The following words and phrases, when used in this ordinance, shall for the purpose of this ordinance, have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this article, except where the context requires otherwise.
(1) “Abandonment” means the relinquishment of property, or a cessation of the use of the property, by the owner or lessee for a continuous period of at least six months, without any intention of transferring rights to the property to another owner or of resuming the use of the property
(2) “Accessory structure” means a minor structure that is detached from but located on the same lot as the principal building, the use of which is incidental to the principal structure or houses an accessory use and may not be used for residential purposes unless such structure was originally designed for residential use, as in conjunction with an institution.
(3) “Accessory use” means a use conducted on the same lot as the principal use which is clearly incidental to and customarily found in connection with a principal building or use, and which is subordinate in extent or purpose to the principal building or use.
(4) “Addition” means a structure added to the original structure at some time after the completion of the original; an extension or increase in floor area or height of a building or structure.
(5) “Adult entertainment use” means an establishment consisting of, including, or having the characteristics of an adult bookstore and/or theater in which a substantial or significant portion of its stock-in-trade books, magazines, publications, tapes, films available and movies presented are characterized by their emphasis on matter depicting, describing or relating to sexual activities or anatomical genital areas.
(6) “Apartment” See “Dwelling, multiple”.
(7) “Animal hospital” means a place where animals or pets are given medical or surgical treatment and the boarding of animals is limited to short-term care incidental to the hospital use.
(8) “Animal kennel” means any structure or premises in which animals are boarded, groomed, bred or trained for commercial gain.
(9) “Antenna” means a device used to transmit and/or receive radio or electromagnetic waves between terrestrially and/or orbitally based structures. For the purposes of this ordinance, freestanding antennas are considered accessory structures.
(10) “Automatic car wash” means a structure containing facilities for washing automobiles and automatic or semiautomatic application of cleaner, brushes, rinse water and heat for drying.
(11) “Automobile sales” means the use of any building, land area or other premises for the display and sale of new or used automobiles generally but may include light trucks or vans, trailers, or recreation vehicles and including any vehicle preparation or repair work conducted as an accessory use.
(12) “Automobile service station” means any building, land area or other premises, or portion thereof, used for the retail dispensing or sales of vehicular fuels; servicing and repair of automobiles; and including as an accessory use the sale and installation of lubricants, tires, batteries and similar vehicle accessories.
(13) “Automobile repair services and garages” means establishments primarily engaged in furnishing automobile repair, rental, leasing and parking services to the general public.
(14) “Bar” means premises used primarily for the sale or dispensing of liquor by the drink for on-site consumption and where food is available for consumption as accessory to the principal use.
(15) “Bed and breakfast” means any owner-occupied residential dwelling in which rooms are rented to paying guests on an overnight basis with not more than one meal served daily. Bed and breakfast establishments are considered home occupations when offering no more than two bedrooms per night for public accommodation. Also, known as “tourist home”.
(16) “Boarding or rooming house” means a dwelling or part thereof in which, for compensation, lodging or meals, or both, are furnished by the owner or operator to three or more guests (boarders). A “boarding or rooming house” shall not be deemed a home occupation.
(17) “Building” means a structure with a roof support by columns or walls and intended for the shelter, housing or enclosure of any individual, animal, process, equipment, goods, or materials of any kind.
(18) “Building, principal” means the primary building on a lot, or a building that houses a principal use. See Figure 1.
(19) “Building area” means the ground area utilized by the buildings on a lot, excluding cornices, eaves, gutters or chimneys projecting not more than 18 inches from the walls of the buildings; steps, one-story open porches, bay windows and balconies not extending five feet from the walls of the buildings; terraces and decks with a height not more than three feet off the finished grade.
(20) “Building, accessory” means a minor structure that is detached from but located on the same lot as the principal building, the use of which is incidental to the principal structure or houses an accessory use.
(21) “Building and Housing Code” means Part Seventeen of the codified ordinances of the city as from time to time adopted, readopted and amended.
(22) “Building coverage” means the ratio of the horizontal area measured from the exterior surface of the exterior walls of the ground floor of all principal and accessory buildings on a lot to the total lot area.
(23) “Building height” means the vertical distance from finished grade to the top of the highest roof beams on a flat or shed roof, the deck level on a mansard roof, and the average distance between the eaves and the ridge level for a gable, hip and gambrel roofs.
(24) “Building line” means the line which establishes the minimum depth of the front yard for the particular district as measured from the right-of-way line.
(25) “Bulk regulations” means standards and controls that establish the maximum size of buildings and structures on a lot and the buildable area within which the building can be located, including coverage, setbacks, height, floor area ratio and yard requirements.
(26) “Business services” means establishments primarily engaged in rendering services to business establishments on a fee or contract basis, such as advertising and mailing; building maintenance, employment services; management and consulting services; protective services; equipment rental and leasing; commercial research; development and testing; photo finishing; and personal supply services.
(27) “Cemetery” means property used for the interring of the dead.
(28) “Certificate of appropriateness” means a certificate issued by the city’s Historic Landmark Commission indicating its approval of plans for alterations to the exterior architectural features of a landmark, building, structure or site; additions to a landmark, building, structure or site; removal or demolition of a landmark building, structure or site; or new construction within a designated historic zone.
(29) “Certificate of compliance” means a certificate issued by the authority designated by Philippi City Council that the plans for a proposed use meet all applicable codes and regulations.
(30) “Child care home” means a private residence where care, protection and supervision are provided, for a fee, at least twice a week to no more than six children at one time, including children of the adult provider.
(31) “Child care center” means a building or home where care, protection and supervision are provided for more than six children on a regular schedule. Also known as a “day care center” in W.Va. Code Chapter 49, Article 2B, § 2.
(32) “Church” means a building or structure, or groups of buildings or structures, that by design and construction are primarily intended for conducting organized religious services and associated accessory uses.
(33) “Clinic” means an establishment where patients are admitted for examination and treatment on an outpatient basis by one or more physicians, dentists, other medical personnel, psychologists or social workers and patients are not usually lodged overnight.
(34) “Club” means a group of people organized for a common purpose to pursue common goals, interests or activities and usually characterized by certain membership qualifications, payment of fees and dues, regular meetings and constitution and bylaws.
(35) “Commission” means the Planning Commission for the City of Philippi.
(36) “Community center” means a building used for recreational, social, educational and cultural activities, open to the public or a designated part of the public, usually owned and operated by a public or nonprofit group or agency.
(37) “Conditional use” means a use permitted in a particular zoning district after review by the Planning Commission and upon showing that such a use in a specified location will comply with all the conditions and standards for the location or operation of the use as specified in this ordinance and authorized by Council.
(38) “Conditional use permit” means a permit issued by the Council that authorizes the recipient to make use of the property in accordance with requirements of this ordinance as well as other requirements recommended by the Planning Commission and imposed by the Council.
(39) “Council” means the City Council of the City of Philippi.
(40) “Convenience store” means any retail establishment offering for sale prepackaged food products, household items, newspapers and magazines, and sandwiches and other freshly prepared foods such as salads, for off-site consumption.
(41) “Deck” means a structure, with a height over three feet off the finished grade and not covered by a permanent roof, attached to and considered part of a building. Decks are included in gross floor area for the purposes of calculating lot coverage. See Porch, see Terrace.
(42) “Double-wide unit” means two manufactured housing components, attached side by side, to make one complete housing unit.
(43) “Drive-in use” means an establishment that by design, physical facilities, service or by packaging procedures, encourages or permits customers to receive services, obtain goods, or be entertained while remaining in their vehicles.
(44) “Duplex” means a building containing two single-family dwelling units totally separated from each other by an unpierced wall extending from ground to roof.
(45) “Dwelling, medium-rise” means an apartment building containing three to eight stories. Also includes garden apartments.
(46) “Dwelling, modular” means a dwelling unit constructed in accordance with standards set forth in the city and state building codes applicable to site-built homes, comprised of components substantially assembled in a manufacturing plant and transported to the site for final assembly on a permanent foundation.
(47) “Dwelling, multifamily” means a building containing three or more dwelling units.
(48) “Dwelling, single-family attached” means a building containing dwelling units, each of which has a primary ground floor access to the outside and which are attached to each other by party or common walls without openings. The term is intended primarily for dwelling types such as townhouses and row housing.
(49) “Dwelling, single-family detached” means a building containing one dwelling unit and not attached to any other dwelling by any means and is surrounded by open space or yards.
(50) “Dwelling, two-family” means a building on a single lot containing two dwelling units, and not occupied by more than two families. Also called a duplex.
(51) “Dwelling unit” means one or more rooms, designed, occupied or intended for occupancy as a separate living quarter, with cooking, sleeping and sanitary facilities provided within the dwelling unit for the exclusive use of a single family maintaining a household.
(52) “Enlargement” means an addition to the floor area of an existing structure, an increase in the size of any other existing structure, or an increase in that portion of a tract of land occupied by an existing use.
(53) “Establishment” means an economic unit, generally at a single physical location, where business is conducted or services or industrial operations performed.
(54) “Existing use” means the use of a lot or structure at the time of the enactment of this ordinance.
(55) “Extension” means an increase in the amount of floor area used for an existing use within an existing building.
(56) “Factory” means a building in which raw material and semifinished or finished materials are converted to a different form or state or where goods are manufactured, assembled, treated or processed.
(57) “Family” means two or more persons related by blood, marriage or legal adoption, or not more than three unrelated persons, occupying a dwelling unit and maintaining a common household.
(58) “Farm stand” means a structure for the display and sale of farm products.
(59) “Fast-food restaurant” means an establishment whose principal business is the sale of prepared or rapidly prepared food directly to the customer in a ready-to-consume state for consumption either within the restaurant building, in cars on the premises, of off the premises.
(60) “Fence” means an artificially constructed barrier of any material or combination of materials erected to enclose, screen, or separate areas of land.
(61) “Flood plain, one-hundred (100) year” means those areas of the city which are subject to the 100-year flood, as shown on the Floodway Map or Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and described in the Flood Insurance Study prepared for the City of Philippi by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) dated September 4, 1986, or the most recent revision thereof.
(62) “Frontage” means the length of the front lot line abutting a public street, road or highway; the front lot line.
(63) “Floor area, gross” means the sum of the gross horizontal areas of the floor or floors of a building measured from the exterior face of exterior walls, or from the centerline of a wall separating two buildings, but excluding any space where the floor-to-ceiling height is less than six feet.
(64) “Floor area ratio” means the gross floor area of all buildings or structures on a lot divided by the total lot area.
(65) “Forestry” means establishments primarily engaged in the operation of timber tracts, tree farms, forest nurseries, the gathering of forest products or in performing forest services.
(66) “Glare” means the effect produced by brightness sufficient to cause annoyance, discomfort or loss in visual performance and visibility.
(67) “Group residential facility” means a dwelling shared by four or more handicapped persons, and resident staff, who live together as a single housekeeping unit. As used herein, the term “handicapped” means having a physical or mental condition that substantially limits one or more of such persons major life activities so that such a person is incapable of living independently; a record of having such impairment or being regarded as having such impairment. The term group home does not include any housing serving as an alternative to incarceration.
(68) “Height” means the vertical distance to the highest point of the roof for flat roofs; to the deck line of mansard roofs; and to the average height between eaves and the ridge for gable, hip and similar roofs as measured from the average surrounding grade, but not including chimneys, spires and similar projections.
(69) “Historic District” means that area of the city designated and under the jurisdiction of the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission.
(70) “Home occupation” means an accessory use which is clearly incidental to the residential use of a dwelling unit; and is customarily and traditionally carried on within a dwelling unit by one or more occupants of such dwelling unit; and is limited to members of the resident family and one outside employee.
A. A home occupation shall be conducted wholly within the principal or accessory structure. It shall not be permitted to sell upon the premises articles produced elsewhere; or have exterior displays of a display of goods visible from the outside; or store materials or products outside a principal or accessory structure; or make external structural alterations which are not customary in residential buildings; or display signs (except for one non-illuminated sign not exceeding a total area of two square feet) that will indicate from the exterior that the building is being utilized in part for purposes other than that of a dwelling. A home occupation shall not generate vehicular parking or nonresidential traffic to a greater extent than would nominally result from residential occupancy. Parking shall be met off the street and other than in a required front yard.
B. Home occupations include fine arts studios, professional offices, teaching of not more than two pupils simultaneously, seamstresses, real estate or insurance agents, bed and breakfast establishment/ tourist home with two or fewer bedrooms for public occupancy, and door-to-door sales of home or cosmetic products (excluding warehousing activity).
C. Home occupations shall not include dance studios, barber and/or beauty shops, commercial repair or storage of automobiles, boarding or rooming houses or tourist homes, antique shops or commercial kennels.
(71) “Junkyard” means any area of land, building, structure or part thereof used for the storage, collection, processing, purchase or sale of waste, scrap or discarded goods including more than two inoperable vehicles.
(72) “Kennel” means a facility housing dogs, cats or other household pets where keeping, grooming, breeding, boarding, selling or training of animals is conducted as a business. A lot on which five or more dogs and/or cats, six months or older are kept.
(73) “Landscape” and “landscape strip” means an area devoted to materials such as, but not limited to grass, ground covers, shrubs, hedges, vines or trees, and durable material nominally used in landscaping such as rocks, pebbles, decorative paving and walls.
(74) “Lot” means a parcel of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building and its accessory buildings and uses, including all open spaces required by this ordinance, and having a frontage on an improved public street or right-of-way, but not divided by any public street or right-of-way.
A. “Corner lot” means a lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection or upon two parts of the same street following an interior angle of less than 135 degrees.
B. “Through lot” means a lot that fronts upon two parallel streets or that fronts upon two streets that do not intersect at the boundaries of the lot.
(75) “Lot area” means the total area within the lot lines of a lot, including any portion which may be reserved for easements.
(76) “Lot coverage” means that portion of the lot, a percentage, that is covered by buildings.
(77) “Lot line” means a line of record bounding a lot that divides one lot from another lot or from a public or private street or any other public space.
(78) “Lot measurements” means:
A. “Width” means the distance between the side lot lines of a lot measured at the front setback line; and
B. “Depth” means the average distance between the front lot line and the rear lot line.
(79) “Lot of record” means a lot which is part of a legal subdivision recorded in the office of the County Clerk, or a lot or parcel described by metes and bounds, the description of which has been so recorded and legally subdivided.
(80) “Lot of record, pre-existing nonconforming” means a parcel of land existing prior to the adoption of this ordinance that has less than the minimum area or minimum dimensions required in the zone in which the lot is located.
(81) “Manufactured home” means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which in the traveling mode is eight body feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length or, when erected on a site, is 320 or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and design to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes the plumbing, heating, air-conditioning and electrical systems contained therein, except that such term shall include any structure which meets all the requirements of this definition except size requirements and with respect to which the manufacturer voluntary files a certificate which complies with the applicable federal standards. Calculations used to determine the number of square feet in a structure will be based on the structure’s exterior dimensions measured at the largest horizontal projections when erected on site.
(W.Va. Code Chapter 21, Article 9, § 2)
(82) “Manufactured home rental community” means a site containing spaces with required improvements and utilities that are leased for the long-term placement of manufactured homes and that may include services and facilities for the residents.
(83) “Mobile home” means a transportable structure that is wholly, or in substantial part, made, fabricated, formed or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation on a building site and designed for long term residential use and built prior to the enactment of the Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. §§ 5401 et seq.), effective on June 15, 1976. that has a roof and roof pitch and shingle type commonly used in standard residential construction; is set on a permanent foundation, has an exterior siding comparable in composition, durability and appearance to standard residential construction and has the tongue, axles, transport lights and other transportation means removed after placement on the lot and before occupancy. (Manufactured housing units built prior to 1976 are referred to as “mobile homes”.)
(84) “Modular home” means a structure that is wholly, or in substantial part, made, fabricated, formed or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation or assembly and installation on a building site and designed for long-term residential use and is certified as meeting the standards contained in the state fire code encompassed in the legislative rule promulgated by the state fire commission pursuant to W.Va. Code Chapter 15A, Article 11, § 3.
(85) “Mobile home subdivision” means a subdivision approved in accordance with city requirements where mobile homes as defined by this ordinance are the designated housing type.
(86) “Motel” means a building or group of buildings containing guest rooms intended or designed to be occupied for sleeping purposes by primarily transient guests.
(87) “Nonconforming situation” means a situation that occurs when, on the effective date of this ordinance, any existing lot, or structure, or use of an existing lot or structure does not conform to any one or more of the regulations applicable to the district in which the lot or structure is located, including nonconforming signs.
(88) “Nonconforming use” means any legally established or created use which does not conform to the applicable regulations of the district in which it is located, either on the effective date of this ordinance or as a result of any subsequent amendment thereto.
(89) “Nursing home” means an institution, residence or place maintained for the purpose of providing accommodations and care, for a period of more than 24 hours, for four or more persons who are ill or otherwise incapacitated and in need of extensive, on-going nursing care due to physical or mental impairment, or which provides services for the rehabilitation of persons who are convalescing from illness or incapacitation. Institutions primarily for the treatment and care of mental patients, alcoholics, or drug addicts shall not be considered nursing homes.
(W.Va. Code Chapter 16, Article 5C, § 2)
(90) “Open space” means part of a lot which may include lawns, decorative plantings, walkways, active and passive recreation areas and water courses, but does not include parking spaces, driveways or similar surfaces.
(91) “Parking area” means an off-street area devoted to vehicular parking containing one or more parking spaces and including on-site roadways, aisles, stalls, islands, features and maneuvering areas. For the purpose of this definition, the term “off-street” shall mean off a road right-of-way.
(92) “Parking space” means a space for the temporary parking of a motor vehicle and which shall have a means of access to a public street.
(93) “Permitted use” means any use allowed in a zoning district and subject to the restrictions applicable to that zoning district.
(94) “Personal care home” means an institution, residence or place maintained for the purpose of providing accommodations and personal assistance and supervision, for a period of more than 24 hours, to four or more persons who are dependent upon the services of others by reason of physical or mental impairment who may require limited and intermittent nursing care, including those individuals who qualify for and are receiving services coordinated by a licensed hospice. Institutions primarily for the treatment and care of mental patients, alcoholics or drug addicts shall not be considered personal care homes.
(95) “Porch” means a roofed open area, which may be screened, usually attached to or part of and with direct access to or from a building. Porches are included in gross floor area for the purposes of calculating lot coverage.
(96) “Professional office” means the office of a member of a recognized profession maintained for the conduct of that profession.
(97) “Recycling center” means a lot or parcel of land, with or without buildings, upon which used materials are separated and processed for shipment for eventual reuse in new products. Salvage yards are not considered recycling centers.
(98) “Recycling plant” means a facility in which products are recycled, reprocessed, and treated to return such products to a condition in which they may again be used in new products.
(99) “Restaurant” means an establishment where food is available to the general public, primarily for consumption on the premises. Alcoholic beverages may or may not be served, but only incidental to the serving of food.
(100) “Retail sales” means establishments engaged in selling goods or merchandise to the general public for personal or household consumption and rendering services incidental to the sale of such goods.
(101) “Right-of-way” means a strip of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a road, street, railroad, electric transmission line, gas line, water line, sanitary storm sewer or any other special public purpose.
(102) “Satellite earth station antenna” means a parabolic or dish-shaped antenna no greater than three feet in diameter or any other apparatus or device that is designed for the purpose of receiving radio waves. For the purposes of this ordinance, a freestanding satellite antenna is considered an accessory structure. See “Antenna”.
(103) “Screening” means a method of visually shielding or obscuring one abutting nearby structure or use from another by fencing, walls, berms, dense vegetation or other approved means.
(104) “Setback” means the required minimum distance between the building line and the related front, side or rear property line.
(105) “Shopping center” means a group of two or more business establishments each having its outside customer entrance to a shared parking area, which has limited designated entrance points.
(106) “Sight triangle” means a triangular-shaped portion of land established at street intersections in which nothing is erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow in such a manner as to limit or obstruct the sight distance of motorists entering or leaving the intersection. See Figure 2.
(107) “Sign” means any visual communication device utilizing a letter, word, number, picture, object, symbol, illumination color, (or motion) the major function of such device being to convey information or attract visual attention. See Figure 3.
(108) “Sign, abandoned” means a sign or sign structure which no longer correctly specifies any activity conducted or product available on the premises where such sign is displayed.
(109) “Sign, awning” means a sign painted, stamped, perforated, stitched or otherwise applied on the valance of an awning that is attached to the wall of a building with the face of the sign approximately parallel to the wall.
(110) “Sign, ground” means any sign, other than a pole sign, in which the entire bottom is in contact with or is close to the ground and is independent of any other structure.
(111) “Sign, hanging” See “Sign, projecting”.
(112) “Sign, permanent” means any sign permitted by this ordinance to be located on a premises for an unlimited period of time.
(113) “Sign, pole” means a sign that is mounted on a freestanding pole or other support so that the bottom edge of the sign is six feet or more above grade.
(114) “Sign, portable” means a freestanding sign that is not permanent, affixed to a building, structure or the ground.
(115) “Sign, projecting” means a sign that is wholly or partially dependent on a building for support and which projects from the face of the building at right angles.
(116) “Sign, roof” means a sign that is mounted on the roof of a building.
(117) “Sign, temporary” means a sign permitted by this ordinance to be located on a premises for a limited period of time.
(118) “Sign, wall” means a sign attached to and erected parallel to the face of a building.
(119) “Sign area” means the entire display area of a sign including the advertising surface located on one or more sign faces and any framing, molding or trim, but not including the supporting structure. An irregularly shaped sign surface area shall be calculated by measuring the surface area of a simple geometric shape which approximates the size and shape of the sign’s surface.
(120) “Sign face” means the area or display surface for the message.
(121) “Sign height” means the maximum vertical height in feet that the highest part of the ground sign extends above the surface of the ground underneath the sign. Any visible material whose major function is providing structural support for the sign shall be considered part of the sign.
(122) “Steep slope” means land areas where the slope exceeds 20%.
(123) “Street” means any public or private right-of-way which provides a means of access to abutting properties.
(124) “Structure” means a combination of materials to form a construction for use, occupancy or ornamentation whether installed on, above or below the surface of the land, and includes fences, swimming pools and satellite dishes.
(125) “Swimming pool” means a water-filled enclosure, permanently constructed or portable, having a depth of more than 18 inches below the level of the surrounding land, or an above-surface pool, having a depth of more than 30 inches, designed, used and maintained for swimming and bathing.
(126) “Terrace” means a level surfaced area, also referred to as a patio, directly adjacent to a principal building at or within three feet of the finished grade and not covered by a permanent roof. Terraces are not used in the calculation of lot coverage.
(127) “Use” means the purpose or activity for which land or buildings are designed, arranged or intended or for which land or buildings are occupied or maintained.
(128) “Variance” means a grant of permission by the Board of Zoning Appeals that authorizes the recipient to depart from the strict requirements of the applicable district relative to area regulations, but does not include variation from permitted or conditional uses
(129) “Yard” means a required open space on a lot adjoining a lot line containing only landscaping or other uses as provided by this ordinance. See Figure 4.
(130) “Yard, front” means a yard extending along the full width of a front lot line between the side lot lines and from the front lot line to the front building or setback line in depth.
(131) “Yard, rear” means a yard extending along the full width of a lot along the rear lot line, and not less in depth, measured from the rear lot line, than the minimum required in each district.
(132) “Yard, side” means a yard lying between the side line of the lot and the nearest line of the building and extending from the front yard to the rear yard.
(Ord. 95-04, passed 8-29-1995)
