Unless otherwise stipulated or required, the following definitions shall be used in the interpretation and construction of this chapter, and words used in the present tense include the future; the singular shall include the plural, and the plural the singular; the word “building” shall mean as well the word “structure”; the word “used” shall include “arranged”, “designed”, “constructed”, “altered”, “converted”, “rented”, “leased” or “intended to be used”; and the word “shall” is mandatory and not directory. For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCESSORY OR AUXILIARY USE OR STRUCTURE. A use or structure customarily incidental, appropriate and subordinate to the principal use of a building or to the principal use of land and which is located upon the same lot therewith.
ADVERTISING SIGN OR STRUCTURE. Any material or structure of any character whatsoever, placed for outdoor advertising purposes. The term “placed” shall include making visible in any manner whatsoever. The area of the ADVERTISING STRUCTURE shall be determined as the area of the largest cross-section of the structure. Neither directional, warning or other signs posted by public officials in the course of their public duties shall be construed as ADVERTISING SIGNS for the purpose of this chapter.
AGRICULTURE. The use of land for agricultural purposes including farming, dairying, pasturage, horticulture, animal and poultry husbandry and the necessary accessory uses for packing, treating or storing the produce; provided however, that the operation of any such accessory uses shall be secondary to that of normal agricultural activities; and, provided further that, the above uses shall not include the commercial feeding of garbage to swine or other animals, stockyards or commercial feedlots for cattle.
ALLEY. A minor right-of-way, dedicated to public use, not more than 30 feet wide affording a secondary means of access to abutting property and not intended for general traffic circulation.
AUTOMOBILE OR TRAILER SALES AREA. An open area, other than a street, used for the display, sales or rental of new or used motor vehicles or trailers in operable condition where no repair work is done.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MAJOR. General repair, rebuilding or reconditioning of engines, motor vehicles or trailers; collision services including body, frame or fender straightening or repair; overall painting or paint shop; vehicle steam cleaning.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MINOR. Incidental replacement of parts and motor service to passenger cars and trucks not exceeding one and one-half tons’ capacity.
AUTOMOBILE SERVICE STATION OR FILLING STATION. Any area used for retail sale of gasoline or oil fuels, or automobile accessories, and incidental services including facilities for lubricating, and washing and cleaning, but not including painting, major repair or the sale of butane or propane fuels.
AUTOMOBILE WASH or AUTOMATIC CAR WASH. A building or structure or chain conveyors, blowers, steam cleaners and other mechanical devices used primarily for the purpose of washing motor vehicles.
BASEMENT. A story wholly or partly underground. For purposes of height measurement, a BASEMENT shall be counted as a story when more than one-half of its height is above the average level of the adjoining ground or when subdivided and used for commercial or dwelling purposes by other than a janitor employed on the premises.
BLOCK. In describing the boundaries of a district, the word BLOCK refers to the legal description. In all other cases, the word BLOCK refers to the property abutting on one side of the street between two intersecting streets or a street and a railroad right-of-way or watercourse.
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT. The Board of Adjustment for the Town of Bernice, Oklahoma. Also referred to as THE BOARD.
BOARDING HOUSE and ROOMING HOUSE. Where meals or lodging are provided for persons other than the family or their relation, excluding facilities for transient persons such as hotels, motels, inns and other such facilities.
BUILDING. Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls that is used or intended to be used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals or property. When such a structure is divided into separate parts by one or more unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part is deemed a separate BUILDING, except as regards minimum side yard requirements as herein provided.
BUILDING, ACCESSORY. The subordinate building, the use of which is customarily incidental to that of a principal building on the same lot.
BUILDING INSPECTOR. The Building Inspector of the Town of Bernice, Oklahoma.
BUILDING LINE. A line established beyond which no part of a building shall project, except as otherwise provided by this chapter.
BUILDING, PRINCIPAL. A building or buildings in which the principal use of the building site is conducted. In any residential district, any dwelling shall be deemed to be the PRINCIPAL BUILDING on the building site.
BULK LIMITATIONS (FLOOR AREA RATIO). The number of square feet of “floor area”, as defined herein, which is permitted for each square foot of lot area.
BULLETIN BOARD. Any board or sign erected for announcement purposes.
CELLAR. The portion of a building between floor and ceiling; partly underground, but having one-half or more than one-half of its clear height below the adjoining finished grade.
CEMETERY. Land used or intended to be used for the burial of the human dead and dedicated for cemetery purposes.
CHILDCARE CENTER. Any place, home or institution which receives three or more children under the age of 16 years, for care apart from their natural parents, legal guardians or custodians, and received for regular periods of time for compensation; provided, however, this definition shall not include public and private schools organized, operated or approved under the laws of the state; custody of children fixed by a court; children related by blood or marriage within the third degree to the custodial person; or to churches or other religious or public institutions caring for children within their institutional buildings while their parents or legal guardians are attending services or meetings or classes and other church activities.
CLINIC. A place used for the care, diagnosis and treatment of sick, ailing, infirm and injured persons and those in need of surgical or medical attention, but who are not provided with board and room or kept overnight on the premises.
CLUB. A non-profit association of persons who are bona fide members, paying regular dues and organized for some common purpose, but not including a group organized solely or primarily to render a service customarily carried on as a commercial enterprise.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. The official town plan of the Town of Bernice, Oklahoma.
CONVALESCENT HOME, NURSING HOME or REST HOME. A home for the aged, recuperating, chronically ill or incurable persons, in which two 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 institutions devoted primarily to the diagnosis and treatment of disease or injury.
COUNCIL or BOARD OF TRUSTEES. The Board of Trustees of Bernice, Oklahoma.
COVERAGE. The lot area covered by all buildings located thereon, including the area covered by all the overhanging roofs.
DWELLING. Any building or portion thereof designed or used exclusively as a residence or sleeping place of one or more persons, but not including a tent, cabin, trailer or trailer coach, boarding or rooming house, hotel or motel.
DWELLING, MULTI-FAMILY. A building designed for or used by three or more families or housekeeping units.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY. A building designed for or used exclusively for residential purposes by one family or housekeeping unit.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY. A building designed for or used exclusively by two families or housekeeping units.
DWELLING UNIT. One or more rooms, designed for or used by one family.
ENGINEER. The Town Engineer of the Town of Bernice, Oklahoma.
ESSENTIAL SERVICES. The erection, construction, alteration or maintenance by public utility or municipal or other governmental agencies, of underground or overhead gas, electrical, steam or water transmission or distribution systems; collection, communication, supply or disposal systems; including poles, wires, mains, drains, sewer pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants and other similar equipment and accessories thereof; reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate services by such public utilities or municipal or other governmental agencies or for the public health or safety or general welfare, but not including buildings.
EXCEPTION. A variance from the requirements of this chapter properly authorized by the Board of Adjustment.
FAMILY. A person living alone or two or more persons living together, related by blood or marriage, as a single housekeeping unit using a single facility for culinary purposes in a dwelling unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, lodging house, hotel, motel, fraternity house or sorority house.
FLOOR AREA. The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of a building or buildings measured from exterior faces of the exterior walls or from the center walls or from the centerlines of walls separating two buildings.
FRONTAGE. The width of a lot measured at right angles to the depth on the front or street side of the lot.
GARAGE APARTMENT. A dwelling for one family erected as a part of a private garage.
GARAGE, PARKING. Any building or portion thereof used for the storage of four or more automobiles in which any servicing that may be provided is incidental to the primary use for storage purposes, and where repair facilities are not provided.
GARAGE, PRIVATE. A detached accessory building or a portion of the principal building used or intended for use by the occupants of the premises for storage of passenger vehicles or trailers.
GARAGE, PUBLIC. The structure or portion thereof, other than a private garage, used for the storage, sale, hire, care, repairing or refinishing of any vehicles.
GARAGE, REPAIR. A building in which are provided facilities for the care, servicing, repair or equipping of automobiles.
HEIGHT. The vertical measurement of any building or structure on any parcel of land measured from the average elevation of the lot or parcel to the uppermost point of the structure or building.
HEIGHT LIMIT. The limit of height as imposed in this chapter for any structure or building or permitted use within the zoning district.
HOME OCCUPATION. Any occupation carried on solely by the inhabitants of a dwelling which is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling for dwelling purposes, which does not change the character thereof, and which is conducted entirely within the main or accessory building; provided that, no trading and merchandising is carried on and in connection with which there is no display of merchandise or advertising sign other than one non-illuminated nameplate, not more than two square feet in area attached to the main or accessory building, and no mechanical equipment is used, except such as is customary for purely domestic or household purposes.
HOSPITAL. A building or portion thereof used for the accommodation of sick, injured or infirm persons.
HOTEL. A building or group of buildings under one ownership containing six or more sleeping rooms occupied or intended or designed to be occupied as the more or less temporary abiding place of persons who are lodged with or without meals for compensation, but not including trailer court or camp, hospital, asylum, orphanage or building where persons are housed under restraint.
INDUSTRY. Storage, repair, manufacture, preparation or treatment of any article, substance or any commodity for commercial use.
INSTITUTIONAL USES. Those uses organized, established, used or intended to be used for the promotion of public, religious, educational, charitable, cultural, social or philanthropic activities and normally operated on a non-profit basis.
JUNK OR SALVAGE YARD. A place where waste, discarded or salvage materials are bought, sold, exchanged, bailed, packed, disassembled or handled, including all wrecking yards, house wrecking yards, used lumber yards and places or yards for storage of salvaged house wrecking and structural steel materials and equipment; but not including such places where such uses are conducted entirely within a completely enclosed building, and not including pawnshops and establishments for the sale, purchase or storage of used furniture and household equipment, used cars in operable condition or salvage material incidental to manufacturing operations.
KENNEL. Any structure or premises on which more than three dogs over four months of age are kept.
LOADING SPACE. An off-street space or berth on the same lot with the building, or contiguous to a group of buildings, for the temporary parking of a commercial vehicle while loading or unloading merchandise or materials.
LOT. A piece or parcel of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building or a group of such buildings and accessory buildings, or utilized for a principal use and used as accessory thereto, together with such open spaces as required by this chapter, and having access on a public street. A LOT may consist of portions of two or more lots of record; provided that, the LOT meets the minimum area and width regulations of each respective district.
LOT, CORNER. A lot which has at least two adjacent sides abutting on a street; provided that, the interior angle at the intersection of such two sides is less than 135 degrees.
LOT DEPTH. The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
LOT, DOUBLE FRONTAGE. A lot having a frontage on two non-intersecting streets, as distinguished from a corner lot.
LOT, INTERIOR. A lot other than a corner lot.
LOT OF RECORD. Herein designated as a separate and distinct parcel on a legally recorded subdivision plat or a legally recorded deed filed with the County Clerk or Register of Deeds of Delaware County, Oklahoma.
LOT, WEDGE SHAPED. A lot situated so that the front is either wider or narrower than the rear of the lot.
MAXIMUM COVERAGE. The maximum amount of land that may be covered by buildings on any lot.
MEAN LOT ELEVATION. The average elevation of a lot.
MOBILE HOME COURT. A parcel of land under single ownership which has been planned and improved for placement of mobile homes for non-transient use.
MOBILE HOME LOT. A parcel of land for the exclusive use of the occupants of a single mobile home.
MOBILE HOME STAND. The part of an individual lot which has been reserved for the placement of the mobile home.
NON-CONFORMING USE. A parcel lawfully occupied by a use that does not conform to the regulations of the district in which it is located.
OFF-STREET PARKING. The provision of space reserved exclusively for the parking of motor vehicles entirely off the public street and lying wholly within the property boundaries of the parcel of land affected.
OPEN SPACE. Area included in any side, rear or front yard, or any other unoccupied space on a lot that is open and unobstructed to the sky, except for the ordinary projection of cornices and eaves of porches.
PARCEL. A lot, as defined in this section.
PARKING AREA, PRIVATE. An open area for the same uses as a private garage.
PARKING AREA, PUBLIC. An open area, other than a street or other public way, used for the parking of automobiles and available to the public whether for fee, free or as an accommodation for clients or customers.
PARKING SPACE. A permanently surfaced area of not less than 200 square feet, either within a structure or in the open, exclusive of driveways or access drives, for the parking of motor vehicles.
PERMITTED USES. The use of a structure or of a tract of land allowed by the use regulations of this chapter.
PLANNING COMMISSION. Bernice Planning Commission, as established by the statutes hereinbefore cited, for the Town of Bernice, County of Delaware, State of Oklahoma. Also referred to as THE COMMISSION.
ROOMING HOUSE. See definition of BOARDING HOUSE AND ROOMING HOUSE.
SIGN. Any structure or part thereof, or any device attached to, painted on or represented on a building or other structure, upon which is displayed or included any lettering, model, banner, flag, pennant, insignia, decoration, device or representation used as, or which is in the nature of, an announcement, direction, advertisement or other attention directing device. A SIGN shall not include the similar structure or device located within a building, except for illuminated signs within show windows. The word SIGN includes any billboard, but does not include the flag, pennants or insignia of any nation or association of nations, or any state, city or other political, charitable, educational, philanthropic, civic, professional, religious or like campaign, drive, movement or event.
SIGN, ILLUMINATED. A sign designed to give forth any artificial light, or designed to reflect light from one or more sources, natural or artificial.
SIGN, PROJECTING. A sign erected on the face or outside wall of a building which projects out at any angle therefrom.
SIGN, TEMPORARY. Signs of a temporary nature used to advertise the premises for sale, rent or lease.
STORY. The portion of a building, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it; or, if there be no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it.
STORY, FIRST. The lowest story or the ground story of any building, the floor of which is not more than 12 inches below the average contact ground level at the exterior walls of the building; except that, any basement or cellar used for residence purposes shall be deemed the first story; provided that, a basement or cellar used purely for recreational purposes shall not be deemed the FIRST STORY.
STORY, MEZZANINE. A story which covers one-third or less of the story directly underneath it.
STREET. A public right-of-way more than 20 feet in width which provides a public means of access to abutting property and used primarily for vehicular circulation. The term STREET shall include avenue, drive, circle, road, parkway, boulevard, lane, place, highway, thoroughfare and any other similar term.
STREET, COLLECTOR. Those residential streets designed to carry intra-city traffic connecting neighborhood areas to a major street whose purpose is to collect traffic from other minor streets and to serve as the most direct route to a major street or to a community facility as described and shown on the trafficways plan.
STREET, INTERSECTING. Any street which adjoins another street at an angle whether or not it crosses the other.
STREET, MAJOR. An arterial street which is designated on the trafficways plan and designed to carry intra-city traffic and to relate the various neighborhoods within the town.
STREET, MINOR. Any street not designated as a major or collector street and intended to serve or provide access exclusively to the properties abutting thereon.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION. Any change in the structural members of a building such as walls, columns, beams or girders.
STRUCTURE. Anything constructed, the use of which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground (including portable storage buildings, swimming pools and satellite dishes, but not including sidewalks, driveways and similar improvement areas).
THOROUGHFARE, EXPRESSWAY. A primary thoroughfare with divided roadways, partial or full control of access in general with grade separations at intersections. A FREEWAY shall mean an expressway with full control of access and meeting the standards of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Commerce.
THOROUGHFARE PLAN. The part of the comprehensive general plan referring to transportation development goals, principles and standards and also includes use of the terms MAJOR STREET PLAN and TRAFFICWAYS PLAN.
THOROUGHFARE, PRIMARY OR SECONDARY. An officially designated federal or state numbered highway or county or other road or street designated as a primary thoroughfare on the official thoroughfare or major street plan for the town; or county or other road or street designated as a secondary thoroughfare on said plan, respectively.
TOURIST COURT. An area containing one or more buildings designed or intended to be used as temporary sleeping facilities of one or more transient persons.
TOWN. The incorporated town of Bernice, Oklahoma.
TRAFFIC SIGNALING DEVICE. A sign, device of mechanical contrivance, used for the control of motor vehicular and pedestrian movement.
TRAILER or MOBILE HOME. A portable or mobile living unit used or designed for human occupancy on a permanent basis.
USE. The purpose for which land or a building or structure is arranged, designed or intended, or for which either land, building or structure is or may be occupied or maintained.
UTILITY SERVICE INSTALLATION. Any structure or installation by a utility company deemed to be necessary for the safe or efficient operation of that utility.
VARIANCE. Any modification of the terms of this chapter.
YARD, FRONT. A yard extending across the full width of a lot from side lot line to side lot line abutting on a street beyond which a building may not protrude.
YARD, REAR. A yard extending across the rear of a lot measured from side lot line to side lot line and at the end opposite the front lot line.
YARD, SIDE. A yard extending from front building line to the rear building line abutting the side lot line beyond which no building may protrude.
ZONING ADMINISTRATOR. The person nominated by the Mayor and approved by a majority vote of the Board of Trustees to fill the position of Zoning Enforcement Officer and whose duties shall include the uniform application and enforcement of this chapter.
ZONING MAP. The adopted zoning map or maps of the town, together with all amendments.
(Prior Code, § 10-1-4) (Ord. 2009-3, passed 5-15-2009)