(a) Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions shall be used in the interpretation and construction of the Zoning Ordinance. Words used in the present tense include the future; the singular includes the plural, and plural the singular; the word "building" includes the word "structure"; the word "used" includes "arranged, designed, constructed, altered, converted, rented, leased, or intended to be used"; the word "shall" is mandatory; and the word "about" includes the words "directly across from. "
(1) "Accessory use or structure" means a use or structure subordinate to the principal use of a building on the same lot and serving a purpose customarily incidental to the use of the principal building.
(2) "Building" means a structure having a roof supported by columns or walls, used or intended to be used for the shelter or enclosure 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 side yard requirements.
(3) "Building height" means the vertical distance measured from the curb level to a point midway between the highest and lowest point of the roof, but not including chimneys, spires, towers, elevators, penthouses, tanks and similar projections.
(4) "Building, principal" means a structure in which is conducted the principal use of the site on which it is situated. In any residential district any dwelling shall be deemed to be a principal building on the zone lot on which it is located.
(5) "Dwelling" means any building or portion thereof designed or used exclusively as the residence or sleeping place of one or more persons, except a mobile home, and as otherwise provided herein.
A. "Dwelling, single-family" means a detached building, designated for or occupied exclusively by one family and containing not more than one dwelling unit.
B. "Dwelling, multi-family" means a building where two or more 1drtv1dinI family or dwelling units are entirely separated by vertical walls or horizontal floors, unpierced except for access to the outside or to a common cellar.
(6) "Dwelling structure" means any structure which contains one or more rooms providing cooking, sleeping, and sanitary facilities, not including a hotel, hospital, nursing home, dormitory, fraternity or sorority house, rooming house, boarding house or similar structure.
(7) "Dwelling unit" means one or more rooms, including cooking facilities, and sanitary facilities in a dwelling structure, designed as a unit for occupancy by not more than one family for living and sleeping purposes.
(8) "Essential services" means 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, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, structures, hydrants, and other similar equipment and accessories in connection therewith, reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utilities or municipal or other governmental agencies or for the public health or safety or general welfare, but not including buildings.
(9) "Family" means two or more persons related by blood or marriage living together as a single housekeeping unit in a dwelling.
(10) "Garage, private" means a detached or attached accessory building used only for the storage of private passenger vehicles owned or rented.
(11) "Gasoline station" means a building or place of business where gasoline, oil and grease, batteries, tires and automobile accessories are supplied and dispensed directly to the motor vehicle trade, at retail, and where minor repair service is rendered.
(12) "Hotel" means a building designed for occupancy as the temporary residence of individuals who are lodged with or without meals and in which no provision is made for cooking in any individual room or suite.
(13) "Joint occupancy" means any structure in which the ground floor is occupied by a business or commercial activity and residential dwelling units occur on the upper floors.
(14) "Junk" means old or scrap copper, brass, rope, rags, batteries. paper rubber, junked, dismantled or wrecked automobiles or parts thereof, iron, steel, and other old or scrap ferrous or nonferrous materials which are not held for sale for remelting purposes by an establishment having facilities for processing such materials.
(15) "Junk yard" means an establishment or place of business, other than an establishment having facilities for processing iron, steel, or nonferrous scrap and whose principal product is scrap iron and steel or nonferrous scrap for sale for remelting purposes, which is maintained or operated for the purpose of storing, keeping, buying or selling junk, or for the maintenance or operation of an automobile graveyard, except an establishment or place where automobiles wrecked or otherwise are held or impounded for a period not to exceed ninety days exclusively for storage, repair or resale without alteration.
(16) "Limited-access highway" means a highway designed in such a manner so as to provide no direct access to properties abutting its right of way and including all highways designated as limited-access highways.
(17) "Lot" means a piece or parcel of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building or group of such buildings and accessory buildings, or utilized for a principal use and uses accessory or incidental to the operation thereof, together with such open spaces as required by the Zoning Ordinance, and having frontage on a public street.
A. "Lot, corner" means a lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection or upon two parts of the same street, such streets or parts of the same street forming an interior angle of less than 135 degrees. The point of intersection of the street lot lines is the corner.
B. "Lot depth" means the mean distance between the front and rear lot lines.
C. "Lot lines" means the property lines bounding the lot.
1. "Lot line, front" means the line separating the lot from a street.
2. "Lot line, rear" means the lot line opposite and most distant from the front lot line.
3. "Lot line, side" means any lot line other than a front or rear lot line. A side lot line separating a lot from a street is called a side street lot line.
4. "Lot line, street or alley" means a lot line separating the lot from a street or alley.
E. "Lot width" means the distance between the two side lot lines measured at the required setback line.
F. "Lot area" means the computed area contained within the lot lines.
(18) "Mobile home" means any self-propelled and nonself-propelled vehicle so designed, constructed, reconstructed, or added to by means of accessories in such a manner as will permit the use and occupancy thereof for human habitation whether resting on four wheels, jacks, or other foundation and used or so constructed as to permit its being used as a conveyance upon the public streets or highways.
(19) "Mobile home park" means any site, lot, field or tract of land upon which three or more house trailers used for habitation are parked either free of charge or for revenue purposes and including any roadway, building, structure, vehicle or roadway, building, structure, vehicle or enclosure used or intended for use as part of the facilities of such house trailer park.
(20) "Motels", "motor courts" and "motor hotels" means a series of attached or semi-detached dwelling structures, where each unit has convenient access to parking space for the use of the unit's occupants. The units, with the exception of the manager's or caretaker's, are designed to provide sleeping accommodations for automobile transients or overnight guests.
(21) "Nonconforming lot" means any zone lot in single ownership, where the owner of such lot does not own any adjoining property, the subdivision of which could create one or more conforming lots, which does not conform with the minimum area and/or dimensions required in the ctrts1di where such lot is situated or for any special use, as the case may be.
(22) "Nonconforming structure" means a structure or sign which does not conform to the regulations of the Zoning Ordinance for the district in which it is located.
(23) "Nonconforming use" means a building, structure or premises legally existing and/or used at the time of adoption of the Zoning Ordinance or any amendment thereto, and which does not conform with the use regulations of the district in which located.
(24) "Planned development groups" mean a structure or a group of structures designed to be maintained and operated as a unit in single ownership or control by an individual, partnership, corporation or cooperative group and which has certain facilities in common, such as yards and open spaces, recreation areas, garages and parking areas.
(Ord.1792. Passed 10-4-66.)
(25) "Professional office" means the office of a member of a recognized profession. When conducted in a residential district, a professional office shall be incidental to the residential use and shall be conducted by a member of the family occupying the residential building. Such uses shall include the offices of doctors or physicians, dentists, optometrists, ministers, architects, landscape architects, professional engineers, lawyers, beauticians, and such other similar professional occupations which may be so designated by the Board of Zoning Appeals. The issuance of a State or local license for regulation of any gainful occupation need not be deemed indicative of professional standing.
(Ord. 1876. Passed 5-7-68.)
(26) "Rooming house" means a dwelling unit containing rooms for the rooming and/or boarding of at least four persons. Such houses may also be known as boarding and lodging houses.
(27) "Sign" means a name, identification, description, display, illustration or any other visual display which is affixed to, 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 or business. However, sign does not include any dis play of official court or public office notices, any official traffic control device, nor shall it include the flag, emblem or insignia of a nation, state, county, municipality, school or religious group. Sign does not include a sign located completely within an enclosed building except for illuminated or animated signs within show windows. Each display surface of a sign shall be considered to be a sign.
(28) "Sign; advertising billboard" means a sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service or entertainment conducted, sold or offered elsewhere than on the premises where the sign is located.
(29) "Special use" means a use which, because of its unique characteristics, requires individual consideration in each case by the Board of Zoning Appeals and requires the issuance of a conditional zoning certificate by the Board.
(30) "Story" means that portion of a building 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 above it. (Ord. 1792. Passed 10-4-66.)
(31) "Street" means a public or private thoroughfare with a right of way with not less than thirty feet in existence prior to the passage of the Zoning Ordinance, not less than forty feet in width with thirty feet of such width being paved if established subsequent to the passage of the Zoning Ordinance, in existing built-up areas which affords the principal means of access to abutting property; including avenue, place, way, drive, lane, boulevard, highway, road and any other thoroughfare except an alley. New subdivisions accepted by the Municipality shall provide for a right of way not less than fifty feet in width.
(Ord. 1905. Passed 10-15-68.)
(32) "Structure" means anything constructed, the use of which requires permanent location on the ground, or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground, including stationary and portable carports.
(33) "Structural alteration" means any change in the supporting members of a building, such as walls, columns, beams or girders.
(34) "Yard" means an open space, which lies between the principal building or group of buildings and the nearest lot line and is unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except as herein permitted.
A. "Yard, front" means an open space extending the full width of the lot between a principal building and the front lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from bet ground upward except as may be specified elsewhere in the Zoning Ordinance.
B. "Yard, rear" means an open space extending the full width of the lot between a principal1:uilding and the rear lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except as may be specified elsewhere in the Zoning Ordinance.
C. "Yard, side" means an open space extending from the front yard to the rear yard between a principal building and the nearest side lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except as may be specified elsewhere in the Zoning Ordinance.
(35) "Variance" means a departure from the terms of the Zoning Ordinance authorized by the Board of Zoning Appeals, in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Zoning Ordinance.
(Ord. 1792. Passed 10-4-66.)