For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ABANDONED SIGN. A sign which no longer advertises a bona fide business, lessor, owner, activity, use, or product available on the premises where the sign is displayed for a continuous period of six months.
ACCESSORY BUILDING. A subordinate building or structure on the same lot or part of the main building, occupied by or devoted exclusively to an accessory use. Attached garages shall not constitute ACCESSORY BUILDINGS.
ACCESSORY STORAGE CONTAINER. A container not exceeding 160 square feet placed outdoors and used for the storage of goods, materials or merchandise that are used in connection with a lawful principal or accessory use of the lot. ACCESSORY STORAGE CONTAINER includes but is not limited to containers such as roll-off storage containers, slide-off storage containers, portable moving and storage containers but not including dumpsters. ACCESSORY STORAGE CONTAINER does not include a garage, barn, or storage shed accessory to a dwelling, provided the structure is not of a type of designed, equipped, or customarily used for over-the-road transport of goods, materials, or merchandise.
ACCESSORY USE. A use naturally and normally incidental to, subordinate to, and auxiliary to the principal permitted use of the premises.
AGRICULTURAL USE. The use of land for agricultural purposes, including farming, dairying, pasturage, horticultural, viticulture, animal and poultry husbandry, as well as any necessary accessory uses for packing, treating, or storing the products, provided that such uses shall be secondary to that of normal agricultural activities; shall include the homestead and accessory buildings; and shall not include the commercial feeding of garbage or offal to swine or other animals.
ALLEY. A public right-of-way which affords a secondary means of access to abutting property.
ANIMAL SHELTER. Any place where six or more animals over six months of age are boarded, bred, and/or offered for sale.
AREA IDENTIFICATION SIGN. Any freestanding sign identifying the name of a neighborhood, a residential subdivision, a multiple-residential complex, a shopping center or areas, an industrial area, an office complex, or any combinations involving three or more principal buildings.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MAJOR. General repair, rebuilding or reconditioning of engines, motor vehicles or trailers, including body work, framework, and painting.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MINOR. Minor repair, incidental body and fender work, painting and upholstering service, replacement of parts, and engine service to passenger vehicles and trucks not exceeding three-quarter-ton capacity.
AUTOMOBILE WRECKING YARD or JUNKYARD. A place maintained for keeping, storing, or piling in commercial quantities, whether temporarily, irregularly, or continually, buying or selling at retail or wholesale any old, used, or secondhand material of any kind, including used motor vehicles, machinery, and/or their parts. This shall include the exterior storage of any unlicensed motor vehicles or their remains for the purpose of dismantling, sale of parts, sale as scrap, storage, or abandonment. This shall not prohibit the keeping of one unlicensed motor vehicle within a garage or other structure in a Residential District.
BASEMENT. The portion of a floor of a building which is wholly or partially, up to 50%, underground or below grade.
BED AND BREAKFAST. A dwelling other than a resort or hotel where nightly accommodations, including food services, are provided for compensation, containing up to six separate rental rooms.
BOARDING HOUSE. A building other than a hotel or bed and breakfast where, for compensation and by prearrangement for definite periods, meals and lodging are provided to three or more persons, not of the principal family, pursuant to previous arrangements and not to anyone who may apply, but not including a building providing these services for more than ten persons.
BOATHOUSE. A structure used solely for the storage of boats or boating equipment.
BODY ART ESTABLISHMENT. A businesses that provide body art procedures such as tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, and piercing.
BREWERY. A place that manufactures, processes, and warehouses malt liquor for wholesale distribution in off-sale packages to retail liquor establishments and may retail malt liquor product for on-site consumption in a taproom or for off-site consumption as growlers. A brewer may not have an ownership interest in a BREWERY licensed under M.S. § 340A.301, Subd. 6(d), as it may be amended from time to time.
BUILDABLE AREA. The part of the lot remaining after required yards and setback areas have been provided.
BUILDING. Any fabric or edifice designed to stand more or less permanently. A structure erected by humans composed of stone, wood, brick, metal, or other property substance, and enclosing a space within its walls usually, but not necessarily, covered by a roof.
BUILDING HEIGHT. The vertical distance measured from the average ground level adjoining the building to the highest point of the roof surface if a flat roof; to the deck line of mansard roofs; and to the mean height level between eaves and ridge of gable, hip and gambrel roofs.
BUILDING, PRINCIPAL. A building or structure in which the main or principal use of the lot is situated.
BUILDING SETBACK LINE. The minimum horizontal distance from the street right-of-way to any building.
BUSINESS IDENTIFICATION SIGN. A sign which directs attention to a business or to a commodity, service, or entertainment conducted, sold, or offered upon the premises where such a sign is located.
CLEAR-CUTTING. The removal of an entire stand of trees.
CLINIC. A public or proprietary institution providing diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive treatment of ambulatory patients by a group of doctors acting in concert and in the same building for these purposes.
COMMISSIONER. The State Commissioner of Natural Resources.
CONDITIONAL USE. A use which, because of unique characteristics, cannot be classified as a permitted use in any particular district. After due consideration, in each case, of the impact of such use upon neighboring land and of the public desirability for the particular use at the particular location, a CONDITIONAL USE permit may be granted.
CONSTRUCTION SIGN. A sign placed at a construction site identifying the project or the name of the project, engineer, contractor, developer, financier, or other involved parties.
DAY CARE CENTER, LICENSED. A dwelling or other structure where, under the license of the state or the county, children are cared for during the day.
DIRECTIONAL SIGN. On-site signs, not exceeding three square feet in area, per side, intended to facilitate the movement of pedestrians and vehicles within the site on which such signs are located.
DISTRICT ZONING. Any section of the incorporated area of the city within which certain uniform regulations and requirements or various combinations apply under the provisions of this chapter.
DRAINING. The removal of surface water or ground water from land.
DREDGING. To enlarge or clean out a water body, watercourse, or wetland.
DRIVE-IN ESTABLISHMENT. An establishment which accommodates the patron’s automobile from which the occupants may receive a service or in which products purchased from the establishment may be consumed.
DWELLING. A building or portion designed exclusively for residential occupancy, including one-family, two-family, and multiple-family dwellings, but not including hotels, motels, boarding houses, and garage space.
DWELLING, MULTIPLE-FAMILY. A building used or intended to be used as a dwelling by three or more families, where each dwelling unit is divided by a partition wall extending the full height of the building. Each unit is capable of individual use and maintenance without trespassing upon adjoining properties.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY. A dwelling occupied by only one family, and so designed and arranged as to provide cooking and kitchen accommodations and sanitary facilities for one family only.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY. A dwelling so designed and arranged to provide cooking and kitchen accommodations and sanitary facilities for occupancy by two families, living independently of each other.
DWELLING, UPPER LEVEL. A residential unit or units located on the second floor or higher above a commercial use.
EASEMENT. Authorization by a property owner for the use by another, and for a specified purpose, of any designated part of his or her property.
EQUAL DEGREE OF ENCROACHMENT. A method of determining the location of encroachment lines so that floodplain lands on both sides of a stream are capable of conveying a proportionate share of flood flows. This is determined by considering the effect of encroachment on the hydraulic efficiency of the floodplain along both sides of a stream for a significant reach.
ESSENTIAL SERVICES. The erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance by public utilities or municipal departments of commissions, of underground or overhead gas, electrical, communication, steam or water transmissions, or distribution systems, including poles, wire mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants, towers, and other connected similar equipment and accessories (but not including buildings) reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utilities or municipal departments or commissions for the public health, safety, or general welfare.
FAMILY. Any number of persons living together in rooms comprising a single housekeeping unit and related by blood, marriage, adoption, or any unrelated person who resides there as though a member of the family, including domestic employees. Any group of persons not so related but inhabiting a single house shall be considered to constitute one FAMILY for each five persons, exclusive of domestic employees, contained in each such group.
FLOOD. A temporary rise in stream flow or stage that results in inundation of the areas adjacent to the channel.
FLOOD FRINGE. The portion of the floodplain outside of the floodway.
FLOODPLAIN. Those areas adjoining a watercourse which have been or may be covered by the regional flood.
FLOODPROOFING. A combination of structural provisions, changes, or adjustments to properties and structures subject to flooding, primarily for the reduction or elimination of flood damages.
FLOODWAY. The channel of the watercourse and those portions of the adjoining floodplains which are reasonably required to carry and discharge the regional flood.
FLOOR AREA, GROUND. The area within the exterior walls of the main building or structure as measured from the outside walls at the ground level, not including garages or enclosed or unenclosed porches and not including attached utility or accessory rooms having three or more exterior sides.
FOOD SERVICE. An accessory use to a bed and breakfast, whereby meals are provided to registered guests only.
FRONTAGE. The width of a lot or building site measured on the line separating it from the public street right-of-way. The frontage of corner lots shall be considered to be the shortest street line.
GARAGE, COMMUNITY. Any space or structure or series of structures for the storage of motor vehicles for the use of two or more occupants of property in the vicinity and having no public shop or service.
GARAGE, PRIVATE. An accessory building designed or used for the storage of not more than three automobiles, trucks, or buses, owned and used by the occupants of the building to which it is accessory.
GASOLINE SERVICE STATION. A building or structure designed or used for the retail sale or supply of fuels, lubricants, air, water, and other operating commodities for motor vehicles, and including the customary space and facilities for the installation of such commodities on or in such vehicles, but not including special facilities for the painting, major repair, or similar servicing.
GOVERNMENT SIGN. Any temporary or permanent sign erected and maintained by the city, county, state, or federal government for traffic direction or for designation of or direction to any school, hospital, historical site, or public service, street, property, facility, or recreation trail.
HISTORIC SITE. A structure or area of land or water of historic, archaeological, paleontological, or architectural value which has been designated as an historic site in the Federal Register of Historical Landmarks, the state’s Historical Society, or by a local unit of government.
HOME OCCUPATION. Any gainful occupation engaged in by the occupants of a dwelling at or from the dwelling when carried on within the dwelling unit and not in an accessory building.
HOME OCCUPATION SIGN. A sign designating a home business operated from residential property.
HOSTEL. An overnight lodging facility for transient guests that provides sleeping rooms and common areas for cooking.
HOTEL. Any building or portion of a building occupied as a more or less temporary abiding place of individuals and containing six or more guest rooms, used, designated, or intended to be used, let, or hired out to be occupied, or which are occupied by six or more individuals for compensation, whether the compensation is paid directly or indirectly.
ILLUMINATED SIGN. A sign illuminated in any manner by an artificial light source.
IMPERVIOUS SURFACE. The horizontal area of buildings, patios, walks, roads, driveways, accessory structures, and other surfaces generally impervious to the penetration of storm water, including gravel drives and parking areas.
INFORMATIONAL SIGN. An on-site sign not exceeding one square foot in area, intended to provide information or instructions to pedestrians or automobiles on the site that such sign is located.
INCIDENTAL SIGN. A sign, generally informational, that has a purpose secondary to the use of the zone lot on which it is located, such as “no parking”, “entrance”, “loading only”, “telephone”, and other similar directives. No sign with a commercial message legible from a position off the zone lot on which the sign is located shall be considered INCIDENTAL.
LONG-TERM CARE FACILITY. A facility, such as a nursing home, where medical care is administered to residents for periods of time typically greater than one month.
LOT. A parcel, piece, or portion of land designated by metes and bounds, registered land survey, auditor’s plat, as a lot within a recorded plat, or by other means and separated from other parcels or portions by the description for the purpose of sale, lease, or separation.
LOT AREA. The area of a horizontal plane within the lot lines.
LOT, CORNER. A lot situated at the junction of two or more intersecting streets, or a lot at the point of deflection in alignment of a single street, the interior angle of which is 135 degrees or less.
LOT COVERAGE. The part or percentage of the lot occupied by buildings or structures, including accessory buildings or structures.
LOT DEPTH. The mean horizontal distance between the front line and the rear lot line.
LOT FRONTAGE. The portion or dimension of a lot abutting the sides of a public street, measured along the street right-of-way line.
LOT LINE. A property boundary line of any lot held in single or separate ownership, except that where any portion of the lot extends into the abutting street or alley, the lot line shall be deemed to be the street or alley right-of-way.
LOT OF RECORD. A platted lot or metes and bounds parcel which has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder prior to June of 1998.
LOT WIDTH. The horizontal distance between the side lines of a lot measured parallel to the front line of the lot and the building setback line.
MANUFACTURED HOUSING. A factory-built dwelling eight feet or more in width, containing more than 320 square feet and designed intrinsically as a trailer requiring only minor modifications prior to occupancy and/or not meeting the requirements of the Uniform Building Code, but complying with the Manufactured Home Building Code or Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development standards.
MEDICAL FACILITY. A structure where the primary use is providing short-term medical care in either an out-patient or in-patient facility. A nursing home or long-term care facility shall not be considered a MEDICAL FACILITY.
MODULAR HOME. A non-mobile housing unit that is basically fabricated at a central factory and transported to a building site where final installations are made, permanently affixing the module to the site.
MOTEL or MOTOR COURT. A business of attached, semi-detached, or detached rental units with or without eating facilities for the overnight accommodation of transient guests.
NONCONFORMING BUILDING, STRUCTURE, OR USE. A building, structure, or use which does not conform with the zoning district regulations in which it is situated.
OFF-PREMISES SIGN. An off-premises sign which advertises a product, service, business, or event which is not available or does not take place on the same premises as the sign, including billboards.
OFF-STREET PARKING. A designated space or area of land with a gravel, paved, or all-weather surface not within a public street or right-of-way and used for the parking of vehicles.
ORDINARY HIGH WATER MARK. A mark delineating the highest water level which has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape. The ORDINARY HIGH WATER MARK is commonly that point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial.
PARKING SPACE. An area, enclosed in the main building, in an accessory building, or unenclosed, sufficient in size to store one automobile, which has adequate access to a public street or alley and permitting satisfactory ingress and egress of an automobile.
PERMITTED USE. A use which may be lawfully established in a particular district, provided it conforms with all requirements and performance standards, if any, of such district.
PERSON. Any individual, corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization, or other group acting as a unit. It also includes any executor, administrator, trustee, receiver, or other representative appointed by law. Whenever the word PERSON is used in any section prescribing a penalty or fine, it shall include the partners or members of any corporation who are responsible for the violation.
PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT. A type of development characterized by a unified site design for a number of dwelling units or dwelling sites on a parcel, whether for sale, rent, or lease, and also usually involving clustering of these units or sites to provide areas of common open space, density increases, and a mix of structure types and land uses.
POLITICAL SIGN. A temporary sign advertising election issues or the candidacy of a person running for office.
PORTABLE/TEMPORARY SIGN. A sign that is not permanently fixed to a building, other unmovable structure, or the ground.
PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES. As used in connection with the granting of a variance, means that the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by an official control; the plight of the landowner is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the landowner; and the variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality. Economic considerations alone do not constitute PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES.
PUBLIC WATERS. Any waters of the state which serve a beneficial public purpose, as defined in M.S. § 103G.005, Subd. 15, as it may be amended from time to time. However, no lake, pond, or flowage of less than ten acres in size and no river or stream having a total drainage area less than two square miles are regulated for the purposes of this chapter. A body of water created by a private user where there was no previous shoreland for a designated private use authorized by the Commissioner of Natural Resources shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter. The official determination of the size and physical limits of drainage areas of rivers and streams shall be made by the Commissioner of Natural Resources. The official size of lakes, ponds, or flowages shall be the areas listed in the Division of Waters Bulletin 25, “An Inventory of Minnesota Lakes”; or if lakes, ponds, or flowages are not listed, official determination of size and physical limits shall be made by the Commissioner of Natural Resources in cooperation with the city.
REACH. Is a hydraulic engineering term used to describe a longitudinal segment of a stream or river influenced by a natural or human-made obstruction. In an urban area, the segment of a stream or river between two consecutive bridge crossings would most typically constitute a REACH.
REAL ESTATE SIGN. A temporary sign placed upon property for the purpose of advertising to the public the sale or lease of the property.
RECREATIONAL EQUIPMENT. An individual piece or group of non-motorized equipment, tools, or non-motorized vehicles customarily used for outdoor activities. RECREATIONAL RENTAL EQUIPMENT shall include, but not be limited to, the following type of non-motorized equipment: paddle boards, kayaks, canoes, bicycles, fishing gear, and any other ancillary equipment associated with those specific types of equipment.
RECREATIONAL EQUIPMENT RENTAL BUSINESS. A business that rents for a fee, outdoor recreational equipment for use on-premise and/or off-premise.
REGIONAL FLOOD. A flood which is representative of large floods known to have occurred generally in the state and reasonably characteristic of what can be expected to occur on an average frequency in the magnitude of the 100-year recurrence interval.
REGULATORY FLOOD PROTECTION ELEVATION. A point not less than one foot above the water surface profile associated with the regional flood plus any increases in flood heights attributable to encroachments on the floodplain. It is the ELEVATION to which uses regulated by this chapter are required to be elevated or floodproofed.
RESORT. A commercial business with a central management to provide necessary services and having dwelling units and/or campsites for rent or owned by time interval and may provide related facilities such as restaurants, bars, golf courses, or other recreational amenities. A RESORT shall be considered only through a planned unit development process.
RESTAURANT. A commercial business whose primary function is to provide meals to the general public. A RESTAURANT shall not be restricted to providing meals for registered guests of a bed and breakfast or resort.
RIPARIAN LOT. Any lot which is bounded on one or more sides by public waters frontage.
ROOMING HOUSE. Any dwelling occupied in any such manner that certain rooms in excess of those used by members of the immediate family and occupied as a home or family unit, are leased or rented to persons outside of the family, without any attempt to provide cooking or kitchen accommodations, providing the accommodations are not provided for more than ten persons.
SETBACK. The minimum horizontal distance between a building and street or lot line.
SETBACK, WATERFRONT. The closest horizontal distance between the ordinary high water mark and the foundation wall or edge of the structure, excluding up to three feet of roof overhang, stoops not exceeding 32 square feet in area, and steps from stoop to ground not exceeding four feet in overall width.
SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS. A business that provides a skilled service in lieu of a physical product. This type of business serves limited numbers of customers at a time including but not limited to hair stylists/barbers, legal offices, tax preparation, dog grooming, and the like.
SHORELAND. The land located within 1,000 feet from the normal high water mark of a lake, pond, or flowage or 300 feet from a river or stream, or the landward extent of a floodplain designated by this chapter on such a river or stream, whichever is greater. The practical limits of SHORELANDS may be less than the statutory limits wherever the waters involved are bounded by natural topographic divides which extend landward from the waters for lesser distances.
SIGN. A name, identification, description, display, illustration, or device which is fixed to, painted, or represented directly or indirectly, upon a building or other outdoor surface or piece of land and which directs attention to an object, product, place, activity, person, institution, organization, or business.
SIGN AREA. The area within the single continuous line enclosing the extreme limits of such sign. It does not include any structural or framing elements lying outside the limits of such sign surface and not fronting an integral part of the display. All sides of a sign that bear media elements shall be used in computing total gross area. In computing the number and square footage of signs, all signs other than directional, informational, window, political, and government signs shall be included.
STORY. The portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or the space between such floor and the ceiling next above it.
STRUCTURE. Anything which is built, constructed, or erected; an edifice or building of any kind; or any piece of work artificially built up and/or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner.
TAPROOM. A room that is ancillary to the production of malt liquor at a brewery where the public can purchase and/or consume only the malt liquor produced on site. A TAPROOM may also sell malt liquor for off-sale consumption in growler containers.
TEMPORARY SIGN. A sign which is not permanently installed, such as an advertising display.
TOURING BUSINESS. A business primarily engaged in providing tours off-premise whereby the tour guide and tour patrons travel on non-motorized recreational equipment or under their own power.
TOWNHOUSE. Single-family attached units in structures housing three or more dwelling units contiguous to each other, only by the share of one common wall and each dwelling unit having separate and individual front and rear entrances.
USE. The purpose for which land or buildings on the land are designed, arranged, or intended to be occupied or used, or for which they are occupied or maintained.
“V” SIGN. A commercial sign consisting of two essentially equal faces, positioned at an angle extending less than 90 degrees which are essentially connected (maximum eight-foot separation at closest point).
VACATION RENTALS (COMMERCIAL). The upper level of a building that is rented out to transient guests and provides five or less sleeping rooms on a nightly basis for a period not to exceed more than 30 consecutive days.
VARIANCE. The waiving of specific literal provisions of this chapter in instances where their strict enforcement would cause undue hardship because of circumstances unique to the individual property under consideration. VARIANCES are to be granted only when it is demonstrated that a waiving of the provision will be in keeping with the spirit and intent of this chapter. Furthermore, hardship must be demonstrated on a noneconomic basis.
WALL SIGN. A commercial sign painted on the outside of a building, or attached to and erected parallel to the face of a building and supported throughout its length by such building.
WINDOW SIGN. A sign painted, stenciled, or affixed on a window or door, which is visible from a right-of-way.
WETLAND. A surface water feature classified as a wetland by and regulated through the state’s Wetland Conservation Act, M.S. §§ 103F.612 et seq., as it may be amended from time to time.
YARD. An open space on a lot which is unoccupied and unobstructed from its lowest elevation to the sky. A YARD extends along a lot line at right angles to such lot lines to a depth or width specified in the yard regulations for the zoning district in which such lot is located.
YARD, FRONT. A yard extending across the front of the lot between the side lot lines and lying between the front line of the lot and the nearest line of the building.
YARD, REAR. A yard extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the rear line of the lot and the nearest line of the building.
YARD, SIDE. A yard between the side line of the lot and the nearest line of the building and extending from the front yard of the lot to the rear yard.
ZONING ADMINISTRATOR. The person authorized by the City Council to administer and enforce this chapter.
ZONING DISTRICTS. The areas of the city designated for specific uses with specific requirements for use or development.
ZONING MAP. The map incorporated into this chapter as a part of this chapter designating the zoning districts.
(Prior Code, § 13.05) (Ord. 2014-02, passed - -; Ord. 2016-02, passed - -; Ord. 2018-01, passed - -; Ord. 2018-02, passed - -; Ord. 2018-04, passed - -2018; Ord. 2019-05, passed 10-28-2019; Ord. 2020-01, passed 4-27-2020; Ord. 2023-04, passed 9-25-2023)