A. Purpose: The purpose of this section is to classify uses into a limited number of use types on the basis of common functional, product, or compatibility characteristics, thereby providing a basis for the regulation of uses in accordance with criteria that are directly relevant to the public health, safety, and general welfare.
B. Listing Of Use Classifications: The following classifications of uses are established:
1. Residential Use Types:
a. Household Living: Dwelling units for households (see section 17.01.150 of this chapter, definition of “household”), including “group homes” as defined by Idaho Code section 67-6531.
b. Boarding/Rooming House: Living facilities for groups of unrelated individuals are characterized by shared facilities for eating, hygiene, and/or recreation. Examples include, but are not limited to, boarding houses, sororities, and fraternities, and are subject to household occupancy standards. Tenancy is longer than one month.
c. Residential Care Facility: Living facilities providing routine living assistance. “Residential Care Facility” includes, but is not limited to, assisted living, assisted care, and skilled nursing facilities, children’s or other residential care facilities, and drug and alcohol treatment facilities (see also Idaho Code section 39-3304).
d. Shelter Housing: Living facilities providing basic services that may include food; personal hygiene support; information and referrals; employment, mail and telephone services; including overnight sleeping accommodations, to people with limited financial resources, including people who are unhoused. This includes postincarceration and halfway houses for those not under judicial detention. This also includes housing for persons who are victims of crime or abuse such as rape or domestic abuse, and the dependents of the victim.
e. Home Occupation: A business activity that is carried out on the same site as a dwelling unit, and which is accessory to the residential use. See section 17.06.400, “Home Occupations”, of this title for special use standards.
f. Residential Daycare: A daycare business with twelve (12) or fewer children in the operator’s personal residence; or twenty (20) or fewer children in a structure that was not initially constructed for residential purposes, such as a church building. Increased numbers may be conditionally permitted. All other municipal code standards governing daycare operations must be met.
2. Civic Use Types:
a. Basic Utilities: Community infrastructure, including water and sewer systems, telephone or cable exchanges, power substations, and transit stations.
b. Colleges: Institutions of higher education with or without dormitories. Excludes private, profit making, trade and vocational schools, unless associated with a college or university (see subsection B3d(2), "Consumer Services", of this section).
c. Community Recreation: Public or legally recognized nonprofit (meeting federal or state definition for taxation purposes and with no benefit to individual, private, or other third party) owned recreational, social and multipurpose facilities designed to serve the general community. Examples include, but are not limited to, community centers, senior centers, indoor and outdoor tennis/racquetball and soccer clubs, indoor/outdoor swimming pools, parks, playgrounds, picnic areas, golf courses and recreational trail systems. Excludes commercial recreational facilities (see subsection B3c, "Entertainment/Recreation" of this section).
d. Cultural Institutions: Public or nonprofit cultural facilities including libraries, museums and galleries.
e. Emergency Services: Public safety facilities including police and fire stations, emergency communications, and ambulance services.
f. Medical Centers/Hospitals: Facilities providing inpatient, outpatient, emergency, and related ancillary services to the sick and infirm. Usually developed in a campus setting. Accessory uses may include diagnostic and treatment facilities, laboratories, surgical suites, kitchen/food service facilities; laundry, housekeeping and maintenance facilities; administrative offices and parking. Medical centers may also include freestanding offices for hospital based and/or private practice physicians and other allied healthcare professionals.
g. Public Support/Social Service Facilities: Facilities of a public, nonprofit, or charitable nature generally providing a local service to people of the community. Generally, the service is provided on site or employees are at the site on a regular basis. The use may provide short term housing where tenancy may be arranged for periods of less than one month when operated by a public or nonprofit agency. The use may also provide special counseling, education, or training of a public, nonprofit, or charitable nature. Accessory uses may include offices; meeting areas; food preparation areas; parking, health and therapy areas; daycare uses; and athletic facilities. Examples include, but are not limited to, youth club facilities, hospices, drug and alcohol centers, social service facilities, vocational training for the physically or mentally disabled, soup kitchens, and surplus food distribution centers.
h. Religious Institutions: Places of religious worship which may also include related accessory uses such as offices, classrooms, daycare, auditoriums, social halls, gymnasiums, and other recreational activities.
i. Schools: State of Idaho accredited public and private schools including, but not limited to, elementary, middle, and high schools.
j. Social/Fraternal Clubs/Lodges: Nonprofit organizations with social, philanthropic, and/or recreational functions and activities.
3. Commercial Use Types:
a. Commercial Lodging: Residential facilities such as hotels, motels, and bed and breakfast establishments where tenancy is typically less than one month. May include accessory meeting and convention facilities and restaurants/bars.
b. Eating And Drinking Establishments: Establishments which sell prepared food and/or beverages for consumption on site or takeaway including restaurants, banquet facilities, delicatessens, storefront bakeries, bars, taverns, brewpubs, and espresso bars.
c. Entertainment/Recreation:
(1) Major Event Entertainment: Facilities used for commercial purposes including, but not limited to, auditoriums, stadiums, convention centers, and race tracks which provide athletic, cultural, or entertainment events and exhibits for large groups of spectators.
(2) Outdoor Entertainment: Large scale outdoor facilities used for commercial purposes including, but not limited to, outdoor tennis clubs, golf courses, and drive-in movie theaters.
(3) Indoor Entertainment: Commercial indoor facilities including, but not limited to, health/fitness clubs, tennis, racquetball and soccer centers, recreational centers, skating rinks, bowling alleys, arcades, shooting or archery ranges, and movie theaters.
(4) Adult Entertainment: Facilities for operations classified as sexually oriented businesses as described and regulated in title 5, chapter 5.60 of this code.
d. General Retail:
(1) Retail Sales: Establishments with consumer oriented sales, leasing, and/or rental of consumer, home and/or business goods including, but not limited to, appliances; art, art supplies; motor vehicle parts and/or tires; bicycles; clothing; convenience stores; dry goods; electronic equipment; fabric; furniture; gifts; groceries; hardware; household products; jewelry; common in residence pets and pet products; pharmaceuticals; plants and flowers; printed materials; stationery; and videos. Excludes those items sold primarily outdoors (see subsection B3d(4), "Outdoor Sales", of this section).
(2) Consumer Services: Establishments which provide consumer services such as banks and credit unions; personal care services such as, but not limited to, hair, tanning, or massage; commercial (not in home) daycare operations; common in residence maintained household pet (see section 6.04.200 of this code) grooming; laundromats and dry cleaners; copy centers; photo processing; photographic and art studios; dance, art or music classes; martial arts, and other trade/vocational schools.
(3) Repair Services: Establishments which engage in the repair of consumer and/or business goods including, but not limited to, home electronics; bicycles; clocks and watches; jewelry; guns; small appliances, office equipment, and tools; tailors and seamstresses; shoe repair; locksmith; recycling dropoff containers; furniture refinishing; and upholsterer.
(4) Outdoor Sales: Establishments which engage in sales requiring outdoor display and/or storage including lumberyards; nurseries and greenhouses; industrial equipment and supplies; manufactured and mobile home sales; and agricultural supplies, including equipment, feed, seed, and fertilizer. Excludes sidewalk sales or farmers' market activities.
(5) Animal Related Services: Nonlivestock animal breeding and boarding facilities. Excludes pet sales/supplies (see subsection B3d(1), "Retail Sales", of this section); animal grooming (see subsection B3d(2), "Consumer Services", of this section); and veterinary clinics (see subsection B3g, "Office", of this section).
e. Motor Vehicle Related:
(1) Motor Vehicle Sales/Rental: Includes cars, trucks not to exceed two and one-half (2.5) tons, motorcycles, boats, and recreational vehicle sales, leasing, and/or rental.
(2) Motor Vehicle Servicing/Repair: Vehicle servicing and repair establishments including quick and general vehicle service, car washes, and body shops not accessory to vehicle sales and not a component of another retail entity.
(3) Vehicle Fuel Sales: Establishments engaging in the sale of gasoline, diesel fuel, and oil products for cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, and boats.
f. Nonaccessory Parking: Any private or public parking, either paid or free, which is not accessory to a primary use; includes public and private parking structures and lots, and transit park and ride lots. May also include fleet vehicle parking lots.
g. Office: Government, business, and professional offices. Examples include, but are not limited to, local, regional, state, and federal offices and agencies; medical, dental and veterinary clinics, offices, and laboratories; blood collection centers; offices for attorneys, architects, accountants, engineers, stockbrokers, real estate agents, insurance brokers and other consultants; headquarters offices; sales offices; and radio and television studios. Also includes painting, landscaping, tree service, building, and janitorial contractors where limited indoor storage of materials and equipment is accessory to the office use. If this indoor storage exceeds fifty percent (50%) of occupied space, such uses are classified as industrial services (see subsection B4a of this section). No outdoor storage is permitted. Offices that are part of and are located within a firm in another use category are considered accessory to the firm's primary activity.
h. Self-Service Storage: Commercial operations that provide rental of storage space to the public. The storage areas are designed to allow private access by the tenant for storing or removing personal property. Does not include moving and storage companies where there is no individual storage or where employees are primary movers of the goods to be stored (see subsection B4e, "Warehouse/Freight Movement", of this section).
i. Postal Service: Refers to postal services and processing as traditionally operated by, but not limited to, the U.S. postal service. Postal facilities include customer sales, mail sorting, and fleet truck storage.
4. Industrial Use Types:
a. Industrial Services And Sales: Includes the sales, leasing, and/or rental, and repair and servicing of motor vehicles and heavy equipment commonly used in commercial, industrial, or construction enterprises, such as, but not limited to, trucks, trailers, bulldozers, cranes, backhoes, rollers, loaders, lifts, having a gross weight over two and one-half (2.5) tons, and industrial and business machinery, equipment and/or products. Examples include, but are not limited to, welding shops; machine shops; repair shops for tools, scientific/professional instruments, and motors; sales, repair, storage, salvage or wrecking of heavy machinery, metal and building materials; towing and vehicle storage; auto and truck body work, salvage, and wrecking; heavy truck servicing and repair; tire recapping and retreading; truck stops; building, heating, plumbing or electrical contractors; printing, publishing and lithography; exterminators; janitorial and building maintenance contractors; fuel oil distributions; solid fuel yards; laundry, dry cleaning and carpet cleaning plants; and photofinishing laboratories.
b. Manufacturing And Production:
(1) Light industrial: Includes production, processing, assembling, packaging or treatment of finished products from previously prepared materials or components, and manufacturing, processing, and assembling of semifinished or finished products from raw materials. All activities and storage are contained within buildings, with only limited outside storage of raw materials. Examples include, but are not limited to, the manufacturing and assembly of small scale machinery, appliances, computers and other electronic equipment; pharmaceuticals; scientific and musical instruments; artwork, toys and other precision goods; sign making; catering facilities; food processing; breweries, distilleries, and wineries; production of apparel or textiles; and woodworking, including cabinetmakers.
(2) Heavy industrial: Manufacturing, processing and assembling of semifinished or finished products from raw materials. A substantial proportion of activities and storage may be undertaken outdoors with resulting noise, glare, vibration, and other potentially adverse impacts. Examples include, but are not limited to, production or processing of chemical, rubber, leather, clay, bone, plastic, stone or glass materials or products; manufacturing and production of large scale machinery; energy production facilities; concrete batching and asphalt mixing; production of metals or metal products including enameling and galvanizing; production of cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, or mobile homes; feed manufacturing; and wood processing.
c. Railroad Yards: A terminus of several railroad lines where the loading, unloading, transshipment, repair, maintenance, and switching of railcars is undertaken.
d. Research And Development: Facility featuring a mix of uses including office, research laboratories and/or prototype manufacturing.
e. Warehouse/Freight Movement: Uses involving the storage and movement of large quantities of materials or products indoors and/or outdoors; associated with semitruck and rail traffic. Examples include, but are not limited to, freestanding warehouses associated with retail furniture or appliance outlets; household and general freight storage; cold storage plants/frozen food lockers; grain storage; weapon and ammunition storage; major wholesale distribution centers; truck, marine and air freight terminals; bus terminals; grain terminals; and stockpiling of sand, gravel, bark dust, or other aggregate and landscaping materials.
f. Waste Related: Uses involving receiving solid or liquid wastes from others for disposal on the site or transfer to another location, uses which collect sanitary wastes, or uses that manufacture or produce goods or energy from the composting of organic material. Examples include, but are not limited to, auto salvage yards, junkyards, recycling/garbage transfer stations; landfills; composting, energy recovery, and sewage treatment plants.
g. Wholesale Sales: Uses involving sales, leasing and/or rental of equipment or products primarily intended for industrial, institutional or commercial businesses. Businesses may or may not be open to the general public, but sales to the general public are limited. Examples include, but are not limited to, the sale or rental of machinery, equipment, building materials, special trade tools, welding supplies, machine parts, electrical supplies, janitorial supplies, restaurant equipment, and store fixtures; mail order houses; and wholesalers of food, clothing, auto parts, and building hardware.
5. Other Use Types:
a. Accessory Structures: A building/structure detached from and located on the same lot or parcel as the principal building/structure, and normally incidental and subordinate to the principal building/structure or use.
b. Cemeteries: Facilities for storing human remains. Accessory uses may include chapels, mortuaries, offices, maintenance facilities, and parking.
c. Detention Facilities: Uses which are devoted to the housing, training, and supervision of those under judicial detention. Examples include, but are not limited to, prisons, jails, probation centers, juvenile detention homes, and related postincarceration and halfway houses.
d. Heliports: Public or private facilities designed for the landing, departure, storage and fueling of helicopters.
e. Mining: Uses that mine or extract mineral or aggregate resources from the ground for off site use. Accessory uses may include storage, sorting, and transfer facilities.
f. Wind Energy Conversion Systems: Systems including the base, tower, rotor blades, inverters, conductors, etc., as necessary to convert the power of the wind into mechanical or electrical energy.
g. Wireless Communication Facilities: Includes publicly and privately owned towers and related transmitting equipment for television, radio, cellular and two-way radio, microwave transmission, and related ancillary equipment buildings. Does not include radio/television transmission facilities that are part of the public safety network (see subsection B2a, "Basic Utilities", of this section). Does not include amateur (ham) radio antennas or towers. See title 15, chapter 15.42, "Wireless Telecommunications Towers And Facilities", of this code for special standards.
C. Unlisted Use; Authorization Of Similar Use:
1. Purpose: It is not possible to contemplate all of the various uses that will be compatible within a zoning district; therefore, unintentional omissions occur. The purpose of these provisions is to establish a procedure for determining whether certain specific uses would have been permitted in a zoning district had they been contemplated and whether such unlisted uses are compatible with or similar to the listed uses.
2. Process: The director shall render an interpretation, as governed by section 17.02.180 of this title.
3. Approval Standards: Approval or denial of an unlisted use application by the director shall be based on findings of whether:
a. The use is consistent with the intent and purpose of the applicable zoning district;
b. The use is similar to and of the same general type as the uses listed in the zoning district;
c. The use has similar impacts as the uses listed in the zoning district; and
d. The use has similar impacts on the community facilities as the uses listed in the zoning district. Community facilities include, but are not limited to, streets, schools, libraries, hospitals, parks, police and fire stations, and water, sanitary sewer and storm drainage systems.
4. Other Provisions: The director shall not authorize an unlisted use in a zoning district if the use is specifically listed in another zoning district as either a permitted use or a conditionally permitted use. (Ord. 3132, 2023: Ord. 3115, 2023: Ord. 2896, 2011: Ord. 2846 § 1, 2008)