(a) Public safety. In the interest of the public safety and health, structural alterations or renovations of lawfully nonconforming structures, conforming structures on lawfully nonconforming lots, or conforming structures devoted in whole or in part to a lawfully established nonconforming use, which are required by any public law, and so ordered by a public officer in authority, shall be permitted.
(b) Ordinary repair and maintenance. Routine maintenance and incidental repair or replacement shall be permitted for lawfully nonconforming structures provided that the repair or maintenance shall neither create a new nonconformity, nor increase the degree of the existing nonconformity. The addition of facilities to improve handicapped accessibility or energy conservation may also be permitted provided all applicable development standards can be met.
(c) Replacement/reconstruction. The reconstruction of a lawfully nonconforming structure and/or a structure that is occupied by a nonconforming use, which has a valid certificate of occupancy and which is destroyed or damaged by an event resulting from natural causes or an accident, without intent to damage or destroy on the part of the property owner, may be restored to its original dimensions and conditions, provided:
(1) The reconstruction does not increase the degree, extent or limits of the nonconformity;
(2) A valid building permit is issued within 12 months of the date of the event; and,
(3) That the use occupying the structure after repair does not result in a change of use.
Nothing herein shall prevent a reconstruction that removes or reduces the nonconformity.
(Ord. No. 3478, § 1, 5-22-07; Ord. No. 4855, § 1(j), 2-23-21; Ord. No. 4404, § 1h, 9-28-21)