As used in this chapter:
(a) "Adaptive reuse" means the process of converting a building to a use other than that for which it was designed, such as changing a factory into housing or a residential structure into an office or retail store. Such conversion typically involves altering both the interior and exterior of the structure or building.
(b) "Addition" means any construction which increases the height or area of an existing resource or adds to it.
(c) "Alteration" means work that changes the detail of a resource but does not change its basic size or shape.
(d) "Certificate of appropriateness" means the written approval of a permit application for work that is appropriate and that does not adversely affect a resource.
(e) "City" means the City of Battle Creek, a Michigan municipal corporation, acting by and through its officers and agents.
(f) "Construction" means the assemblage of materials in any definite pattern for the purpose of erecting or modifying a resource, as well as any significant change of the existing ground level.
(g) "Demolition" means the razing or destruction, whether entirely or in part, of a resource, and includes, but is not limited to, demolition by neglect.
(h) "Demolition by neglect" means neglect in maintaining, repairing or securing a resource that results in deterioration of an exterior feature of the resource or the loss of structural integrity of the resource.
(i) "Denial" means the written rejection of a permit application for work that is inappropriate and that adversely affects a resource.
(j) "Historic" refers to a resource which has significant historic, cultural or architectural value in the context of the development of the City or that has significant historic or architectural value to the overall appearance of an Historic District. There is no minimum age implied by the use of the term "historic"; however, in most instances the term shall apply to a resource which is approximately fifty years of age or more.
(k) "Historic District" means an area, or group of areas not necessarily having contiguous boundaries, created or proposed to be created by the City for the purposes of this chapter, which contains one resource or a group of resources that are related by history, architecture, archeology, engineering or culture. The City may establish more than one Historic District and a District may consist of a single historic resource unrelated to its surroundings in historic, architectural or cultural significance.
(l) "Historic District Commission" or "Commission" means the seven-member body created by the City pursuant to Act 169 of the Public Acts of 1970, as amended, and this chapter.
(m) "Historic preservation" means the identification, evaluation, establishment, and protection of resources significant in history, architecture, archeology, engineering or culture.
(n) "Historic resource" means a publicly or privately owned building, structure, site, object, feature or open space, that has significant historic, cultural or architectural value.
(1) "Building" means a residential, commercial, industrial or institutional resource created to support or shelter any use or occupancy. This definition also includes accessory buildings such as garages or sheds.
(2) "Feature" means a prominent or distinctive aspect, quality or characteristic of a designated Historic District, including, but not limited to, landscaped boulevards, brick paving or other paved surfaces such as driveways and sidewalks, and distinctive trees or patterns of trees.
(3) "Object" means a resource which cannot be defined as a building or structure but has functional, aesthetic, cultural, historic, architectural, archeological or scientific value that may be, by nature or design, moveable, yet related to a specific setting or environment such as, but not limited to, statues, monuments, fountains, lighting fixtures or sundials.
(4) "Open space" means undeveloped land, a naturally landscaped area, or a formal or man-made landscaped area, that provides a connective link or a buffer between other resources.
(5) "Site" means a resource that is related to important historic events or to a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or the location of an institution, an organization or an architectural property that is ruined or vanished, where the location itself maintains historic or archeological value regardless of any presently existing conditions.
(6) "Structure" means a resource made up of interdependent and interrelated parts in a definite pattern of organization, constructed or erected so as to require a permanent location on the ground or attached to something having a permanent location on the ground, including, but not limited to, signs, billboards, porches, decks, railings, fences, pergolas and other above-grade structures.
(o) "Notice to proceed" means the written permission to issue a permit for work that is inappropriate and that adversely affects a resource, pursuant to a finding under Section 1470.09(e).
(p) "Ordinary maintenance" means keeping a resource unimpaired and in good condition through ongoing minor intervention, undertaken from time to time, in its exterior condition. Ordinary maintenance does not change the external appearance of the resource except through the elimination of the usual and expected effects of weathering. Ordinary maintenance does not constitute "work" for purposes of this chapter.
(q) "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, institution or agency of government.
(r) "Plans" means those documents, drawings, sketches and samples of materials that accompany an application for a permit as required by this chapter.
(s) "Reconstruction" means the process of reproducing by new construction the exact form and detail of a vanished historic resource, or part thereof, as it appeared at a specific time.
(t) "Rehabilitation" means the process of returning an historic resource to a state of utility through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions and features of the property which are significant to its historic, architectural or cultural value.
(u) "Repair" means to restore a decayed or damaged resource to a good or sound condition by any process. A repair that changes the external appearance of a resource constitutes "work" for purposes of this chapter.
(v) "Resource" means one or more publicly or privately owned historic or non-historic buildings, structures, sites, objects, features or open spaces located within an Historic District.
(w) "Restoration" means the process of accurately recovering the form and details of a resource as it appeared at a particular period of time by removing later work, replacing missing work and enhancing original work.
(x) "Significant historic, cultural or architectural value" means an historic resource that is associated with any of the following:
(1) A pivotal event or person in Michigan's, Battle Creek's or the United States' archaeological, historic or cultural past.
(2) An important phase of growth or decline of a neighborhood or the community.
(3) A contribution to or example of science, technology, politics, art or humanitarian causes.
(4) Representative of a recognized major style of architecture or engineering or a particular architect; the unusual use of materials, workmanship or function; or an outstanding example of vernacular architecture.
(y) "Study Committee" or "Historic District Study Committee" means an ad hoc body created by the City Commission pursuant to Act 169 of the Public Acts of 1970, as amended, and this chapter, for the purpose of recommending the creation of, amendment to, or elimination of, Historic Districts and the boundaries thereof.
(z) "Work" means construction, addition, alteration, repair, moving, excavation or demolition.
(Ord. 14-97. Passed 8-5-97.)