a fixed location on the ground, or attached to something having a fixed location on the ground.
95. “Swimming pool” means any structure intended for swimming, recreational bathing, wading, or aesthetic purposes that is capable of containing water over 24 inches deep. This includes in-ground, above-ground, and on-ground pools, hot tubs, spas, fixed-in-place wading pools, and landscape ponds, but excludes manmade lakes or ponds created through the collection of storm water or drainage runoff.
96. “Use” - Real estate shall be deemed to be used for a commercial or industrial purpose when the real estate is occupied by any person, firm, or corporation for any commercial or industrial purpose for three or more consecutive days, regardless of whether such purpose is carried out through the use of a temporary or permanent structure or mobile vehicle. All such uses must comply with all area and size regulations, including front, side and rear yard setback requirements, as well as all fencing and screening requirements. The temporary use of property for sale of goods or services by a civic, charitable, religious, or other nonprofit organization for a period of no more than thirty days shall not be deemed to be a “use” under this Zoning Ordinance.
97. “Yard” means an open space on the same lot with a building or structure unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from thirty-six inches above the general ground level of the graded lot upward. In measuring a yard for the purpose of determining the depth or width, the least distance between the lot line and the main building foundation shall be used.
98. “Yard, buildable area” means the area unencumbered by a required yard setback and/or easements.
99. “Yard, front” means a yard extending across the full width of the lot and measured between the front lot line and the foundation front of the main building or any projection thereof other than the projection exceptions listed in Section 196.03(2).
100. “Yard, rear” means a yard extending across the full width of the lot and measured between the rear lot line and the rear of the building foundation other than the projection exceptions listed in Section 196.03(2). On both corner lots and interior lots, the rear yard shall be considered the opposite end of the lot from the front yard.
101. “Yard, required” (front, rear or side) means the area between a lot line and the minimum required setback to the building foundation. “Yard, side” means a yard extended from the front to the rear yard and measured between the side lot lines and the main building foundation or projection exceptions listed in Section 196.03(2).
102. “Warehouse” means a building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials.
103. “Zoning Administrator” means Department Director or designee and is responsible for the duties assigned to the position in this Zoning Ordinance.
104. “Fireworks Retail Sales Facility” means a retail sales facility for the sale of First-class Consumer Fireworks as defined in Iowa Code Section 100.19(1)(c) and/or Second-class Consumer Fireworks as defined in Iowa Code Section 100.19(1)(e).
(Ord. 1917 – Aug. 17 Supp.)
(Chapter 190 amended by Ord. 1651 – Apr. 10 Supp.)