(A) Group Living
This category is characterized by residential occupancy of a structure by a group of people who do not meet the definition of "Household Living." Tenancy is arranged on a monthly or longer basis. Generally, Group Living structures have a common eating area for residents. The residents may receive care, training, or treatment, and caregivers may or may not also reside at the site. Accessory uses commonly include recreational facilities and vehicle parking for occupants and staff. Specific use types include:
(1) Dormitory
A building used principally to provide rooms for sleeping accommodations at an educational, public, or religious institution. Common kitchen, sanitary, and social gathering rooms may also be provided.
(2) [Reserved]
(3) Life Care Community
A building or group of buildings that contains dwelling units where the occupancy is restricted to persons who are at least sixty-two (62) years of age, or married couples in which one of the persons is at least sixty-two (62) years of age, and which provides nursing and/or medical care as well as support services, such as common dining facilities, retail stores, and personal service establishments, which are operated by the owner of the life care community or lessees of the owner. Life care communities are designed to meet the residents' basic needs for shelter, food, and health care, regardless of the level of independence of the individual resident and regardless of how these needs may change over time.
(4) Nursing Home
A licensed facility where three (3) or more elderly, chronically ill, infirm, or incurable persons are provided with food, lodging, and medical care for compensation. This definition includes congregate care facilities but not hospitals, clinics, or life care communities (even though a life care community may include a nursing home as one (1) of its components).
(5) Boarding House
A building arranged or used for lodging as compensation, as further defined in the NC Building Code, section 202.
(B) Household Living
This use category is characterized by residential occupancy of a dwelling unit, including occupancy by persons with handicaps, as such term is defined in the Federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3602, or persons with disabilities, as such term is defined in G.S. Chapter 168, Article 3. Tenancy is arranged on a month-to-month or longer basis (lodging where tenancy may be arranged for a period of less than thirty (30) days is classified under the "Visitor Accommodation" category). Common accessory uses include recreational activities, raising of pets, gardens, personal storage buildings, hobbies, and parking of the occupants' vehicles. Home Occupations, Accessory Dwelling Units, and Caretaker’s Residence are accessory uses that are subject to additional regulations (see Section 5.3.4). Specific use types include, but are not limited to:
(1) Accessory Dwelling Unit
A structure used for the purposes of an individual house-keeping unit established on the same building lot as a principal detached dwelling. Such accessory dwelling units may not be attached to the principal dwelling unit.
(2) Bed and Breakfast
An operator-occupied single-unit residence where eight (8) or fewer rooms are rented on an overnight basis, for a period of no more than fourteen (14) consecutive days per guest stay.
(3) Caretaker's Residence
A dwelling unit on the site of a non-residential use and occupied only by a guard or the person who oversees the operation of the non-residential facility.
(4) Detached Dwelling
A building that is developed with open yards on all sides, contains one (1) dwelling unit not attached to any other building or dwelling unit, and is not on the same lot as any other dwelling unit.
(5) Duplex Dwelling
A building on one (1) lot that has open yards on all sides and contains two dwelling units that share a common wall or ceiling/floor and have separate access from the outside.
(6) Family Care Home
A dwelling unit in which room and board, personal care and habilitation services, with the assistance of support and supervisory personnel, are provided for not more than six (6) persons with disabilities, as such term is defined in the Federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3602, or persons with handicaps, as such term is defined in G.S. Chapter 168, Article 3.
(7) Group Home
A dwelling unit in which persons with handicaps, as such term is defined in the Federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3602, or persons with disabilities, as such term is defined in G.S. Chapter 168, Article 3, live together as a single housekeeping unit without the assistance of support and supervisory personnel.
(8) Live/Work Unit
A type of structure combining residential (living) and non-residential (working) activities.
(9) Manufactured Home
A structure as defined in G.S. 143-145(7). (Note: In 1985, the State of North Carolina officially changed the term "mobile home" to manufactured home.)
(10) Manufactured Home Park
A parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land which has been so designed and improved on or before July 1, 2003 so that it contains two (2) or more manufactured home spaces available to the general public for the placement thereon of manufactured homes for occupancy; and such use was established prior to July 1, 2003. This use may include service buildings, areas, and customary accessory uses necessary to provide laundry, recreation, sanitation, storage, vending machines, and other similar services provided by the facility operator primarily for the use and convenience of occupants of the manufactured home park.
(11) Mid-Rise Multi-Family Dwelling
A building containing individual residential dwelling units (whether condominiums or apartments) stacked one over another. Such structures may include non-residential uses, and are generally more than two (2) stories, but less than six (6) stories in height.
(12) Modular Home
A manufactured building designed to be used as a single-unit dwelling which has been constructed in accordance with the North Carolina State Building Code and bears the North Carolina State Approved label. For the purposes of regulation, these types of dwellings are treated as site-built dwellings.
(13) Multi-Family Dwelling
A building, other than a townhouse, that contains three (3) or more individual dwelling units attached along and sharing one (1) or more common walls between any two (2) units and/or stacked one above the other, or one (1) or more dwelling units located in the same building as a non-residential use in a non-residential zoning district. None of the individual dwelling units within a multi-family dwelling are separated by property lines. This type of structure shall include any such building, regardless of the form of ownership (condominium or rental) of the individual dwelling units therein.
(14) Patio Dwelling
A single-unit detached or semi-detached dwelling built in groups of two (2) or more. Each dwelling unit is built on a small lot owned in fee simple by the owner of the dwelling unit. Each group of two (2) or more dwelling units with their appurtenant lots are located on a larger lot that is owned in common by the owners of dwelling units and fee simple lots. Some or all of this larger lot is common area used for private open space.
(15) Semi-Detached/Attached Dwelling
A building that contains two (2) to four (4) dwelling units that share one (1) or more common walls for no less than twenty-five (25) percent and no more than fifty (50) percent of the depth of the dwelling unit, with each dwelling unit located on a separate lot.
(16) Townhouse
A single-unit dwelling on its own lot owned in fee simple by the owner of the dwelling, with a private entrance that is part of a structure where the dwelling units are all joined side-by-side and separated by party walls, with no unit being located above or below another unit, and having totally exposed front and rear walls for access, light, and ventilation. This shall include any such dwelling, regardless of the form of ownership (condominium or rental) of the individual dwelling units therein.
(17) Utility Dwelling Unit
An individual house-keeping unit located entirely within a principal single-unit detached dwelling, but which has separate and individual cooking and bathroom facilities as well as a separate and individual entrance from the outside.
(18) Detached Multi-Family Dwellings
Dwelling units, not including a manufactured home, located on a single lot that contains three (3) or more dwelling units, each developed with open yards on all sides, where none of the individual dwelling units are separated by property lines.