The text and map of this Zoning Code are established pursuant to applicable provisions of the Ohio Revised Code and under the Home Rule authority granted by Article XVIII, Section 3 of the Ohio Constitution. By the adoption of this Zoning Code, the City intends to promote the health, safety, morals and general welfare of its residents, businesses and visitors through the following objectives:
(a) To prevent community needs and priorities from becoming subservient to regional market pressures.
(b) To prevent hazards to the health and safety of the public and of all occupants of improved real property.
(c) To assure adequate light, air and convenience of access for all properties.
(d) To promote the delivery of public services such as utilities, streets, refuse collection, emergency medical services, fire and police protection.
(e) To separate incompatible land uses and cluster compatible and mutually supportive land uses.
(f) To create physical buffers between zones where generally beneficial, and within zones where tensions or conflicts may occur between dissimilar land uses.
(g) To provide for creatively designed single-use and mixed-use Planned Unit Developments, and to preserve their character and vitality through ongoing regulatory supervision.
(h) To assure, through an appropriate site plan review, that the general, district and supplementary regulations of this Zoning Code are being followed in the design of each new site improvement or redevelopment.
(i) To minimize adverse effects on traffic safety caused by development and certain land uses.
(j) To minimize adverse effects on the environment resulting from development and certain land uses.
(k) To facilitate the efficient and economical development and use of land and public facilities.
(l) To allocate to each site development, rather than to the public, the maximum feasible portion of the infrastructure and operating costs which arise as a result of that development.
(m) To fairly balance the interest of property owners and occupants in continuing their nonconforming land uses against the community interest in achieving full compliance with this Zoning Code.
(n) To protect floodways and flood plains from development which increases the general risk of flooding or puts occupants of the development at risk.
(o) To preserve and enhance property values.
(p) To protect public and private water supplies, both in quality and quantity.
(q) To promote the economic vitality of business and industry.
(r) To direct particular land uses to the parcels of land best suited for them physically and in terms of access to highways and public services.
(s) To enhance the predictability and profitability of private investments made in the City.
(t) To continuously improve the aesthetic character of all parts of the City.
(u) To provide for variances from certain aspects of this Zoning Code where justified by special circumstances and where the public interest will not be adversely affected.
(v) To provide for thorough, efficient and lawful Code administration.
(Ord. 16-2003. Passed 5-1-03.)