For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future, words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number. The word “shall” is always mandatory and not merely directory.
ACCESSORY 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.
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 use shall be secondary to that of normal agricultural activities; and provided further, that the above uses shall not include the commercial feeding of 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, nor less than 15 feet wide affording a secondary means of access to abutting property and not intended for general traffic circulation.
ALTERATION. As applied to a building or structure, is a change or rearrangement in the structural parts or in the exit facilities, or enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height, or the moving from one location or position to another.
APARTMENT HOUSE. A multi-family dwelling for three or more families, living independently of each other, and doing their cooking upon the premises.
AREA, BUILDING. The aggregate of the maximum horizontal cross section area of the main building on a lot, excluding cornices, eaves, gutters or chimneys, steps, one story open porches, bay windows not extending through more than one story and not projecting more than six feet, balconies and terraces.
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 and 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 fuel oils 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 conveyor, blowers, steam cleaners and other mechanical devices used primarily for the purpose of washing motor vehicles.
BASEMENT. Any area of the building having its floor subgrade (below ground level) on all sides.
BLOCK. In describing the boundaries of a district, the BLOCK refers to the legal description. In all other cases, the BLOCK refers to the property abutting on one side of the street between two intersecting streets or between an intersecting street and a railroad right-of-way or between an intersecting street and a watercourse.
BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT. The Board of Adjustment of the town; also referred to as the BOARD.
BOARDING HOUSE or ROOMING HOUSE. Where meals or lodging are provided for persons other than the family or their relatives and 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.
BUILDING HEIGHT. The vertical distance from the average line of the highest and lowest points of the portion of the lot covered by the building to the highest point of coping of a flat roof, or the deck line of a mansard roof, or the average height of the highest gable of a pitch or hip roof.
BUILDING LINE. The line between which, and the street line or lot line, no building or other structure or portion thereof, except as otherwise provided by this chapter, may be erected above the grade level. The BUILDING LINE is considered a vertical surface intersecting the ground on such line.
BUILDING, PRINCIPAL. A building or buildings in which the principal use of the building site is conducted. In any residential district, any dwelling is deemed to be the PRINCIPAL BUILDING on the site.
BULLETIN BOARD. Any sign announcing the activities of an educational, religious, institutional or similar use.
CAMPING TRAILER. A vehicular portable unit mounted on wheels and constructed with collapsible partial side walls that fold for towing by another vehicle to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use. (Source: NEC).
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 customarily provided with board and room or kept overnight on the premises.
CLUB. A nonprofit 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.
CONVALESCENT HOME. A nursing home, a 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.
COURT. An unoccupied open space, other than a yard, on the same lot with a building, which is bounded on two or more sides by the walls of such building.
COURT, INNER. A court enclosed on all sides by exterior walls of a building or by exterior walls and lot lines on which walls are allowable.
COURT, OUTER. A court enclosed on not more than three sides by exterior walls and lot lines on which walls are allowable, with one side or end open to a street, driveway, alley or yard.
COVERAGE. The lot area covered by all buildings located thereon, including the area covered by all overhanging roofs.
DAYCARE CENTER. A facility in which more than 12 clients receive care, maintenance and supervision by other than their relatives or legal guardians for less than 24 hours per day. (Reference: NFPA Life Safety Code 10-7.1.1.1.) (See also definitions of FAMILY DAYCARE HOMES and GROUP DAYCARE HOME.)
DWELLING. Any building or portion thereof designed or used as a residence of one or more persons, but not including a tent, cabin, trailer coach, mobile home, boarding or rooming house, hotel or motel.
DWELLING HOUSE. A detached house designed for and occupied exclusively as the residence of not more than two families each living as an independent housekeeping unit.
DWELLING, MULTI-FAMILY. A building or portion thereof containing three or more dwelling units and designed for or used by three or more families; also includes the word APARTMENTS.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY. A building containing one dwelling unit and designed for use exclusively by one family.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY. A building containing two dwelling units and designed for or used exclusively by two families; also includes the word DUPLEX.
DWELLING UNIT. A room or group of rooms arranged, intended or designed as a habitable unit, containing kitchen, bath and sleeping facilities for not more than one family living independently of any other family.
ESSENTIAL SERVICES. The erection, construction, alteration or maintenance by public utilities 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.
FAMILY. A person living alone, doing his or her own cooking and living upon the premises as a separate housekeeping unit, or a collective body of persons doing their own cooking and living together upon the premises as a separate housekeeping unit in a domestic relationship based upon birth, marriage or other domestic bond as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, lodging house, club, fraternity or hotel.
FAMILY DAYCARE HOMES. A daycare home in which more than three but fewer than seven clients receive care, maintenance and supervision by other than their relatives or legal guardians for less than 24 hours per day (generally within a dwelling unit). (Reference: NFPA 101 Life Safety Code 10-8.1.4.1.) (See also definitions of DAYCARE CENTER and GROUP DAYCARE HOME.)
FLOOR AREA. The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of a building or buildings, measured from the exterior faces of the exterior walls or from the centerlines of walls separating two buildings.
FRONTAGE. The linear measurement of a lot boundary which is abutting a street.
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 which 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 facilities are provided for the care, servicing, repair or equipping of automobiles.
GROUP DAYCARE HOME. A daycare home in which at least seven but not more than 12 clients receive care, maintenance and supervision by other than their relatives or legal guardians for less than 24 hours per day (generally within a dwelling unit). (Reference: NFPA 101 Life Safety Code 10-8.1.4.1.) (See also definitions of FAMILY DAYCARE HOMES and DAYCARE CENTER.)
HEIGHT. The vertical measurement of any structure on any parcel of land measured from the average elevation of the lot or parcel to the uppermost point of the structure.
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 customarily used in purely domestic or household purposes. A tearoom, restaurant, rest home, clinic, barbershop, beauty parlor, doctor’s or dentist’s office, childcare center, tourist home or cabinet shop, metal shop, lawn mower repair or auto repair garage shall not be deemed a HOME OCCUPATION.
HOSPITAL. See definition of MEDICAL FACILITIES.
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 parks, 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 USE. The uses organized, established, used or intended to be used for the promotion of a public, religious, educational, charitable, cultural, social or philanthropic activity and normally operated on a nonprofit basis.
JUNK. Any worn out, cast off or discarded article or material which is ready for destruction or has been collected or stored for salvage or conversion to some use. Any article or material which, unaltered or unchanged and without further reconditioning can be used for its original purpose as readily as when new shall not be considered JUNK.
JUNKYARD or SALVAGE YARD. A place where waste, discarded or salvage materials are bought, sold, exchanged, baled, 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 three or more dogs over four months of age are kept.
LOADING SPACE. An off-street space or berth on the same lot with a building, or contiguous to a group of buildings for the temporary parking of a commercial vehicle while loading or unloading merchandise or materials, and which abuts upon a street, alley or other appropriate means of access.
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 uses accessory thereto, together with such open spaces as required by this chapter and having access on a public street.
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 nonintersecting streets, as distinguished from a corner lot.
LOT, INTERIOR. A lot other than a corner lot.
LOT LINE. Any boundary of a lot.
LOT LINE, FRONT. The boundary of a lot which abuts a public street; where the lots abut more than one street, the owner may select the front lot line.
LOT LINE, REAR. The boundary of a lot which is most distant from and most nearly parallel to the front lot line.
LOT LINE, SIDE. Any boundary of a lot which is not a front lot line or a rear lot line.
LOT, WEDGE SHAPED. A lot situated so that the front is either wider or narrower than the rear of the lot.
LOTS OF RECORD. A separate and distinct parcel designated in a legally recorded subdivision plat or a legally recorded deed filed in the records of the county.
MANUFACTURED HOME. A structure transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities. The term MANUFACTURED HOME does not include a RECREATIONAL VEHICLE.
MEAN LOT ELEVATION. The average elevation of the lot.
MEDICAL FACILITIES.
DENTAL OR DOCTOR’S OFFICE. The same as definition of DENTAL OR MEDICAL CLINIC, including the various dental and medical specialties.
DENTAL OR MEDICAL CLINIC. A building used for the examination and treatment of the physically ill; provided, that no facilities are provided for patients remaining overnight except under emergency conditions.
HOSPITAL. An institution providing physical and mental health services primarily for human inpatient medical or surgical care for the sick and injured, and including related facilities such as laboratories, outpatient departments, training facilities, central service facilities and staff offices which are an integral part of the facilities.
NURSING HOME, REST OR CONVALESCENT HOME. See definition of CONVALESCENT HOME.
PUBLIC HEALTH CENTER. A facility primarily utilized by a health unit for providing public health services, including related facilities.
MOBILE HOME. A detached residential dwelling unit designed for transportation, after fabrication, on streets or highways on its own wheels or on flatbeds or other trailers, and arriving at the site where it is to be occupied as a dwelling, complete and ready for occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operations, location on jacks or other temporary or permanent foundations and connection to utilities.
MOBILE HOME LOT. A portion of a mobile home park allocated to the exclusive use of the occupants of a single mobile home. A MOBILE HOME LOT must have at least 50 feet of frontage and a minimum depth of 100 feet.
MOBILE HOME PARK. A parcel of land under single ownership which has been planned and improved for placement of mobile homes to be occupied as residences.
MOTEL. An area containing one or more buildings designed or intended to be used as temporary sleeping facilities of one or more transient persons.
MOTOR HOME. A vehicular unit designed to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use built on or permanently attached to a self-propelled motor vehicle chassis or on a chassis cab or van that is an integral part of the completed vehicle. (See definition of RECREATIONAL VEHICLE.)
NONCONFORMING USE. A building or a structure or use of land existing at the time of the enactment of this chapter and which does not conform to the regulations of the district in which it is located.
OPEN SPACE. Areas 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 of porches.
PARCEL. A LOT as defined herein.
PARKING SPACE. An 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.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE. A vehicle which is built on a single chassis; 400 square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projections; designed to be self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and designed primarily not for use as a permanent dwelling but as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel or seasonal use.
ROOMING HOUSE. See definition of BOARDING HOUSE or ROOMING HOUSE.
SETBACK BUILDING LINE. A building line back of the street line.
SIGN. Any word, lettering, part of letters, figures, numerals, phrases, sentences, emblems, devices, designs, pictures, trade names or trademarks by which anything is made known, such as are used to designate an individual, a firm, an association, a corporation, a profession, a business, a service, a commodity or product, which are visible from any public street or right-of-way and designed to attract attention. “For Sale” and “For Rent” are SIGNS within the meaning of this definition, but the term SIGN shall not include the flag, pennant or insignia of any nation, state, city or other political, educational, charitable, philanthropic, civic, professional, religious or like campaign, drive, movement or event used for a public purpose in the public interest.
SIGN, DISPLAY SURFACE AREA. The net geometric area of the surface of the sign upon, against or through which the message is displayed or illustrated, including the outward extremities of all letters, figures, characters and delineations; provided, that only one face of a double faced sign shall be included in the computation of display surface area.
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 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.
STREET. A public right-of-way more than 30 feet in width which provides the primary public means of access to abutting property and used primarily for vehicular circulation.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION. Any change in the structural members of a building, such as the 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 signs and billboards (not including sidewalks, driveways and similar improvement areas).
SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. Damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50% of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
TRAILER. A portable or mobile unit, other than a mobile home, used or designed to carry or transport material or animals.
TRAVEL TRAILER. A vehicular unit mounted on wheels, designed to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use, of such size or weight as not to require special highway movement permits when towed by a motorized vehicle, and of a gross trailer area less than 320 square feet.
TRUCK CAMPER. A portable unit constructed to provide temporary living quarters for recreational, travel or camping use consisting of a roof, floor and sides, designed to be loaded onto and loaded from the bed of a pickup truck.
USE. The purpose for which land or a building is arranged, designed or intended or for which either land or a building is or may be occupied or maintained.
VARIANCE. A grant of relief to a person from the requirements of this chapter when specific enforcement would result in unnecessary hardship. A VARIANCE, therefore, permits construction or development in a manner otherwise prohibited by this chapter.
MAJOR VARIANCE. A variance major in nature such as rezoning a piece of property from R to C.
MINOR VARIANCE. A variance minor in nature such as a change in the present situation, i.e., lot size restriction.
YARD. An open space other than a court, on a lot, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided in 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, into 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.
YARD, SIDE. A yard extending from front yard to the rear yard abutting on the side lot line, into which no building may protrude.
(Prior Code, § 10-2A-5)