In interpreting this Title, the following terms, words, or phrases used herein shall be interpreted as follows:
A. The present tense includes the future tense, the singular number includes the plural, and the plural number includes the singular.
B. The words "shall" and "must" are mandatory, the word "may" is permissive.
ACCESSORY: Subordinate and incidental to a principal use or structure on the same lot.
ADULT BUSINESS RELATED TERMS:
Adult Amusement Establishment: An establishment that:
A. Provides amusement or entertainment which is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on material depicting or relating to specified sexual activities or specific anatomical areas;
B. Features topless dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators, topless/bottomless waitering, or similar entertainment.
C. Upon payment of a fee, provides an escort or partner to its patrons.
Adult Bookstore/ Video Store: A commercial establishment which has twenty percent (20%) or more of its floor space or one of its principal business purposes, which offers for sale or rental or for any form of consideration any one or more of the following:
A. Films, video tapes, video cassettes, or reproductions of video cassettes, photographs, slides, motion pictures, books, magazines, or other visual representations which are distinguished or characterized by their emphasis on matters depicting or describing "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas"; or
B. Instruments, devices or paraphernalia which are designated for use in connection with "specified sexual activities". A commercial establishment may have other principal business purposes that do not include the sale or rental of material depicted or describing "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" and still be categorized as an adult bookstore/video store if the use is a principal use based upon the visible inventory of commercial activity of the establishment.
Specified Anatomical Areas: Means and includes the male genitals in a state of sexual arousal or the vulva or more intimate parts of the female genitals.
Specified Sexual Activities: Means and includes any of the following:
A. The fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, anus, buttocks, or female breasts; or
B. Sex acts, normal or perverted, including intercourse, or oral copulation or sodomy; or
C. Masturbation; or City of Sunland Park
D. Excretory functions as part of or in connection with any of the activities set forth in subsections A through C of this definition.
ALLEY: A public thoroughfare which affords only a secondary means of access to abutting property.
APARTMENT: One or more structures containing three (3) or more dwelling units each, located on one lot.
BASEMENT: The lowest habitable story of a building below ground level.
BOARDING OR ROOMING HOUSE: A dwelling unit containing up to and including five (5) guest rooms where lodging is provided, with or without meals, for compensation.
BUILD: To erect, convert, enlarge, reconstruct, or structurally alter a building.
BUILDING: Any structure built for use of persons or animals.
BUILDING HEIGHT: The vertical distance from the grade to: a) the highest point of a flat roof; b) the deck line of a mansard roof; or c) the average height between eaves and ridge for gable, hip, and gambrel roofs.
BUILDING, MAIN: The building occupied by the primary use.
CENTER LINE: The line halfway between the street lines.
CLINIC: An establishment occupied by one or more members of the medical or dental profession for the purpose of providing health services.
CLUB: Any membership organization catering exclusively to members and their guests and whose facilities are limited to meeting, eating and/or recreational uses, and further, whose activities are not conducted for monetary gains; including, but not limited to, civic, fraternal, charitable, religious, social and patriotic organizations.
CONDITIONAL USE: An allowable land use, but which shall not be undertaken until such use is reviewed and approved by the City Planning and Zoning Commission. Since it is an allowable use, the City Planning and Zoning Commission may not deny it outright; however, the Commission may require the applicant to enter into enforceable agreements or undertakings restricting such use in the interest of the public welfare and the value of the property in that area.
CONDOMINIUM: One or more structures containing two (2) or more dwelling units each that are sold to and held under individual ownership by the occupants, and which may or may not include ownership of the land upon which the dwelling units are" situated. This includes townhouses, patiohouses, and other similar forms of individual ownership.
CONTIGUOUS: Touching or separated only by an alley or street.
COURT: An open space that is more than half surrounded by a single building or buildings.
DISTRICT: Any section of the City of Sunland Park where regulations governing the use of buildings and premises or the height and area of buildings and lot size are uniform.
DUPLEX: A building arranged, intended or designed to be occupied by two (2) families living independently of each other and having separate cooking facilities in each dwelling unit.
DWELLING, MULTIPLE-FAMILY: A building arranged or designed to be occupied by two (2) or more families living independently of each other and having separate cooking facilities in each dwelling unit.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY: A building arranged or designed to be occupied by one family (without more than 2 lodgers or boarders), the structure having only one dwelling unit, but not including a mobile home.
DWELLING UNIT: One or more connected rooms and a single kitchen designed for and occupied by no more than one family for living and sleeping purposes.
FAMILY: An individual or two (2) or more persons related by blood or marriage, or a group of not more than five (5) persons (excluding servants) who need not be related by blood or marriage, living together in a dwelling unit.
FARM: An area which is used for the growing of the usual farm products such as vegetables, fruit, fodder, trees and grain, and their storage on the area.
FLOOR AREA: The total gross area of all floors of a building.
FLOOR AREA RATIO: The relationship of the floor area to the lot area computed by dividing the floor area by the lot area.
FRONTAGE: The distance along a street line from one intersecting street to another or from one intersecting street to the end of a dead-end street. "Lot frontage" is the width of a lot measured along a street.
GARAGE, COMMERCIAL: Any building or structure where automobiles, trucks, tractors, or other vehicles are stored, painted, repaired or equipped for a charge, and where the service and sale of gasoline and oil are incidental to the principal building use.
GARAGE, PRIVATE: Any accessory building for the primary purpose of housing vehicles which are owned and used by the occupants of the main building.
GRADE: The average of the finished ground level at the center of all walls of a building.
HOME OCCUPATION: See Title 3, Chapter 4 of this Code for home occupation regulations.
LOT: Any parcel of land platted and placed on record in accordance with laws and ordinances described by plat or metes and bounds and having frontage on a public right of way.
LOT, AREA: The aggregate lot area measured to property lines.
LOT, CORNER: Any lot located at the intersection of, and having frontage on, two (2) or more streets.
LOT DEPTH: The average distance between the front and rear lot lines measured in the mean direction of the side lot lines.
LOT, DOUBLE FRONTAGE: Any lot with frontage on two (2) parallel or approximately parallel streets.
LOT LINE, FRONT: The boundary of a lot bordering on a street. For the purpose of determining setback requirements on corner lots and double frontage lots, all sides bordering on a street shall be considered the front.
LOT LINE, REAR: The lot boundary line which is opposite and most distant from and not coterminous with the front lot line.
LOT LINE, SIDE: Any boundary line not a front lot line or a rear lot line.
LOT WIDTH: The average distance between the side lot lines measured parallel to the front lot line.
MAJOR RECREATIONAL EQUIPMENT: Include boats and boat trailers, travel trailers, pickup campers or coaches (designed to be mounted on automotive vehicles), used for transporting recreational equipment, whether occupied by such equipment or not.
MANUFACTURED HOME: A factory-built dwelling, which is manufactured or constructed under the authority of 42 USC section 5403, Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, which is not constructed with a permanent hitch or other device allowing it to be moved other than for the purpose of moving to a permanent site, and which does not have permanently attached to its body or frame any wheels or axles. A mobile home constructed to the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards is not a manufactured home unless it has been converted to real property and is taxed as a site built dwelling. For the purpose of any of these regulations, manufactured homes shall be considered the same as a single-family detached dwelling.
MOBILE HOME (MH): A manufactured, nonmotorized dwelling unit complete and ready for a long term occupancy, built on a permanent chassis for towing purposes, with minimum body dimensions of eight feet (8') wide by forty feet (40') long, built to be connected to utilities and placed on a foundation. A mobile home is designed specifically for single-family human habitation and can be identified by a model and serial number given by the builder and registered with the State of New Mexico, and by HUD seal.
MOBILE HOME LOT (MHL): A private owned parcel of land within a mobile home subdivision, including required yards, parking area, attached and/or detached accessory buildings and open spaces, used or intended to be used for setting up one mobile home. MHLs are the subdivided parcels of mobile home subdivisions and can be sold, fee simple, to prospective owners.
MOBILE HOME PARK: A parcel of land on which space is leased for terms of twelve (12) months or less, or rented for occupancy for thirty (30) days or more by mobile homes, and which contains permanent facilities for the use of mobile home occupants.
MOBILE HOME SPACE (MHSP): A parcel of land within a mobile home park rented or intended to be rented to prospective renters by the owner. MHSPs include required yards, parking yards, parking areas, attached and/or detached accessory buildings, open spaces and utilities.
MOBILE HOME SUBDIVISION: A parcel of land equal to one City block or its equivalent, subdivided into lots individually owned and utilized as the site for placement of a single mobile home.
MODULAR DWELLING UNIT: A factory-fabricated transportable building designed to be used by itself or to be incorporated with similar units at a building site in a modular structure on a permanent foundation. The term is intended to apply to major assemblies which must conform to the local building codes, and does not include prefabricated panels, trusses, plumbing trees and other prefabricated sub-elements which are to be incorporated in a structure at the building site.
NONCONFORMING USES, LOTS, STRUCTURES: Any building, structure or portion thereof, or use of any building or land which does not conform to this Title and which lawfully existed on the effective date hereof but does not include a sign or advertising structure.
PERSON: Includes a firm, association, organization, partnership, trust, company or corporation as well as individual.
PREMISES: Any lot or combination of contiguous lots held in single ownership, together with all development thereon.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE PARK (RVP): A tract of land at least two (2) acres in size, on which recreational vehicles are parked temporarily in rental spaces for periods not exceeding ninety (90) days during any twelve (12) month period. Recreational vehicles may not be stored in RVPs.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE STORAGE AREA (RVSA): A vehicular, portable structure built on a chassis, designed to be used as a temporary dwelling for travel and recreational purposes, and not designed to be permanently connected to utilities.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE, TRAVEL TRAILER: The required distance between every building or structure and any lot line on the lot on which it is located. Setbacks shall consist of an open space, unoccupied and unobstructed by any part of a building or structure, except as may be authorized by this Title.
SETBACK: A parcel of land on which recreational vehicles are stored while not in use.
SIGN: A device designed to inform or attract the attention of persons not on the premises on which the sign is located; provided, however, that the following shall not be construed to be a sign:
A. Flags or government insignias, except when used in commercial displays.
B. Integral decorative or architectural features on buildings, except letters, trademarks, moving parts, or moving lights.
C. Illustration of names of occupants, post office box numbers and property numbers when smaller than one square foot.
D. Legal notice of identification, informational, or directional signs erected or required by governmental bodies.
E. Private traffic signs bearing no advertising matter.
F. Real estate advertising of the property on which the sign is located; provided, that the area of the sign or group of signs is less than five (5) square feet.
G. Signs denoting the name and address of the occupants of the premises, the number of which shall not exceed three (3) and the area of each shall not exceed one square foot.
H. Professional nameplates that shall not exceed three (3) in number and the area of each shall not exceed one square foot.
I. Signs for home occupations, the number of which shall not exceed one and the area of which shall not exceed one square foot.
J. Signs for private daycare facilities and kindergartens, the number of which shall not exceed one and the area of which shall not exceed one square foot.
K. Signs denoting the architect, engineer or contractor placed on the premises where construction, repair or renovation is in progress, with a combined total surface area not exceeding four (4) square feet.
L. Signs for a temporary garage or yard sale which shall be located on the premises where the sale is conducted, the number of which shall not exceed one and the area of which shall not exceed two (2) square feet.
SIGN AREA: The total area that will contain the entire sign excluding architectural embellishments and supports on neither of which there is displayed any advertising material nor any lighting.
SIGN, FREESTANDING: A sign attached to or supported from the ground and not attached to a building.
SIGN, WALL: A sign flush to the exterior surface of a building, whether applied directly on the building or a signboard attached flush to the building.
STREET: A thoroughfare which has been dedicated to the public or which has been made public by continuing use by the public for the period of time recognized by the law to create a street by adverse use of the public.
TOWNHOUSE: One of a group of attached dwelling units divided from each other by common walls and each having a separate entrance leading directly to the outdoors at ground level.
TRAVEL TRAILER COURT OR CAMPGROUND: A lot, tract or parcel of land licensed and used or offered for use in whole or in part, for the parking of occupied travel trailers, pickup campers, converted buses, recreational vehicles, tent trailers, tents or similar devices used for temporary portable housing and used solely for living and/or sleeping purposes and which does not allow use for more than thirty (30) consecutive days.
VARIANCE: A relaxation of the terms of this Title where such variance will not be contrary to the public interest and where, owing to conditions peculiar to the property and not the result of actions of the applicant, a literal enforcement of this Title would result in unnecessary and undue hardship. As used in this Title, a variance may be authorized only for area, height, dimension, distance, setback, off-street parking, and off-street loading requirements or as elsewhere specifically authorized by this Title.
WRECKING OR JUNKYARD: An area where automobiles or other types of equipment are dismantled for reasons of obtaining parts; or where wrecked or otherwise unserviceable automobiles are stored; or other cases where sufficient used metal has been allowed to accumulate so as to cover an area larger than two hundred fifty (250) square feet. (Ord. 1985-03, 4-16-1985; amd. Ord. 1993-10, 11-1-1993; Ord. 1997-05, 12-8-1997; Ord. 1998-02, 4-7-1998; Ord. 1998-06, 10-6-1998; Ord. 1999-01, 1-5-1999; 2000 Code)