(a) Words used in the present tense include the future; the singular number includes the plural and the plural the singular. The word “lot” includes the word “plot;” the word “building” includes the word “structure;” the word “occupied” includes the words “designated or intended to be occupied;” the word “used” includes the words “arranged, designed or intended to be used;” and the word “shall” is mandatory and not directory.
(b) In addition, as used in this Zoning Code:
“Accessory building” means a building subordinate to the main or principal building on the lot and used for purposes customarily incidental to those of the main or principal building.
“Accessory use” means a subordinate use of a portion of the lot or premises which is incidental to the main use of the lot or premises.
“Alley” means a public or private way, not more than 30 feet wide, affording only a secondary means of access to abutting property.
“Apartment” means a room or suite or rooms in a multi-family or multi-use building arranged and intended as a place of residence for a single family or for a group of individuals living together as a single housekeeping unit.
“Basement” means a story having part but not more than one-half of its height below grade. A basement is counted as a story for the purpose of height regulations if it is subdivided and used for business or dwelling purposes by other than a janitor employed on the premises.
“Board” means the Board of Appeals.
“Boarding house” means an abode, not a public inn, in which sleeping rooms for more than four persons for lodging, with meals, are provided for compensation.
“Building” means any structure for the shelter, support or enclosure of persons, animals, chattels or property of any kind.
“Building line” means a line parallel to the street right-of-way line at any story level of a building and representing the minimum distance which all or any part of the building is set back from the right-of-way line.
“Building height” means the vertical distance from the average grade at a building line to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof or to the deck line of a mansard roof, or to the average height of the highest gable of a pitch or hip roof.
(Ord. 77-25, passed 4-28-1977)
“Building officer” means the city official responsible for the administration and enforcement of this Zoning Code.
(Adopting Ordinance)
“Cemetery” means land used or intended to be used for the burial of human dead and dedicated as a cemetery for such purposes.
“Church” or “synagogue” includes any church, synagogue, rectory, parish house or similar building incidental to the particular use which is maintained and operated by an organized group of people for religious purposes.
“Clinic” means a place used for the care, diagnosis and treatment of sick, ailing, infirm and injured persons and persons who are in need of medical or surgical attention, but who are not provided with board or room or kept overnight on the premises.
“Club” means 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, nursing or rest home” means any building or group of buildings providing personal assistance or nursing care for persons dependent upon the services by reason of age or physical or mental impairment, but not for the treatment of contagious diseases, addiction or mental illness.
“Court” means an open, unoccupied and unobstructed space, other than a yard, on the same lot with a building or group of buildings.
“District” means any section of the city for which the regulations governing the use of buildings and premises and the height and area of buildings are uniform.
“District line” means the boundary line between two zoning districts.
“Drive-in restaurant” means any eating or drinking establishment designed for food or drinks to be consumed by persons in vehicles parked on the premises.
“Dwelling, industrialized unit” means an assembly of materials or products comprising all or part of a total structure, which, when constructed, is self-sufficient or substantially self-sufficient and which, when installed constitutes a dwelling unit, except for necessary preparations for its placement.
“Dwelling, mobile home” means a detached dwelling unit designed to be repeatedly transported on highways and when arriving at the site for placement involving only minor and incidental unpacking, assembling and connection operations, but involving no substantial reconstruction which would render the unit unfit as a conveyance on the highway. The unit shall be considered as real property if reconstruction is undertaken.
“Dwelling, multi-family” means a building consisting of three or more dwelling units, including condominiums, with varying arrangements of entrances and party walls. Multi-family housing may include public housing and industrialized units.
“Dwelling, single-family” means a building consisting of a single dwelling unit only, separated from other dwelling units by open space.
“Dwelling, two-family” means a building consisting of two dwelling units which may be either attached side by side or one above the other, and each unit having a separate or combined entrance.
“Dwelling unit” means space, within a building, comprising living, dining or sleeping rooms and storage closets, as well as space and equipment for cooking, bathing and toilet facilities, all used by only one family and its household employees.
“Family” means one or more persons occupying a single dwelling unit. Unless all members are related by blood, adoption or marriage, no such family shall contain over three persons.
“Garage, private” means any accessory building designed or used for the storage of motor-driven vehicles which are owned by the occupants of the building to which it is accessory.
“Garage, public” means a building or portion thereof, other than a private garage, designed or used for servicing, repairing, equipping, hiring, selling or storing motor-driven vehicles.
“Home occupation” means any occupation which is customarily incidental to the principal use of the premises and is conducted by a resident occupant.
“Hospital” means an institution providing health services primarily for in-patient medical or surgical care of the sick or injured and including related facilities, such as laboratories, out-patient departments, training facilities, central services facilities and staff offices which are an integral part of the facility.
“Hotel” means a public inn in which there are sleeping rooms for more than six persons, without provision for cooking in any individual room or suite.
“Inn” means a place or shelter with sleeping rooms for more than six persons, open to the public for compensation, but without provision for cooking in any individual room or suite.
“Junk yard” means a place where waste, discarded or salvaged materials are bought, sold, exchanged, baled, packed, disassembled or handled. “Junk yard” includes auto wrecking yards, house wrecking yards and used material yards, but does not include pawn shops, antique shops and places for the sale, purchase or storage of used furniture and household equipment, used cars in operable condition or salvaged materials incidental to manufacturing operations.
“Lodging house” means an abode, not a public inn, in which sleeping rooms for more than three persons are provided for compensation.
“Lot” means a distinct parcel of land on which a principal building and its accessories are placed, together with the required open spaces, and of which the location, dimensions and boundaries are determined by the latest official record or survey.
“Lot depth” means the mean average distance from the front line to the rear line of a lot or, in the case of corner lots, the average length of the longer sides.
“Lot width” means the mean distance between the side lines.
“Motel” means a series of attached or detached sleeping or living units for the lodging of transient guests, offered to the public for compensation, and with convenient access to off-street parking spaces for the exclusive use of guests or occupants.
“Nonconforming use” means a building, structure or premises legally existing and/or used at the time of adoption of this Zoning Code (Ordinance 77-25, passed April 28, 1977), or any amendment thereto, and which does not conform with the use provisions of this Zoning Code for the district in which the premises are located.
“Sign” means a name, identification, description, display or illustration which is affixed to or painted or represented directly or indirectly upon a building, structure or piece of land, and which directs attention to an object, product, place, activity, person, institution, organization, idea or business. However, a sign shall not include any display of official court or public office notices; the flag, separate emblem or insignia of a nation, political unit, school or religious group; or an incombustible tablet or lettering built into the wall of a building or structure. A sign inside a building is not included unless its face is visible only from the exterior of a building. Each display surface of a sign shall be considered to be a sign.
“Sign, advertising” (billboard, signboard) means a sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service or entertainment conducted, sold or offered elsewhere than upon the premises where such sign is located or to which it is affixed.
“Sign, business” means a sign which directs attention to a business or profession conducted or to a commodity, service or entertainment sold or offered upon the premises where such sign is located or to which it is affixed.
“Sign, flashing” means any illuminated sign, including any sign illuminated by reflected or refracted light, on which the artificial light is not maintained stationary and/or constant in intensity and color at all times when such sign is in use. For the purpose of this Zoning Code, any revolving illuminated sign shall be considered a flashing sign.
“Sign, surface area of” means the entire area within a single continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of such sign and in no case passing through or between any adjacent elements of the same. Such perimeter shall not include any structural elements lying outside of the display. The area of a sign having more than one display surface shall be computed as one-half of the total of the exposed exterior surface.
“Setback line” means the building line parallel to the front lot line and located at the foremost portion of the building.
“Story” means that portion of a building, other than a basement, 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.
“Street” means a public street, over 20 feet wide, which is a passageway and which is dedicated, platted and recorded as a street and commonly used for travel.
“Street or alley line” means the dividing line between the right-of-way of a street or alley and a lot.
“Structural alterations” means any change in the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls or partitions, columns, beams or girders, or any substantial change in the roof or in the exterior walls.
“Structure” means anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a permanent location on the ground or an attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground.
“Trailer (including automobile trailer and mobile homes)” means any vehicle or structure constructed in such a manner as to permit occupancy thereof as sleeping quarters, for the conduct of a business, trade or occupation, for use as a selling or advertising device, or for use for storage or as a conveyance for tools, equipment or machinery, and so designed that it is or may be mounted on wheels and used as a conveyance on highways and streets, propelled or drawn by its own or other motor power.
“Trailer park” or “mobile home park” means any lot or part thereof or any parcel of land which is used or offered as a location for two or more trailers used for any purpose set forth in the definition of trailer as it appears above.
“Vacant” means lacking in use or occupation, in whole or in part, by any nonconforming use for a period of one year.
“Yard” means a required open space unoccupied and unobstructed by any structure or portion of a structure from 30 inches above the general ground level of the graded lot upward. However, roof overhangs, including gutters, may extend into any yard up to 24 inches, but in no case shall such overhangs be closer than two feet to any property line. Fences and walls may be permitted in any yard subject to the height limitations indicated in this Zoning Code.
“Yard, front” means a space, from the ground up, unoccupied except by steps and extending the full width of the lot between the extreme line of a building and the street line.
“Yard, rear” means a space, from the ground up, unoccupied except by steps or an uncovered porch and extending the full width of the lot between the extreme rear line of a building and the rear lot line.
“Yard, side” means a space, from the ground up, unoccupied except by steps and extending the full length of a building between the building and the side lot line.
(Ord. 77-25, passed 4-28-1977; Am. Ord. 21-43, passed 10-28-2021)