(A) Rules. The language set forth in the text of this chapter shall be interpreted in accordance with the following terminology:
(1) The singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular;
(2) The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future, the present tense;
(3) The word “shall” is mandatory, and the word “may” is permissive;
(4) All measured distances expressed in feet shall be to the nearest tenth of a foot; and
(5) In the event of conflicting provisions, the more restrictive provisions shall apply.
(B) Definitions. For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates, or requires, a different meaning.
ACCESSORY BUILDING. A subordinate structure detached from, but located on, the same lot as the principal structure, the use of which is incidental, and accessory, to that of the principal structure, and is not authorized, nor used, for living or sleeping by human occupants.
ADMINISTRATOR. The duly appointed person charged with enforcement of this chapter.
AGRICULTURAL USE. The use of land for the growing, and/or production, of field crops, including barley, soybeans, corn, hay, oats, potatoes, rye, sorghum, and sunflowers.
ALLEY. A public or private right-of-way less than 30 feet in width which affords secondary means of access to abutting property.
ANTIQUE SHOP. A place offering primarily antiques for sale. An ANTIQUE, for the purpose of this chapter, shall be a work of art, piece of furniture, decorative object, or the like, of, or belonging to, the past, at least 30 years old.
APARTMENT BUILDING. A building containing three, or more, apartment units.
APARTMENTS. A room, or suite of rooms, designed for, intended for, or used as a residence for one family or an individual, and equipped with cooking facilities.
ARTISAN PRODUCTION SHOP. A building, or portion thereof, used for the creation of original handmade works of art, or craft items by less than six artists or artisans, as either a principal or accessory use.
AUTO CONVENIENCE MARKET. A place where gasoline, motor oil, lubricants, or other minor accessories are retailed directly to the public on the premises in combination with the retailing of items typically found in a convenience market or supermarket.
AUTO REPAIR SHOPS. A building designed, and used, for the storage, care, repair, or refinishing of motor vehicles, including both minor and major mechanical overhauling, paint, and body work.
AUTO SALVAGE YARD (AUTO REDUCTION YARD). An open area where waste, used, or secondhand materials are bought, sold, exchanged, stored, baled, packed, disassembled or handled, including, but not limited to, scrap iron and other metals, paper, rags, rubber, tires, and bottles, not including recycling centers or collection points. A junk yard includes an auto wrecking yard or area where three, or more, unlicensed or inoperable vehicles remain for 30 days or longer.
AUTO SERVICE STATION. Any premises where gasoline, and other petroleum products, are sold, and/or light maintenance activities, such as engine tune-ups, lubrication, minor repairs, and carburetor cleaning, are conducted. SERVICE STATIONS shall not include premises where heavy automobile maintenance activities, such as engine overhauls, automobile painting, and body fender work are conducted.
BASEMENT. Any area of a structure, including crawl spaces, having its floor, or base, subgrade (below ground level) on all four sides, regardless of the depth of excavation below ground level.
BILLBOARD (OFF-PREMISES SIGN). A surface whereon advertising matter is set in view conspicuously, and which advertising does not apply to the premises, or any use of the premises, where it is displayed or posted.
BLOCK. A tract of land bounded by streets, or a combination of streets, and public parks, cemeteries, railroad rights-of-way, shorelines, unsubdivided acreage, or boundary lines of the corporate limits of the city.
BOARDING HOUSE. Any dwelling, other than a hotel or a motel, where meals, or lodging and meals for compensation, are provided for five, or more, persons pursuant to previous arrangements, and not to anyone who may apply.
BUFFER AREA. A landscaped area intended to separate, and partially obstruct, the view of two adjacent land uses, or properties, from one another.
BUILDING. Any structure having a roof which may provide shelter, or enclosure, of persons, animals, chattel, or property of any kind, and when the structures are divided by party walls without openings, each portion of the BUILDING so separated shall be deemed a separate BUILDING.
BUILDING LINE. 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. The vertical distance from the average of the lowest, and highest, point of the portion of the lot covered by the building to the ceiling of the topmost story.
BUILDING SETBACK. The minimum horizontal distance between the building and a lot line, or the normal high water mark of a river, creek, or lake.
BUSINESS. Any occupation, employment, or enterprise wherein merchandise is exhibited, or sold, or where services are offered for compensation.
CAR WASH. An area of land and/or structure with machine or hand operated facilities used principally for the cleaning, washing, polishing, or waxing of motor vehicles.
CARPORT. An automobile shelter having one, or more, open sides.
CEMETERY. Land used, or intended to be used, for the burial of the dead, and dedicated for CEMETERY purpose, including columbariums, crematories, mausoleums, and mortuaries when operated in conjunction with, and within, the boundaries of a CEMETERY.
CHURCH. A building, together with its accessory buildings and uses, where persons regularly assemble for religious worship, and which building, together with its accessory buildings and uses, is maintained, and controlled, by a religious body organized to sustain public worship.
CLINIC. A building designed, and used, for the diagnosis and treatment of human patients that does not include overnight care facilities.
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT. A development design technique that concentrates buildings in specific areas on a site to allow the remaining land to be used for recreation, common open space, and preservation of environmentally sensitive areas.
COMMERCIAL USE. An occupation, employment, or enterprise that is carried on for profit by the owner, lessee, or licensee.
COMMUNITY CENTER. A place, structure, area, or other facility used for, and providing, religious, fraternal, social, and/or recreational programs generally open to the public, and designed to accommodate, and serve, significant segments of the community.
CONCRETE HOUSING. A residential facility for four, or more, elderly persons (age 60 or older) within which living, and sleeping, facilities, meal preparation, laundry services, and room cleaning are provided. The facilities may also provide other services such as transportation for routine social, and medical, appointments and counseling.
CONDOMINIUM. A form of individual ownership involving a multi-family building with joint responsibility for maintenance and repairs. In a CONDOMINIUM, each apartment is owned outright by its occupant, and each occupant owns a share of land and other common property of the building.
COOPERATIVE. A multi-unit development operated for, and owned by, its occupants. Individual occupants do not own their specific housing unit outright, as in a condominium, but they own a share, or shares, in the enterprise.
COPY SHOP. A retail establishment that provides duplicating services using photocopying, blueprint, and offset printing equipment, and may include the collating, and binding, of booklets and reports.
CUL-DE-SAC. A local street, one end of which is closed and consists of a circular turn around.
DAY ACTIVITY CENTER. A state licensed facility offering educational, social, recreational, and vocational activities for mentally retarded, and cerebral palsied, adults.
DRIVE-IN. Any use where products, and/or services, are provided to the customer under conditions where the customer does not have to leave the car, or where fast service to the automobile occupants is a service offered regardless of whether service is also provided within a building.
DUPLEX. A dwelling designed for, or occupied by, two families only, with separate housekeeping and cooking facilities for each.
DWELLING. A building, or portion thereof, designed, or used, predominantly for residential occupancy of a continued nature, including one-family dwellings, two-family dwellings, and multiple family dwellings, but not including hotels.
DWELLING UNIT. A single residential accommodation which is arranged, designed, used, or if vacant, intended for use exclusively as a domicile for one family, but not including hotels, motels, or rooming houses. Where a private garage is structurally attached, it shall be considered as part of the building in which the dwelling unit is located.
DWELLING, ATTACHED. A dwelling that is joined to another dwelling at one, or more, sides by a party wall, or walls.
DWELLING, EARTH SHELTERED. A detached dwelling unit of which 60%, or more, of its outer surface is insulated by an earthen embankment or overburden, or both, and which is architecturally designed, and landscaped, to harmonize with its natural surroundings.
DWELLING, MULTI-FAMILY. A building, or portion thereof, used for occupancy by three, or more, families living independently of each other, and containing three, or more, dwelling units.
EASEMENT. A grant by a property owner for the use of a strip of land for the purpose of constructing, and maintaining, utilities, including, but not limited to, sanitary sewers, water mains, electric lines, telephone lines, storm sewer or storm drainage ways, and gas lines.
ESSENTIAL SERVICES. Overhead, or underground electrical, gas, steam, or water transmission or distribution systems, and structures or collection, communication, supply, or disposal systems and structures used by public utilities, or governmental departments or commissions, or as are required for the protection of the public health, safety, or general welfare including towers, poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, and accessories in connection therewith, but not including buildings. For the purpose of this chapter, the word “building” does not include “structures” for ESSENTIAL SERVICES.
EXTERIOR STORAGE (OPEN STORAGE). The storage of goods, materials, equipment, manufactured products, and similar items not fully enclosed by a building.
FAMILY.
(a) One, or more, persons related to the other by blood, marriage, or adoption, or a group of not more than four persons not all so related, maintaining a common household in a dwelling unit, and using common cooking and kitchen facilities.
(b) A group, or foster care, of not more than six wards, or clients, by an authorized person, or persons, related by blood, marriage, or adoption, together with their domestic servants or gratuitous guests, all maintaining a common household in a dwelling unit approved, and certified, by the appropriate public agency.
FENCE. Any partition, structure, wall, or gate erected as a divide marker, barrier, or enclosure, and located along the boundary, or within the required yard.
FLOOR AREA. The sum of the gross horizontal areas of several floors of the building, or portion thereof, devoted to a particular use, including accessory storage areas located within selling, or working, space, and including any basement floor area devoted to retailing activities, to the production, or processing, of goods, or to business or professional offices.
FLOOR AREA RATIO. The numerical value obtained through dividing the gross floor area of a building, or buildings, by net area of the lot, or parcel of land, on which the building, or buildings, are located.
FRONTAGE. The boundary of a lot that abuts an existing, or dedicated, public street. For the purposes of determining yard requirements on corner lots, all sides of a lot adjacent to streets shall be considered FRONTAGE, and yards shall be provided as indicated under YARDS in this section.
FUNERAL HOME. A building, or part thereof, used for human funeral services. The building may contain space and facilities for embalming, and the performance of other services used in preparation of the dead for burial; the performance of autopsies, and other surgical procedures; the storage of caskets, funeral urns, and other related funeral supplies; and the storage of funeral vehicles, but shall not include facilities for cremation. Where a FUNERAL HOME is permitted, a funeral chapel shall also be permitted.
GARAGE, PRIVATE. An accessory building, or accessory portion of the principal building, that is intended for, and used, to store the private passenger vehicles of the family, or families, resident upon the premises.
GARAGE, PUBLIC. Any premises, except those defined as a private garage used for storage, or care, of self-propelled vehicles, and/or where any such vehicles are equipped for operation, repairs, or kept for remuneration, hire, or sale.
GOVERNING BODY. The City Council.
GRADE. The average of the finished ground level at the center of all walls of a building. In case walls are parallel to, and within, five feet of a sidewalk, the ground level shall be measured at the sidewalk.
GROUP CHILD CARE CENTER. A building, or structure, where care, protection, and supervision are provided on a regular schedule.
HARD SURFACE PARKING AREAS. Hard surfaced parking areas must be finished with either bituminous material or concrete, or a combination of both, or as determined by the Council. Crushed rock and gravel will not be allowed as a finished HARD SURFACE PARKING AREAS.
HOME OCCUPATION. Any gainful occupation, or profession, engaged in by the occupant of a dwelling, and carried on by members of a family residing therein, which use is clearly incidental, and secondary, to the use of the dwelling, and does not change the character thereof, and does not possess any exterior evidence of the secondary, or income producing, use, and which meets the criteria listed in §§ 156.110 through 156.115.
HOTEL. A building containing more than five sleeping rooms, provides a common entrance, lobby, halls, and stairway in which people are, for compensation, lodged with, or without, meals, but has no cooking facilities in individual sleeping rooms.
INDUSTRIAL PARK. A planned, coordinated development of a tract of land with two, or more, separate industrial buildings. The development is planned, designed, constructed, and managed on an integrated, and coordinated, basis with special attention given to on-site vehicular circulation, parking, utility needs, building design, and orientation, and open space.
JUNK YARD. See AUTO SALVAGE YARD.
KENNEL. Any structure, or premises, on which four, or more, dogs over four months of age are kept for sale, breeding, or profit.
KENNEL, PRIVATE. Any accessory building arranged for the care, and sheltering, of household pets belonging to the owner of the property on which the PRIVATE KENNEL is located. This includes all fenced, whether or not permanently affixed, structures intended for, or used for, the purposes herein defined.
LANDSCAPING. Planting, such as trees, grass, and shrubs, and use of decorative stones on the lawn area.
LOT. A parcel, or portion, of land in a subdivision or plat of land, separate from other parcels, or portions, by description as on a subdivision, or record of survey map, for the purpose of sale or lease, or separate use thereof.
LOT AREA. The area of a lot in a horizontal plane bounded by the lot lines.
LOT, CORNER. A lot situated at the junction of, and abutting on, two or more intersecting streets, or a lot at the point of deflection in alignment of a continuous street.
LOT COVERAGE. Determined by dividing the area of a lot that is occupied, or covered, by the total horizontal projected surface of all buildings, including covered porches and accessory buildings, by the gross area of the lot.
LOT DEPTH. The mean horizontal distance between the front lot line and the rear lot line of a lot (for purposes of this definition, a corner lot’s greater frontage shall be deemed its depth, and the lesser frontage its width).
LOT LINE. The property line bounding a lot. This excludes any portion of a lot that extends into the public right-of-way.
LOT, DOUBLE FRONTAGE. An interior lot having frontage on two streets.
LOT, INTERIOR. A lot other than a corner lot.
LOT LINE, FRONT. The boundary of a lot that abuts an existing, or dedicated, public street, and in the case of a corner lot, shall be the shortest dimension on a public street.
LOT LINE, REAR. The boundary of a lot that is opposite the front lot line.
LOT LINE, SIDE. Any boundary of a lot that is not a front lot line or a rear lot line.
LOT OF RECORD. Any lot which is one unit of a plat heretofore duly approved and filed, or one unit of an auditor’s subdivision, or a registered land survey that has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder prior to the effective date of this chapter.
LOT, SUBSTANDARD. A lot, or parcel of land, for which a deed has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder upon, or prior, to the effective date of this chapter which does not meet the minimum lot area, structure setbacks, or other dimensional standards of this chapter.
LOT, WIDTH. The maximum horizontal distance between the side lot lines of a lot measured within the required setback line.
MANUFACTURED HOUSING OR HOME. Single-family detached housing that is built to the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, being 42 U.S.C. §§ 5401 et seq., and shall include structures known as manufactured homes or mobile homes. (See also MOBILE HOMES.)
MANUFACTURED HOUSING PARK. A parcel of land under single ownership that has been planned, and improved, for the placement of manufactured housing for dwelling purposes.
METES AND BOUNDS. A method of property description in which lot boundaries are described by their direction, and distance, from an easily identifiable point.
MIXED USE. Properties on which various uses, such as office, commercial, institutional, and residential, are combined in a single building, or on a single site, in an integrated development project with significant functional interrelationships, and a coherent physical design. A single site may include contiguous properties.
MOBILE HOME. A transportable, factory-built home designed to be used as a year round residential dwelling, and built prior to the enactment of the Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, being 42 U.S.C. §§ 5401 et seq., which became effective June 15, 1976.
MOTEL. A building, or group of detached, semi-detached, or attached buildings, containing guest rooms or dwellings, with garage or parking space conveniently located at each unit, and which is designed, used, or intended to be used primarily for the accommodation of automobile transients.
NON-CONFORMING BUILDING. Any building that does not meet the limitation on building size and location on a lot, for the district in which the building is located, for the use to which the building is being put.
NON-CONFORMING LOT. A lot which lawfully existed prior to the adoption, revision, or amendment of this chapter, but which fails, by reason of the adoption, revision, or amendment to conform to the newly adopted district standards in which it is located.
NON-CONFORMING USE. A lawful use of land that does not comply with the use regulations for its zoning district, but which complied with applicable regulations at the time the use was established.
NURSERY, LANDSCAPE. A business growing, and selling, trees, flowering, and decorative plants and shrubs, and which may be conducted within a building, or outdoors for the purpose of landscape construction.
NURSING HOME. A building with facilities for the care of children, the aged, infirmed, or place of rest for those suffering bodily disorder. The NURSING HOME shall be licensed by the State Board of Health, as provided for in M.S. § 144.50, as it may be amended from time to time.
OCCUPANT. Any person (including the owner or operator) occupying any structure, building, or part thereof.
OFFICIAL MAP. The map established by the governing body, in accordance with the Municipal Planning Act (M.S. § 462.359, as it may be amended from time to time), showing streets, highways, parks, and drainage, both existing and proposed.
OFF-STREET LOADING SPACE. A space accessible from a street, alley, or driveway for the use of trucks, or other vehicles, while loading, or unloading, merchandise or materials. The space shall be of size as to accommodate one vehicle of the type typically used in the particular business.
OFFICE. A building, or portion of a building, wherein services are performed involving predominantly administrative, professional, or clerical operations.
OPEN SALES LOT. Any land used, or occupied, for the purpose of buying, and selling, any goods, materials, or merchandise, and for the storing of same under the open sky prior to sale.
OPEN SPACE. An area that is intended to provide light, and is designed for either environmental, scenic, or recreational purposes. OPEN SPACE may include, but is not limited to, lawns, decorative planting, walkways, active and passive recreation areas, playgrounds, fountains, swimming pools, wooded areas, and watercourses. OPEN SPACE shall not be deemed to include driveways, parking lots, or other surfaces designed, or intended, for vehicular travel.
OUTDOOR STORAGE. The keeping, in an unroofed area, of any goods, junk, material, merchandise, or vehicles in the same place for more than 24 hours.
PARCEL. A continuous quantity of land in the possession of, or owned by, or recorded as the property of, the same person, or persons.
PARK. Any public, or private, land available for recreational, educational, cultural, or aesthetic use.
PARKING LOT. An area not within a building where motor vehicles may be stored for the purposes of temporary, daily, or overnight off-street parking.
PEDESTRIAN WAY. A public, or private, right-of-way across, or within, a block, to be used by pedestrians.
PERSON. An individual, proprietorship, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity.
PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT. A development whereby buildings are grouped, or clustered, in, and around, common open space areas in accordance with a prearranged site plan, and where the common open space is owned by the homeowners, and usually maintained by a homeowners association.
PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION. The Planning and Zoning Commission of the city, unless otherwise designated.
PREFABRICATED HOME. A non-mobile housing unit, the walls, floors, and ceilings of which are constructed at a central factory, and transported to a building site where final construction is completed, permanently affixing the unit to the site.
PREMISES. A lot, or plot, with the required front, side, and rear yards for a dwelling, or other use, as allowed under this chapter.
PRINCIPAL STRUCTURE OR USE. The predominant use as contrasted to the accessory use or structure.
PROPERTY LINE. The legal boundaries of a parcel of property that may also coincide with a right-of-way line of road, cartway, and the like.
PROTECTIVE COVENANT. A contract entered into between private parties that constitutes a restriction of the use of a particular parcel of property.
PUBLIC LAND. Land owned, or operated, by municipal, school district, county, state, or other governmental units.
RECREATION EQUIPMENT. Play apparatus, such as swing sets and slides, sandboxes, poles for nets, picnic tables, lawn chairs, barbecue stands, and similar equipment or structures, but not including tree houses, swimming pools, playhouses exceeding 25 square feet of floor area, or sheds utilized for storage of equipment.
RECREATION, COMMERCIAL. Uses, such as bowling alleys, driving ranges, and movie theatres that are privately-owned, and operated, with the intention of earning a profit by providing entertainment for the public.
RECREATION, PUBLIC. Uses, such as tennis courts, ball fields, picnic areas, and the like that are commonly provided for the public at parks, playgrounds, community centers, and other sites owned, and operated, by a unit of government for the purpose of providing recreation.
RECYCLING CENTER. A building in which used material is separated, and processed, prior to shipment to others who will use those materials to manufacture new products.
RECYCLING COLLECTION POINT. An incidental use that serves as a neighborhood dropoff point for temporary storage of recoverable resources. No process of the items would be allowed. This facility would generally be located in a shopping center parking lot, or in other public, or quasi-public, areas, such as in churches or schools.
REGISTERED LAND SURVEY. A survey map of registered land designed to simplify a complicated metes and bounds description, designating the same into a tract, or tracts, of a registered land survey number.
RESTAURANT. An establishment that serves food and beverages primarily to persons seated within the building. This includes cafs, tea rooms, and outdoor cafs.
RESTAURANT, DRIVE-IN. An establishment that offers quick food service, which is accomplished through a limited menu of items already prepared, and held, for service; or prepared, fried, or griddled quickly, or heated in a device such as a microwave oven. Orders are not generally taken at the customer’s table, and food is generally served in disposable wrapping or containers.
RIGHT-OF-WAY. A strip of land occupied, or intended to be occupied, by a street, crosswalk, railroad, electric transmission line, oil or gas pipeline, water main, sanitary or storm sewer main, shade trees, or other special use.
ROAD. A public right-of-way affording primary access by pedestrians, or vehicles, to abutting properties, whether designated as a street, highway, thoroughfare, parkway, throughway, road, avenue, boulevard, land, place, or however otherwise designated. Ingress and egress easements shall not be considered a ROAD.
ROOMING HOUSE. A building in which individual rooms are rented as sleeping and living quarters, but without cooking facilities in the individual rooms so rented, by the month or longer.
SCHOOL. A facility that provides a curriculum of elementary, and secondary, academic instruction, including kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools.
SECONDHAND MERCHANDISE, RETAIL SALES. Retail sales of previously used merchandise, such as clothing, household furnishings or appliances, and sports/recreational equipment. This classification does not include secondhand motor vehicles, parts, or accessories.
SELF-SERVICE STORAGE FACILITY. A building consisting of individual, small, self-contained units that are leased, or owned, for storage of business and household goods, or contractors supplies.
SETBACK. The required minimum horizontal distance between the building line and the related front, side, or rear property line.
SEWAGE. Any water carrying domestic waste, exclusive of footing and roof drainage of any residence, industry, agriculture or commercial establishment, whether treated or untreated, and including the liquid wastes produced by bathing, laundry, and culinary operation, and from toilets and floor drains. Raw sewage is SEWAGE that has not been subjected to any treatment process.
SIGN. A name, identification, description, display, illustration, or device that is affixed to, or represented directly, or indirectly, upon a building, structure, or land in view of the general public, and which directs attention to a product, place, activity, person, institution, or business.
SIGN, ELECTRONIC MESSAGE. A sign whose message may be changed at intervals by electronic process or remote control, and whose only movements is the periodic changing of information having a constant light level.
SIGN, FLASHING. Any illuminated sign on which illumination is not kept stationary, or constant, in intensity and color at all times when the sign is in use.
SIGN, FREESTANDING. A sign that is attached to, erected on, or supported by some structure (such as a pole, mast, frame, or other structure) that is not itself an integral part of, or attached to, a building, or other structure, having a principal function other than the support of a sign. A sign that stands without supporting elements, such as a sandwich sign, is also a FREESTANDING SIGN.
SIGN, ILLUMINATED. Any sign which has characters, letters, figures, designs, or outlines illuminated by electric lights, or luminous tubes, as a part of the design.
SIGN, MARQUEE, AWNING, AND CANOPY. Any message, or identification, which is affixed to, or part of, a marquee, awning, or canopy.
SIGN, NAMEPLATE. Any sign which states the name or address, or both, of the business, or occupant, of the lot where the sign is placed.
SIGN, NON-CONFORMING. A sign which lawfully existed at the time of the adoption of this chapter, but does not conform to the requirements thereof.
SIGN, OFF-PREMISES. A sign advertising a business, commodity, service, or entertainment conducted, sold, or offered elsewhere other than upon the premises where the sign is maintained.
SIGN, ON-PREMISES. A sign which advertises the business, commodity, service, or entertainment, offered upon the same premises on which the sign is located.
SIGN, PORTABLE. A sign constructed to be moveable from one location to another, or not permanently attached to the ground, or to any permanent structure.
SIGN, PROJECTING. A sign, other than a wall sign, which projects from, and is supported by, a building.
SIGN, READER BOARD. A sign intended to display a message through the use of manually changed letters, that is permanently attached to a ground sign, or affixed to a wall. All other such signs shall be deemed temporary signs.
SIGN, REAL ESTATE. A sign advertising the sale, rental, or development of the premises upon which it stands, or directing attention to the opening, or location, of a new residential development.
SIGN, ROOF. A sign permanently affixed upon the roof of a building.
SIGN, ROTATING. A sign which revolves, or rotates, on its axis by mechanical means.
SIGN, SURFACE AREA. The entire area within a single continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of the actual sign surface, not including any structural elements outside the limits of the sign, and not forming an integral part of the display. Only one face of a double faced, or V-type, sign shall be considered in determining the display SURFACE AREA.
SIGN, TEMPORARY. Any sign, banner, pennant, poster, or advertising display which is intended to be displayed for a limited period of time, and is not permanently affixed to the ground, or a structure. Signs not meeting this definition shall be considered permanent signs, and must meet the standards contained herein.
SIGN, WALL. A sign affixed on a part of the exterior wall of a building, and flush against it.
STORY. The portion of a building between the surface of any floor and the surface of the next floor above it, or, if there is no floor above it, the space between the floor and ceiling next above it.
STORY, HALF. A story with at least two opposite exterior sides meeting a sloping roof not more than two feet above the floor of the story.
STREET. A public right-of-way that affords primary means of access to abutting property, and shall also include avenue, highway, road, or way.
STREET, COLLECTOR. A street that serves, or is designed to serve, as a traffic-way for a neighborhood, or as a feeder to a major road.
STREET, LOCAL. A street intended to serve primarily as an access to abutting properties.
STREET PAVEMENT. The wearing, or exposed, surface of the roadway used by vehicular traffic.
STREET WIDTH. The width of the right-of-way measured at right angles to the centerline of the street.
STRUCTURE. Anything constructed, or erected, the use of which requires location on the ground, or attachment to something having a location on the ground.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION. Any change, or addition, to the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams, girders, or foundations.
SUBDIVISION. The division, or redivision, of a lot, tract, or parcel of land into two, or more, lots either by plat, or by metes and bounds, description.
TAVERN. A building, or part thereof, where, in consideration of payment therefor, liquor, beer, or wine, or any combination thereof, are served for consumption on the premises, with or without food.
TOWER. A structure situated on a nonresidential site that is intended for transmitting, or receiving, television, radio, or telephone communications, excluding those used exclusively for dispatch communications.
TOWNHOUSE. A single-family building attached by party walls with other single-family buildings, and oriented so that all exits open to the outside.
USE. The purpose, or activity, for which the land, or building thereon, is designated, arranged for, intended for, or for which it is occupied, utilized, or maintained.
USE, ACCESSORY. A use subordinate to, and serving, the principal use, or structure, on the same lot, and customarily incidental thereto.
USE, PERMITTED. A public, or private, use which conforms with the purposes, objectives, requirements, regulations, and performance standards of a particular district.
USE, PRINCIPAL. The main use of land or buildings, as distinguished from subordinate or accessory, uses. A PRINCIPAL USE may be either permitted or special.
USE, SPECIAL. A use that, owing to some special circumstances pertaining to its location or operation, may be permitted in a district subject to approval by the Council, and may be subject to conditions placed upon the use by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and approved by the Council.
VARIANCE. A modification, or variation, of the provisions of this chapter where it is determined that, by reason of special, and unusual, circumstances relating to a specific lot, the strict application of this chapter would cause an undue, or unnecessary, hardship, or that strict conformity with the provisions of this chapter would be unreasonable, impractical, or unfeasible under the circumstances.
VIDEO RENTAL STORE. An establishment primarily engaged in the retail rental, or lease, of video tapes, films, CD-ROMs, laser discs, electronic games, cassettes, or other electronic media. Sales of film, video tapes, laser discs, CD-ROMs, and electronic merchandise associated with VCRs, video cameras, and electronic games are permitted accessory uses.
YARD. A required open space on a lot that is unoccupied, and unobstructed, by a structure, except as permitted in this chapter. The YARD extends along the lot line at right angles to the lot line to a depth, or width, specified in the setback regulations, or the zoning district in which the lot is located.
YARD, FRONT. The area extending across the full width of the lot, and lying between the front lot line and the front building line.
YARD, REAR. A yard extending across the width of the lot, and lying between the rear lot line and the nearest line of the principal building.
YARD, SIDE. A yard extending from the front lot line to the rear lot line, and lying between the side lot line and the nearest line of a building.
ZERO LOT LINE. The location of a building on a lot in a manner that one, or more, of the building’s sides rest directly on a lot line.
ZONING AMENDMENT. A change authorized by the city either as a zoning text change, or as a change in the boundaries of a district.
ZONING DISTRICT. An area, or areas, within the limits of the city of which the regulations, and requirements, governing use are uniform.
(Prior Code, § 11.02) (Ord. 30, third series, passed 10-15-2013)