For the purpose of this chapter, certain words and terms are defined as follows:
ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT: Any single accessory structure attached or detached to the primary single-family dwelling already constructed providing complete independent living facilities for one or more persons, including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking or sanitation.
ACCESSORY USE OR BUILDING: A subordinate use or building customarily incident to and located upon the same lot occupied by the main use or building.
AMBIENT NOISE: The all-encompassing noise associated with a given environment, being usually a composite of sounds from many sources, near and far. More specifically, ambient noise will be measured at the residential property line and includes, but is not limited to, vehicular street traffic and noise from adjacent cities.
BUILDING: Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls for the housing or enclosure of persons, animals or chattels.
CLERK: The City Clerk of the City of Dalton Gardens.
COMMISSION: The Planning and Zoning Commission of the City of Dalton Gardens.
CORNER LOT: A zoning lot which adjoins the point of intersection of two (2) or more street lines and which the interior angle formed is one hundred thirty five degrees (135°) or less.
DWELLING: A structure, building, or shelter, serving as a place where one or more persons live. Also known as a house, residence, abode, domicile, habitation, lodging, or home.
FAMILY: Any number of individuals living together as a single housekeeping unit and doing their cooking on the premises exclusively as one household.
FENCE: A structural device forming a vertical physical barrier.
FIELD: A piece of land cleared of trees and usually enclosed.
FRONT LOT PROPERTY LINE: For an interior lot that is only accessed by one street, a front lot line is the line that is directly adjacent to the street. On a corner lot, the applicant may select either street line as a front lot line.
FRONT YARD: The required open space between the front property line and the nearest wall, support column or similar vertical support for any building on the lot, except as otherwise permitted by this Code. Eaves or roof overhangs may encroach into the setback a maximum of twenty four inches (24").
GLARE: Illumination which comes directly from the fixture without reflection off of a separate object or surface.
GOVERNING BODY: The City Council of the City of Dalton Gardens.
HEIGHT: A measurement of the distance from the bottom to the top of something which is upright. Structure height is the vertical distance measured from the average elevation of the proposed finished grade at the front of the building to the highest ridgeline or peak on the roof. Appurtenances such as chimneys, cupolas, antennas, weather vanes and the like are not included in the height measurement. Chimneys, cupolas and similar encroachments above the ridgeline (not to include antennas, weather vanes and the like) shall be limited in height to ten feet (10') above the ridgeline and shall not exceed ten feet (10') in either horizontal dimension or one hundred (100) square feet in the aggregate.
INTERIOR LOT: A lot that is not on the corner and is between other lots. The interior lot is not located adjacent to two (2) streets.
KENNEL: A place where, or use of a lot by a family for maintaining, breeding, boarding, keeping, training or suffering the occupancy by more than three (3) dogs. However, the litter of a female dog may be kept with the dog, and the litter, together with the mother, shall count as one dog until the litter reaches six (6) months of age.
LANDSCAPE PLAN: Professionally prepared graphic and written specifications for design, planting, and maintenance as well as detailed plans to create, arrange, and modify natural and manmade features.
LANDSCAPED AREA OR LANDSCAPING: That area within the boundaries of a given lot that is devoted to, and consists of, landscaping material, including, but not limited to, trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, grasses, or other live ground covers, and annual flowerbeds. Incidental hardscape materials may be included such as planters, brick, stone, placed rocks or boulders, water forms, and aggregates, but the extent of such hardscape materials shall be less than twenty percent (20%) of the landscaped area.
LIGHT POLLUTION: Misdirected, unshielded, excessive and/or unnecessary night lighting aimed upwards or sideways, scattering light across the atmosphere and brightening the night sky while diminishing the view of it.
LIGHT TRESPASS: Light that is emitted onto an adjacent property.
LOT: The parcel of land on which a principal building and its accessory buildings are placed or are to be placed, together with the required open spaces, or a "lot" designated as such on an officially recorded plat.
Any subdivision of land by metes and bounds or aliquot parts description prior to the effective date hereof and held under one ownership separate and distinct from the adjoining or abutting land shall be considered a lot as shown by the last conveyance of record.
For the purpose of determining the location of the required yards, a lot shall be considered to be as shown on the official recorded plat of the property, regardless of any metes and bounds subdivision of said property subsequent to the effective date hereof.
When a tract of land consisting of more than one platted lot held under one ownership is to be developed as one unit, all the parcels or lots shall be considered as one lot for the purposes of this chapter.
LOT COVERAGE: The portion of a lot, stated in terms of percentage that is covered by all buildings, structures or paved surfaces. This shall include all buildings, porches, breezeways, patio roofs and the like, whether open box type or lathe roofs, or fully roofed, but shall not be deemed to include fences, or walls, or swimming pools. It shall also include all surfaces with concrete or asphalt paving, such as patios, driveways, and sidewalks when surfaced with pavement. Gravel surfaces, bricks, pavers, and similar "hard" surfaces shall not be included in lot coverage calculations.
MAINTAIN, MAINTENANCE: In reference to landscaping includes mulching, mowing, spraying, irrigating, fertilizing, propping, bracing, treating for disease or injury, snow removal, proper pruning techniques based on current arboriculture standards, and any other similar acts which promote the life, growth, health, safety, or beauty of the landscape vegetation.
MANUFACTURED HOME: A structure, constructed after June 15, 1976, in accordance with the HUD manufactured home construction and safety standards, and is transportable in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight (8) body feet or more in width or is forty (40) body feet or more in length, or when erected on site, is three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein, except that such term shall include any structure which meets all the requirements of this subsection except the size requirements and with respect to which the manufacturer voluntarily files a certification required by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and complies with the standards established under 42 USC section 5401 et seq.
MOBILE HOME: A factory-assembled structure or structures generally constructed prior to June 15, 1976, and equipped with the necessary service connections and made so as to be readily movable as a unit or units on their own running gear and designed to be used as a dwelling unit or units with or without a permanent foundation.
NOISE: For purposes of Title 5, Chapter 3, an unwanted sound.
PARCEL: A quantity of land identified for taxation purposes. It is common for a lot and a parcel to share the same space and have common boundaries, but this is not always the case. For instance, it is possible for a parcel to have more than one lot, or portions of lots.
PORTABLE STORAGE CONTAINERS: Containers not used for human occupancy, and transported to a designated location for storage purposes (typically known as PODS, MODS, shipping container). Not a pre-fabricated shed.
PRE-FABRICATED SHED: Typically a simple, small, single-storied roofed structure built off-site and delivered to the site in one unit. Typically used for storage.
REAR LOT LINE: The back lot line or back line parallel to the front line.
REAR YARD: The required open space between the rear property line and the nearest wall, support column or similar vertical support for any building on the lot, except as otherwise permitted by this Code. Eaves or roof overhangs may encroach into the setback a maximum of twenty four inches (24").
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE: A vehicular type unit primarily designed as temporary quarters for recreational, camping, or travel use, which either has its own motive power or is mounted on or drawn by another vehicle. A trailer house is considered a recreational vehicle.
SIDE LOT LINE: Any lot line which is not a front lot line or a rear lot line.
SIDE YARD: The required open space between the side property line and the nearest wall, support column or similar vertical support for any building on the lot, except as otherwise permitted by this Code. Eaves or roof overhangs may encroach into the setback a maximum of twenty four inches (24").
SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLING: A building or manufactured home arranged or designed to be occupied by not more than one family. In addition, the classification "single family dwelling" shall include any group residence in which eight (8) or fewer unrelated persons with disabilities or elderly persons reside and who are supervised at the group residence in connection with their disability or age related infirmity. Resident staff, if employed, need not be related to each other or to any of the persons with disabilities or elderly persons residing in the group residence. No more than two (2) of such staff shall reside in the dwelling at any one time.
SPECIAL USE: A special use permitted within a district other than a principally permitted use, requiring a permit and approval of the commission and Governing Body.
SPOKANE VALLEY-RATHDRUM PRAIRIE AQUIFER BOUNDARY: A boundary of the aquifer as delineated and determined by the Environmental Protection Agency and administered by the Department of Environmental Quality and the Panhandle Health District. The map is available at the City Hall.
STORY: The habitable space between each floor level of a building.
STREET: A public way established by or maintained under public authority; a private way open for public use and a private way plotted or laid out for ultimate public use, whether or not constructed.
TRAILER HOUSES: A vehicle without means of self-propulsion, licensable as a conveyance on a public street or highway, constructed to permit temporary or intermittent occupancy as a dwelling or sleeping place for one or more persons. Trailer houses are considered recreational vehicles for purposes of this Code.
VIBRATION: Any use creating intense earthshaking vibrations and noise created by equipment or inventory drops, heavy drop forges or heavy hydraulic surges. (Ord. 256, 10-4-2018; amd. Ord. 272, 9-14-2021; Ord. 276, 5-12-2022; Ord. 282, 12-8-2022)