For the purpose of these regulations, the following terms, phrases, words and their definitions shall have the meaning given in this section. Words used in the present tense shall include the future tense; words in the singular number shall include the plural and words in the plural shall include the singular.
ACCESSORY USES: A land use related, but subordinate to the main use of the property, including but not limited to garages, fences, parking lots, gardening, and landscaping.
BED AND BREAKFAST INNS: An owner or manager occupied single- family dwelling where lodging in up to five (5) guest rooms and breakfast are provided to the traveling public by the resident owner or manager for compensation.
BLOCK: That property abutting on one side of a street and lying between the two (2) nearest intersecting or intercepting streets or subdivided acreage.
BOATHOUSE: A structure designed and used solely for the storage of boats or boating equipment.
BUILDING LINE: A line parallel to a lot line or the ordinary high water level at the required setback beyond which a structure may not extend.
COMMERCIAL USE: The principal use of land or buildings for the sale, lease, rental, or trade of products, goods, and services.
COMMISSIONER: The Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources.
CONDITIONAL USE: A land use which is only allowed in a district if it is listed as such and after public hearing and additional City review with appropriate conditions and restrictions attached to the permit.
DECK: A horizontal, unenclosed platform with or without attached railings, seats, trellises, or other features, attached or functionally related to a principal use or site and at any point extending more than three feet (3') above ground.
DWELLING: A structure used for human occupancy.
DWELLING, MULTI-FAMILY: Three (3) or more attached single-family dwellings.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY: A detached dwelling, built as a single housekeeping unit occupied by individuals living as a family as distinguished from a group occupying a lodging facility.
DWELLING SITE: A designated location for residential use by one or more persons using temporary or movable shelter, including camping and recreational vehicle sites.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY: Two (2) attached single-family dwellings.
EXTRACTIVE USE: The use of land for surface or subsurface removal of sand, gravel, rock, industrial minerals, other nonmetallic minerals, and peat not regulated under Minnesota Statutes sections 93.44 to 93.51.
FEEDLOT: The raising of livestock or poultry in any confined area or pasture where the intensity of use is such that natural vegetation cannot be maintained.
FOREST LAND CONVERSION: The clear cutting of forested lands to prepare for a new land use other than reestablishment of a subsequent forest stand.
HARDSHIP: The property in question cannot be put to a reasonable use if used under the conditions allowed by the official controls; the plight of the landowner is due to circumstances unique to the property not created by the landowner; and the variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality. Economic considerations alone shall not constitute a hardship if a reasonable use for the property exists under the terms of this title.
HEIGHT OF STRUCTURE: The vertical distance between the highest adjoining ground level at the structure or ten feet (10') above the lowest ground level, whichever is lower, and the highest point of a flat roof or average height of the highest gable of a pitched or hipped roof.
HOME OCCUPATION: A land use conducted basically within a dwelling and carried on by the inhabitants thereof which is clearly incidental and secondary to the residential use of the lot and does not change the character thereof.
INTENSIVE VEGETATION CLEARING: The complete removal of trees or shrubs in a contiguous patch, strip, row, or block.
LAND USE: A structure on the land or an activity taking place on the land.
LOT: A parcel of land designated by plat, metes and bounds, registered land survey, auditors plot, or other accepted means and separated from other parcels or portions by said description for the purpose of sale, lease, or separation.
LOT, CORNER: A lot situated at the intersection of two (2) or more streets.
LOT WIDTH: The shortest distance between lot lines measured at the structure of the building line.
MANUFACTURED HOME: A structure, transportable in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight (8) body feet or more in width or forty feet (40') or more in length, or when erected on site, is three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed 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 the term includes any structure which meets all the requirements and with respect to which the manufacturer voluntarily files a certification required by the Secretary and complies with the standards established under Minnesota Statutes chapter 327. "Secretary" means the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development or the head of any successor agency with responsibility for enforcement of Federal laws relating to manufactured homes.
MANUFACTURED HOME PARK: Any site, lot, field, or tract of land upon which two (2) or more occupied manufactured homes are located either free of charge or for compensation, and includes any building, structure, tent, vehicle or enclosure used or intended for use as part of the equipment of the manufactured home park.
NONCONFORMITY: The legal use, structure or parcel of land already in existence, recorded, or authorized before the adoption of official controls or amendments thereto that would not have been permitted to become established under the terms of the official controls as now written, if the official controls had been in effect prior to the date it was established, recorded or authorized.
ORDINARY HIGH WATER LEVEL: The boundary of public waters and wetlands, and shall be an elevation delineating the highest water level which has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape, commonly that point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial. For watercourses, the ordinary high water level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel. For reservoirs and flowages, the ordinary high water level is the operating elevation of the normal summer pool.
PERMITTED USE: A land use that is permitted with no additional hearings if the standards of this title are adhered to.
PUBLIC WATERS: Any "water" as defined in Minnesota Statutes section 103G.005, subdivisions 14 and 15. However, no lake, pond, or flowage of less than ten (10) acres in size in municipalities and twenty five (25) acres in size in unincorporated areas need be regulated for the purposes of parts 6120.2500 to 6120.3900. A body of water created by a private user where there was no previous shoreland may, at the discretion of the local government, be exempted from parts 6120.2500 to 6120.3900.
RESIDENTIAL BUSINESS: A land use that is clearly secondary to the residential use of the lot but that generates traffic, noise, odor or discharges or involves structures that are more intense than those normally found in the neighborhood.
SETBACK: The minimum horizontal distance between a structure, sewage treatment system, or other facility and an ordinary high water level, sewage treatment system, top of a bluff, road, highway, property line, or other facility.
SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM: A septic tank and soil absorption system or other individual or cluster type sewage treatment system as described and regulated in chapter 7080.
SEWER SYSTEM: Pipelines or conduits, pumping stations, and force main, and all other constructions, devices, appliances, or appurtenances used for conducting sewage or industrial waste or other wastes to a point of ultimate disposal.
SHORE IMPACT ZONE: Land located between the ordinary high water level of a public water and a line parallel to it at a setback of fifty percent (50%) of the structure setback.
SHORELAND: Land located within the following high water level of a lake, pond, or flowage; and three hundred feet (300') from a river or stream, or the landward extent of a flood plain designated by ordinance on a river or stream, whichever is greater. The limits of shorelands may be reduced whenever the waters involved are bounded by topographic divides which extend landward from the waters for lesser distances and when approved by the Commissioner.
SHORELAND ALTERATION: Any activity that changes the natural condition of the land in the shoreland zone, including vegetation removal, earth moving, agricultural cultivation, storm sewer structures, retaining walls, roads, driveways and parking areas.
SIGNS, ADVERTISING: Signs advertising for something associated with a different site than the sign site.
SIGNS, DIRECTIONAL: Signs utilized solely for directional purposes, limited to name, turn, mileage and arrow graphic and with a maximum size of thirty two (32) square feet.
SIGNS, IDENTIFICATION: Signs identifying the name of the business or persons occupying the site where the sign is.
SIGNS, TEMPORARY: Signs used for a temporary period of time, including festival banners, political signs and real estate signs.
STEEP SLOPE: Land where agricultural activity or development is either not recommended or described as poorly suited due to slope steepness and the site's soil characteristics, as mapped and described in available County soil surveys or other technical reports, unless appropriate design and construction techniques and farming practices are used in accordance with the provisions of these regulations. Where specific information is not available, steep slopes are lands having average slopes over twelve percent (12%), as measured over horizontal distances of fifty feet (50') or more, that are not bluffs.
STREET: Public right-of-way which can be used for vehicular traffic, including roads and highways but not including alleys.
STRUCTURE: Anything constructed which requires permanent location on the ground, including but not limited to buildings, towers, fences, roads, walls, decks and dense vegetation groupings such as hedges and windbreaks.
STRUCTURE ALTERATION: Any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams, or girders.
SUBDIVISION: Land that is divided for the purpose of sale, rent, or lease, including planned unit development.
VARIANCE: Permission to vary from dimensional standards after proper public hearing and City review.
WATER ORIENTED ACCESSORY STRUCTURE: A small, above ground building or other improvement, except stairways, fences, docks, and retaining walls, which, because of the relationship of its use to a surface water feature, reasonably needs to be located closer to public waters than the normal structure setback. Examples of such structures and facilities include boathouses, gazebos, screen houses, pump houses, and detached decks.
WETLAND: A surface water feature classified as a wetland in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Circular No. 39 (1971 edition), which is hereby incorporated by reference, is available through the Minitex interlibrary loan system, and is not subject to frequent change.
YARD, FRONT: All yards on the street side of the lot (not including alleys).
YARD, REAR: The yard opposite of the street. On a corner lot, there is no rear yard.
YARD, REQUIRED: The area described when a minimum setback is required.
YARD, SIDE: All yards on adjoining lot lines or alleys that are not front yards or rear yards. (Ord. 15, 2nd Series, 2-26-1992; amd. Ord. 23, 2nd Series, 9-6-1994)