For the purpose of this chapter, certain terms and words are hereby defined. As used herein, the word “building” includes “structure.”
1. “Accessory building” means a subordinate building which is incidental to and customary in connection with the principal building or use of the premises.
2. “Accessory use” means a subordinate use which is incidental to and customary in connection with the principal building or use of the premises.
3. “Administrative Officer” means the individual designated by this chapter to administer the Zoning Ordinance and who is responsible for the enforcement of the regulations imposed by said Ordinance. This person may also be referred to as the “Zoning Administrator.”
4. “Apartment house” - see “dwelling, multiple.”
5. “Basement/cellar” means that portion of the structure that is partially or wholly below grade.
6. “Bed and breakfast home” means a private residence which provides lodging and breakfast, which is owner-occupied and in which no more than two guest families may be lodged at the same time. There shall be one space of off-street parking per guest room in addition to two spaces for the owners.
7. “Bed and breakfast inn” means a commercial facility used primarily for guest lodging, usually with several rooms for that purpose. Because it is a commercial enterprise, a bed and breakfast inn is subject to the same licensing, inspection, and taxation requirements as hotels or motels and restaurants.
8. “Board of Adjustment” means a Board created under this chapter which acts on variances, special uses, and conditional uses consistent with provisions found elsewhere in this chapter, all as provided for in Chapter 414 of the State Code of Iowa.
9. “Building” means any structure having a roof and designed or intended for the support, enclosure or protection of persons, animals, or property.
10. “Building permit” means a certificate issued by the administrative officer stating that the building and use comply with the provisions of this chapter.
11. “Clinic” means an establishment where patients are not lodged overnight but are admitted for examination and treatment by a group of physicians or dentists practicing medicine together.
12. “Conditional use” means a use of property that will be permitted by the Board of Adjustment subject to the applicant meeting certain conditions and safeguards which will assure that the use will be in harmony with the general intent and purpose of these zoning regulations.
13. “Convenience store” means any retail establishment offering for sale food produce, household items and other goods commonly found in grocery stores, as well as retail gas sales.
14. “Deck/patio” means a covered or uncovered platform area or surfaced outdoor living area which projects from a building. Decks and patios are accessible at or from above grade and are attached to the ground.
15. “Dwelling” means any building, earth sheltered home, or manufactured housing designed and used exclusively for residential purposes.
16. “Dwelling, single-family” means a detached building arranged, designed, and intended to be occupied as the residence of a single family and having no party wall in common with an adjacent house or houses.
17. “Dwelling, two-family” means a detached building that is arranged, designed, or intended to be occupied as the residence of two families or housekeeping units living independently of each other.
18. “Dwelling, multiple” means a building designed for or occupied exclusively by more than two families. This definition includes, but is not limited to, such buildings as are commonly referred to as apartment buildings, high-rises, or condominiums.
19. “Dwelling unit” means one or more rooms in a dwelling occupied or intended to be occupied as separate living quarters by a single family as defined herein.
20. “Earth sheltered home” means a building designed to be used as a dwelling utilizing earth to shelter the building. The roof can be of conventional construction or covered with earth, but not of a temporary nature.
21. “Family” means a group of persons occupying a dwelling unit as an individual housekeeping organization. A family may include not more than four (4) persons not related by blood, marriage, adoption, or legal process.
22. “Family home” means a community-based residential home which is licensed as a residential care facility under Chapter 414.30 of the Code of Iowa, to provide room and board, personal care, habilitation service, and supervision in a family environment exclusively for not more than four developmentally disabled persons and any necessary support personnel. However, “family home” does not mean an individual foster care family home licensed under Chapter 237 of the Code of Iowa.
23. “Farm” means an area which is used for the growing of the usual farm products such as vegetables, fruit, trees, and grain and their storage on the area, as well as for the raising thereon of the usual farm poultry and farm animals, such as horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. “Farming” includes the operating of such an area for one or more of the above uses, including dairy farms with the necessary accessory uses for treating or storing the produce; provided, however, the operation of the accessory uses shall be secondary to that of the normal farming activities, and provided further, “farming” does not include the feeding of collected garbage or offal to swine or other animals.
24. “Filling station” means any building or premises primarily used for the sale, at retail, of motor vehicle fuels, oils or accessories, or for servicing or lubricating motor vehicles or installing or repairing parts and accessories, but not including the repairing or replacement of bodies or fenders of motor vehicles, or painting motor vehicles, and excluding public garages.
25. “Floor area” means the total number of square feet of floor space within the exterior walls of a building, not including space in cellars or basements; however, if the cellar or basement is used for business or commercial purposes, it shall be counted as floor area in computing off-street parking requirements.
26. “Frontage” means all the property on one side of a street between two intersecting streets (crossing or terminating), measured along the line of the street, or if the street is dead ended, then all of the property abutting on one side between an intersecting street and the dead end of the street, but not including property more than 400 feet distant on either side of a proposed building or structure.
27. “Garage, private” means an accessory building or portion of a building in which one or more motor vehicles are housed but in which no business service or industry connected with motor vehicles is carried on.
28. “Garage, public” means any building or premises except those used as a private or storage garage used for equipping, repairing, hiring, selling, or storing motor driven vehicles. The term “repairing” does not include an automotive body repair shop or the rebuilding, dismantling, or storage of wrecked or junked vehicles.
29. “Grade” means the average level of the finished surface of the ground adjacent to the exterior walls of the building, except when any wall approximately parallels and is not more than five (5) feet from a street line. Then the elevation of the street at the center of the wall adjoining the street shall be grade.
30. “Home occupation” means any occupation or profession carried on by a member of the immediate family residing on the premises in connection with which there is used no sign other than a nameplate not exceeding two square feet in area, provided that:
A. The occupation or profession does not occupy more than the equivalent of 20 percent of the floor area of one story of the dwelling;
B. There is no display that will indicate from the exterior that the building is being utilized in whole or part for any purpose other than that of a dwelling;
C. No more than one person not a member of the family residing on the premises is regularly employed;
D. The building includes no features of design not customary in buildings for residential use, and there is no emission of odor, gas, smoke, dust, or noise that will be detrimental to the residential character of the neighborhood; and
E. No addition shall at any time be added to the residence or any accessory building to be used for this home occupation or be added to compensate for the area used for the home occupation. Only one home occupation per household is permitted.
31. “Hotel” means a building in which lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensation and which is open to transient guests, in contradistinction to a boarding house or lodging house.
32. “Institution” means a building occupied by a nonprofit corporation or a nonprofit establishment for public use.
33. “Junk yard” means an area of any lot which is used for the storage, abandonment or keeping of junk, including scrap metals or scrap material, or for the abandonment or dismantling of machinery, automobiles, or other vehicles or parts thereof.
34. “Lodging house” means a building or place where lodging and boarding are provided (or which is equipped regularly to provide lodging and boarding by pre-arrangement for definite periods) for compensation, for three or more but not exceeding 12 individuals, not open to transient guests, in contradistinction to hotels open to transient guests.
35. “Lot” means a parcel of land occupied or intended for occupancy by a use permitted in this chapter, including one main building, together with its accessory building, open spaces, and parking spaces required by this chapter and having its principal frontage upon a street.
36. “Lot, corner” means a lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection.
37. “Lot, depth of” means the horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
38. “Lot, double frontage” means a lot having a frontage on two nonintersecting streets, as distinguished from a corner lot.
39. “Lot lines” means the lines bounding a lot as defined herein.
40. “Manufactured home” is a factory-built structure built under authority of 42 U.S.C.§5043, is required by federal law to display a seal from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and was constructed on or after June 15, 1976. If a manufactured home is placed in a mobile home park, the home must be titled and is subject to the mobile home square foot tax. If a manufactured home is placed outside a mobile home park, the home must be titled and is to be assessed and taxed as real estate.
41. “Mobile home” means any vehicle without motive power used or so manufactured or constructed as to permit its being used as a conveyance upon the public streets and highways and so designed, constructed, or reconstructed as will permit the vehicle to be used as a place for habitation by one or more persons; but shall so include any vehicle with motive power not registered as a motor vehicle in Iowa. A “mobile home” is not built to a mandatory building code, contains no State or federal seals, and was built before June 15, 1976.
42. “Mobile home lot” means a parcel of land for placement of a single mobile home and the exclusive use of its occupants.
43. “Mobile home park” means any site, lot, field or tract of land upon which three or more mobile homes or manufactured homes, or a combination of any of these homes, are placed on developed spaces and operated as a for-profit enterprise with water, sewer or septic, and electrical services available. The term “mobile home park” is not to be construed to include mobile homes, buildings, tents or other structures temporarily maintained by any individual, educational institution or company on their own premises and used exclusively to house their own labor or students.
44. “Mobile home park development plan” means a custom-made design for a specific site or area consisting of drawing, maps, and engineering details setting forth the boundary, topography, and overall park design, including streets, parking facilities, mobile home lot locations, and services facilities.
45. “Modular home” means a factory-built structure which is manufactured to be used as a place of human habitation, is constructed to comply with the Iowa State Building Code for modular factory-built structures, and must display the seal issued by the State Building Code Commissioner. If a modular home is placed in a mobile home park, the home is subject to the annual tax as required by Section 435.22. If a modular home is placed outside a mobile home park, the home shall be considered real property and is to be assessed and taxed as real estate.
46. “Motel, motor court, motor lodge, or tourist court” means any building or group of buildings containing guest rooms or dwelling units, some or all of which have a separate entrance leading directly from the outside of the building with garage or parking space conveniently located on the lot, and designed, used, or intended wholly or in part for the accommodation of transients.
47. “Nonconforming use” means any building or land lawfully occupied by a use at the time of passage of these zoning regulations or amendment thereto, which does not conform with the use regulation of the district in which it is situated.
48. “Nursing home” means a home for the aged or infirm in which three 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.
49. “Office” means a place where chattel or goods, wares, and merchandise are not commonly created, sold, or exchanged.
50. “Parking lot” means a parcel of land devoted to unenclosed parking spaces.
51. “Parking space” means an area of not less than 200 square feet plus necessary maneuvering space for the parking of a motor vehicle. Space for maneuvering, incidental to parking or leaving the parking space, shall not encroach upon any public right-of-way.
52. “Planning and Zoning Commission” or “Commission” means that Commission appointed by the Council under the provisions of Chapter 414.6 of the Code of Iowa.
53. “Principal permitted uses” means those uses of property which may be approved by the Zoning Administrator if the other requirements of this chapter are met, as differentiated from a conditional use that can only be approved by the Board of Adjustment after it has set conditions which must be met by the applicant to ensure that the intent and purpose of this chapter be met.
54. “Regulatory flood” means a flood which is representative of large floods known to have occurred generally in the area and reasonably characteristic of what can be expected to occur in a particular stream. The regulatory flood generally has a frequency of approximately 100 years, determined from an analysis of floods on a particular stream and other streams in the same general region.
55. “Regulatory flood protection elevation” means the elevation to which uses regulated by this chapter are required to be elevated or flood-proofed.
56. “Right-of-way” means the land area where the right to possession of which is secured or reserved by the contracting authority for road purposes.
57. “Setback line” means a line parallel with the street line and at a distance equal to the depth of the front yard required by this chapter.
58. “Sign” means an identification, description, illustration, or device which is affixed to or represented directly or indirectly upon a building, structure, or land and which directs attention to a product, place, activity, person, institution, or business.
59. “Site plan” is a drawing containing the following: the lot lines with the footage measurement of each boundary, the existing buildings and their location with footage measurement, and the proposed addition and location with footage measurement. The proposed addition or new structure shall be in broken lines. While the plan does not need to be to scale, it should be of sufficient detail that the Zoning Administrator can determine that the proposed addition or building and its location conforms to these regulations.
60. “Special use” means conditional use for purposes of this chapter.
61. “Story” means that portion of a building, other than a basement/cellar, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it or, if there is no floor above it, the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it or each 12 feet of height of the building.
62. “Story, half” means a space under a sloping roof which has the line of intersection of roof decking and wall face not more than four (4) feet above the top floor level.
63. “Street” means a public way which affords the principal means of access to abutting property.
64. “Structural alteration” means any change, except those required by law or ordinance, that would prolong the life of the supporting members of a building or structure, such as bearing walls, columns, beams, or girders.
65. “Structure” means anything constructed or erected, the use of which required permanent location on the ground or attached to something having a permanent location on the ground. Structures include (but are not limited to) buildings, sheds, advertising signs, billboards, storage tanks, fences, decks, pergolas and similar structures, walls used as fences, backstops for tennis courts, and towers.
66. “Trailer” means mobile home.
67. “Utility permit” means a permit issued by the City authorizing the applicant to connect to the City water and/or sewer system.
68. “Variance” means an exception to the distance and height requirements of this chapter, granted by the Board of Adjustment, in appropriate cases and subject to appropriate conditions and safeguards.
69. “Yard” means an open space on the same lot with a building unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of the structure from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
70. “Yard, front” means a yard across the full width of the lot extending from the front line of the main building to the front line of the lot.
71. “Yard, rear” means a yard extending the full width of the lot between the main building and the rear lot line.
72. “Yard, side” means a yard between the main building and the side line of the lot and extending from the front yard line to the rear yard line.
73. “Zoning Administrator” means the administrative officer appointed by the Council to administer and enforce the regulations contained in this chapter.
74. “Ground mounted photovoltaic system” Photovoltaic system that is freestanding directly installed to the ground and is not supported by any building, accessory, or dwelling. For purposes of this chapter, solar powered lights used to illuminate exterior areas should not be included in this definition.
75. “Roof mounted photovoltaic system” A photovoltaic system mounted directly to the roof.
(Subsections 74 and 75 – Ord. 461 – Apr. 24 Supp.)
PERMITS, ENFORCEMENT, AND ADMINISTRATION