For the purposes of this Zoning Code, certain terms are herein defined. When not inconsistent with the text, words used in the present tense include the future, words used in the singular number include the plural, and words in the plural number may include the singular; the word "person" may be taken for persons, associations, co-partnership or corporations; the word "structure" includes buildings; the word "occupied" includes designed or intended to be used; the word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directive; and the word "used" includes designed or intended to be used. Other words and terms shall have the following respective meanings:
(1) "Accessory use" means a use naturally and normally incidental and subordinate to the main use of the premises.
(2) "Accessory building or structure" means a subordinate structure on the same lot with a main building, or a portion of the main building, occupied or devoted exclusively to an accessory use.
(3) "Adult day care" means a private dwelling in which persons eighteen years or older are provided supervision, personal care and protection for periods of less than twenty-four hours a day, operated by a person who permanently resides as a member of the dwelling.
(4) "Adult foster care family home" means a private residence with the state-approved capacity to receive six or fewer adults to be provided with foster care for five or more days a week and for two or more consecutive weeks. The adult foster care family home licensee shall be a member of the household, and an occupant of the residence.
(5) "Adult foster care group home" means a private residence with the state-approved capacity to receive more than six adults to be provided with foster care for five or more days a week and for two or more consecutive weeks. The adult foster care family home licensee shall be a member of the household, and an occupant of the residence.
(6) "Alley" means a public way not more than twenty feet wide which affords only a secondary means of access to abutting property.
(7) "Automobile repair - minor" means minor repairs, incidental body and fender work, painting and upholstering, replacement of parts and motor service to passenger automobiles and trucks.
(8) "Basement" means a story in a building having more than three of its four walls or more than seventy-five percent of its circumference below the average grade of the adjoining ground. A basement shall not be counted as a story for height measurement.
(9) "Bed and breakfast establishment" means a private residence that offers overnight accommodations to lodgers in the innkeeper's (owner or operator) principal residence and serves breakfast at no extra cost to its lodgers. For the purpose of this definition, a lodger means a person who rents a room in a bed and breakfast establishment for fewer than thirty consecutive days.
(10) "Billboard" or "sign board" means any structure or a portion thereof situated on private premises on which lettered, figured or pictorial matter is displayed for advertising purposes. This definition shall not be held to include a real estate sign advertising the sale or rental of the property upon which it stands.
(11) "Boarding house" or "lodging house" means a building or part thereof, other than a hotel or restaurant, where meals and/or lodging are provided for compensation for two or more persons who are not transients.
(12) "Breezeway" means a covered structure connecting an accessory building with the principal use. For purposes of determining yard and area requirements such connected building shall be considered as one integral unit.
(13) "Building" means any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls designed or intended for the support, enclosure, shelter or protection of persons, animals or property. When such a structure is divided into separate parts by one or more unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part is deemed a separate building, except as regards minimum requirements for side yards as hereinafter provided.
(14) "Building height" means the vertical distance measured from the lowest point of elevation of the surface of the ground anywhere around the perimeter of a building, to the highest point of the roof surface of flat roofs, to the deck of mansard roofs, and to a point which is half-way between the eaves and the ridge of gable, hip, or gambrel roofs.
(15) "Child care center" means a facility in which one or more children are given care and supervision for periods of less than twenty-four hours a day on a regular basis. Child care centers do not include family or group day care homes, or schools. Child care and supervision provided as an accessory use, while parents are engaged or involved in the principal use of the property, such as a nursery operated during church services or public meetings, or by a fitness center or similar operation, shall be considered accessory to such principal use and shall not be considered to be a child care center.
(16) "Church, mosque, or synagogue" means a building, the primary use of which is regular assembly of persons for religious worship or services, together with accessory uses and which qualifies for tax exemption under Section 501 (C) (3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
(17) "Deck" means an uncovered platform which extends above grade.
(18) "District" means a section of the City, in all parts of which the regulations of this Zoning Code governing the height, area and use of buildings and premises are the same.
(19) "Dwelling, multiple-family" means a building designed for occupancy by three or more families living independently of each other.
(20) "Dwelling, single-family detached" means a detached building designed exclusively for and occupied exclusively by one family.
(21) "Dwelling, two-family" means a building used for occupancy by two families living independently of each other.
(22) "Dwelling unit" means a building, or portion of a building, designed for use and occupancy by one family for living and sleeping purposes, with housekeeping facilities.
(23) "Essential public service structures or buildings" means buildings or structures owned and operated by public utilities or municipal departments and used for gas, electrical, steam, fuel, water or sewage treatment or disposal, electrical substations, sewage lift stations which are not located entirely underground, and similar structures or buildings necessary to furnish adequate service within the City, but not including essential public service equipment.
(24) "Essential public service equipment" means wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, valves, pumps, conduits, cables, fire alarm and police call boxes, traffic signals, fire hydrants, post office boxes, street lights, or similar equipment located either entirely underground, or on poles, but not including essential public service structures or buildings.
(25) "Family" means an individual or group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption, together with foster children and servants of the principal occupants who are domiciled together as a single, domestic, housekeeping unit in a dwelling unit; or a collective number of individuals domiciled together in one dwelling unit whose relationship is of a continuing, nontransient domestic character and who are cooking and living as a single nonprofit housekeeping unit. This definition shall not include any society, club, fraternity, sorority, association, half-way house, lodge, coterie, organization, group of students, or other individuals whose domestic relationship is of a transitory or seasonal nature, is for an anticipated limited duration of a school term or during a period of rehabilitation or treatment, or is otherwise not intended to be of a permanent nature.
(26) "Family day care homes" means a private residence in which less than seven minor children are given care and supervision for periods of less than twenty-four hours per day, operated by a person who permanently resides as a member of the household, which is registered with the Michigan Department of Family Independence Agency.
(27) "Existing building" means a building existing or a building for which a legal permit has been issued and the foundations of which are in place or upon which there has been substantial work done prior to the adoption of this Zoning Code.
(28) "Farm animals and fowls" means those animals and fowls usually kept on a farm for the production of income, such as horses, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep, ducks and geese.
(29) "Group day care home" means a private residence in which more than six but less than twelve minor children are given care and supervision for periods of less than twenty- four hours per day, operated by a person who permanently resides as a member of the household, which is regulated by the Michigan Department of Family Independence Agency.
(30) "Home occupation" means a gainful occupation conducted by members of the family and not more than one additional employee within the place of residence.
(31) "Homes for the elderly, retired, or those requiring assisted care" means a facility for persons fifty-five years or older or for those requiring extended care, including convalescent or nursing homes, but not including a hospital, which either: provides or offers a level of care to its residents which is required to be licensed by the State of Michigan; or contains individual resident rooms or dwelling units with or without separate cooking facilities.
(32) "Hotel" or "motel" means a building in which lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensation and which is open to transient guests (as distinguished from a boarding house or lodging house, apartment hotel or fraternity or sorority house).
(33) "Kennel" means any premises on which three or more dogs or cats four months old or older are kept.
(34) "Living space" is that area of a dwelling, measured from the inside walls, that is heated for living purposes. Living space does not include closets and stairwells and such things as garages, breezeways, or screened-in porches.
(35) “Lodging house.” See “boarding house.”
(36) “Lot” means land occupied or to be occupied by one building and accessory buildings, or utilized for a principal use and uses accessory thereto, together with such open spaces as are required under this Zoning Code and having not less than twenty-five feet of immediate frontage either upon a public highway or a perpetual recorded private road or easement.
(37) “Lot, corner” means a lot of which at least two adjacent sides abut for full lengths upon a street, provided that the interior angle at the intersection of such two sides is less than 135 degrees.
(38) “Lot, interior” means a lot other than corner lot.
(39) “Lot area” means the computed area inside of lot lines.
(40) “Lot depth” means the mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot line.
(41) “Lot lines” means the lines bounding a lot as defined herein:
A. “Front lot line.” In the case of an interior lot, the line separating the lot from the adjacent public or private street or access easement. Through and corner lots shall be considered to have two front lot lines, consisting of the lines separating said lot from each of the streets abutting the lot. In the case of a waterfront lot, the front lot line is the lot line on the waterfront.
B. “Rear lot line.” That lot line opposite and most distant from the front lot line. In the case of a triangular lot, the rear lot line shall be an imaginary line parallel to the front lot line, not less than ten feet long, lying farthest from the front lot line or wholly within the lot. A through lot has no rear lot line.
C. “Side lot line.” The lot lines connecting the front and rear lot lines of an interior lot line or connecting the front lot lines of a through lot and the lot lines which are not adjacent to road right-of-way of a corner lot.
(42) “Lot width” means horizontal straight line distance of the front lot line.
(43) “Microbrewery” means a brewery licensed by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission permitted to manufacture no more than 30,000 barrels per year. The brewery shall only sell beer produced at the facility to licensed wholesalers, restaurant patrons by the glass for on-site consumption, and to consumers for off-premise consumption (take-out), subject to the licensing by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission.
(44) “Mobile home” means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without permanent foundation, when connected to the required utilities, and includes any of the plumbing, heating, air-conditioning and electrical systems contained in the structure.
(45) “Mobile home park” means a parcel or tract of land under the control of a person upon which three or more mobile homes are located on a continual, non-recreational basis and which is offered to the public for that purpose regardless of whether a charge is made therefor, together with any building, structure, enclosure, street, equipment, or facility used or intended for use incident to the occupancy of a mobile home.
(46) “Nonconforming use” means a use which lawfully occupied a structure or land at the time of adoption of this Zoning Code (Ordinance 144, passed October 12, 1982), or any amendment thereto, and which does not conform with the use regulations of the district in which it is located.
(47) “Nonconforming building or structure” means a building structure lawfully existing at the time of adoption of this Zoning Code (Ordinance 144, passed October 12, 1982), or any amendment thereto, which is occupied by a nonconforming use.
(48) “Ordinary high water mark” means the line between upland and bottom land which persists through successive changes in water levels, below which the presence and action of water is so common or recurrent that the character of land is marked distinctly from the upland and is apparent in the soil itself, the configuration of the surface of the soil and the vegetation. Where the water levels vary for purposes of water level management, the ordinary high water mark shall be the higher of the levels generally present.
(49) “Parking area commercial” means an area, other than a street or other public way, used for the parking of automobiles and available for public use whether for a fee, free or an accommodation for clients or customers.
(50) "Permanent cosmetic services" means a personal service establishment that applies permanent cosmetic coloration to the skin using muted pigmentations to disguise scars or tattoos; provide pigmentation in areas of the body affected by surgery or medical procedures; or apply permanent cosmetics, generally to individuals with impairments or medical conditions, but not limited to these individuals. Services may include permanent eye lining, lip lining, re-pigmentation, or similar procedures but do not include traditional tattooing services associated with tattoo parlors, as defined in this part.
(51) “Principal building” means the building in which the principal use is located.
(52) “Principal use” means the primary use to which the premises is devoted.
(53) “Private parking area” means an open area, other than a street, for the same use as a private garage.
(54) “Private road” means a roadway contained within a private road easement which is privately owned and maintained and which provides the principal means of access to more than four lots, dwelling units, or principal buildings.
(55) “Private road easement” means an easement which is granted exclusively for private access to more than four dwelling units or principal buildings.
(56) “Public and institutional use” means a non-profit or quasi-public use or institution such as a library, public or private school, civic center, parks, playground or any governmental owned or operated use building or structure or any land used for public purpose.
(57) “Residential district” means the A, A-l, A-2 and A-3 Districts.
(58) “Setback” means the minimum horizontal distance between the front line of the building, including steps and unenclosed porches, and the property line, exclusive of a public road right-of-way.
(59) “Story” means that portion of a building, other than a cellar or mezzanine, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it.
(60) “Street” means a public or private way, square or lane, permanently open to common and general use, which affords the principal means of access to abutting property, more than twenty feet in width. Street width shall be the perpendicular measurement between right-of-way lines.
(61) “Structure” means anything constructed or erected which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having such location.
(62) “Structural alteration” means any change in the supporting members of a building or structure, such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
(63) “Yard, front” means an open space extending the full width of the lot between a building and the front lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as hereinafter specified.
(64) “Yard, rear” means a space unoccupied except by a building or accessory use as hereinafter permitted, extending for the full width of the lot between the rear line of the main building and the rear lot line.
(65) “Yard, side” means an open, unoccupied space, situated between the drip line of the building on such lot and the adjacent side line of the lot.
(66) “Wood furnace or outdoor wood stove” means a wood or coal burning, mechanical device which is accessory to and situated outside a structure which is used for heating. Also known as outdoor furnaces, water stoves, or boilers.
(Ord. 182. Passed 5-12-98; Ord. 2005-4. Passed 6-28-05; Ord. 2005-6. Passed 6-28- 05; Ord. 2007-04. Passed 11-13-07; Ord. 2014-01. Passed 1-7-14; Ord. 2014-03. Passed 12-9-14; Ord. 22-02. Passed 2-8-22.)