Where the owner of a lot of official record in any residential district at the time of the adoption of this chapter or his or her successor in title thereto does not own sufficient contiguous land to enable him or her to conform to the minimum lot size requirements of this chapter, the lot may be used as a residential building site provided, however, that the requirements of the district are complied with or a special use permit is obtained from the Town Board.
(A) When a lot can be used in conformity with all of the regulations (other than the area or width requirements) applicable to the district in which the lot is located, a use may be made as of right. Otherwise, the nonconforming lot may be used only in accordance with a special use permit issued by the Town Board. The Board shall issue a permit if it finds that: the proposed use is one permitted by the regulations applicable to the district in which the property is located; and the property can be developed as proposed without any significant negative impact on the surrounding property or the public health, safety or welfare. In issuing the permit authorized by this division, the Board may allow deviations from applicable dimensional requirements (such as set-back lines and yard size minimums) if it finds that no reasonable use of the property can be made without those deviations.
(B) Whenever this chapter creates a nonconforming lot and the owner of the nonconforming lot also owns land adjacent to it, and a portion of this other land can be combined with the nonconforming lot to create a conforming lot (without thereby creating other nonconformities), the owner of the nonconforming lot, or his or her successor in interest, may not take advantage of the provisions of division (A) above.
(C) Notwithstanding the foregoing, whenever 2 or more adjoining vacant lots of record are in single ownership at any time after the adoption of this chapter and the lots individually have less area or width than the minimum requirements of the district in which the lots are located, the lots shall be considered as a single lot or several lots which meet the minimum requirements of this chapter for the district in which the lots are located.
(Ord. passed 5- -1977)