Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions shall be used in the interpretation and construction of this Zoning Ordinance. Words used in the present tense include the future; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular; the word "building" includes the word "structure" and any portion of the building or structure; the word "used" includes "arranged, designed, constructed, altered, converted, rented, leased, or intended to be used"; the word "shall" is mandatory and not directory; the word "abut" includes the words "directly across from"; and the word "occupied" means "designed for, used for, or intended for use by".
(1) "Accessory use" or "accessory structure" means a use or structure subordinate to the principal use of a building on the same lot and serving a purpose customarily incidental to the use of the principal building.
(2) "Alley" means a public or private way not more than thirty feet wide affording only secondary means of access to abutting property.
(3) "Alteration" (of building or structure) means any change in the structural members of a building, such as walls, columns, beams or girders.
(4) "Automobile service station" or "filling station" means a building or place of business where gasoline, oil and greases, batteries, tires and automobile accessories are supplied and dispensed directly to the motor vehicle trade, at retail, and/or where the following repairs may be rendered:
A. Major repair: includes minor repairs, also collision service including body, frame or fender straightening or repair; painting or paint shop; mechanical car wash establishments. Does not include operations requiring the burning of rubber.
B. Minor repair: general repairs and servicing. Excludes major repairs as listed above.
(5) "Automobile wrecking" means the dismantling or disassembling of used motor vehicles or trailers; or the storage, sale or dumping of dismantled, obsolete or wrecked vehicles or their parts.
(6) "Basements" means a story whose floor is more than twelve inches, but not more than half of its story height, below the average level of the adjoining ground, as distinguished from a "cellar" which is a story more than one-half below such level. Any portion of a basement, when used as a dwelling, shall be counted as a story for purposes of height measurement.
(7) "Board" means the Board of Zoning Appeals of the City.
(8) "Building" means any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls used for shelter or enclosures. When divided into separate parts by one or more unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part is deemed a separate building, except as regards minimum side yard requirements.
(9) "Building coverage, maximum" means the maximum percentage of the lot area which may be covered with principal and accessory buildings.
(10) "Building height" means the vertical distance measured from the average level of the highest and lowest portion of the building site covered by the building, to the ceiling of the uppermost story.
(11) "Building, principal" means a building which contains the principal use of the building site on which it is situated. In a residential district a dwelling is a principal building on the zone lot.
(12) "Certificate of nonconformance" means a certificate issued under the terms of this Zoning Ordinance and authorized by the Zoning Board of Appeals indicating the existence of a legal nonconforming use.
(13) "Commission" means the City Planning Commission.
(14) "Council" means Council of the City of Wellsburg.
(15) "District" means a portion of the territory of the City within which certain uniform regulations and requirements apply under the provisions of this Zoning Ordinance.
(16) "Dwelling" means any building or portion thereof designed or used exclusively as the residence or sleeping place of one or more persons, except as provided herein:
A. Dwelling, single-family. A detached building, designed for only one family, containing one dwelling unit.
B. Dwelling, two-family. A detached or semi-detached building where not more than two individual family or dwelling units are entirely separated by vertical walls or horizontal floors, unpierced except for access to the outside or to a common cellar.
C. Dwelling, multi-family. A building designed for occupancy by three or more families, and containing three or more dwelling units. Includes garden apartments, elevator apartments, and row houses which contain less than nine dwelling units on each floor.
(17) "Dwelling structure" means any structure containing one or more rooms providing sleeping and sanitary facilities, not including a motel, hospital, nursing home, dormitory, fraternity or sorority house, rooming house, boarding house or similar structure.
(18) "Dwelling unit" means one or more rooms, including a kitchen or kitchenette and sanitary facilities, in a dwelling structure, designed as a unit for occupancy by not more than one family.
(19) "Essential services" means the construction or maintenance, by public utilities or governmental agencies, of gas, electrical, steam, telephone or water distribution systems. These include equipment such as poles, towers, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants and other similar equipment which conform to the height regulations of the zoning district in which they are proposed; except that buildings and electric substations are excluded.
(20) "Garage, private parking" means a detached accessry building used only for the storage of automibiles by the families resident upon the premises. A private garage shall not contain more than two automobile storage spaces for each dwelling unit located upon the zone lot.
(21) "Garage, public parking" means a structure other than a private garage used for the storage, sale, hire, care, repair or refinishing of automobiles.
(22) "General nuisance" means any use considered to be inconsistent with the public comfort, convenience, health, safety and general welfare, including uses generating the following:
A. Fire and explosion hazards.
B. Electrical and radioactive disturbances.
C. Noise and vibration.
D. Dust, dirt, fly ash.
E. Glare.
F. Smoke, odors.
G. Other forms of air pollution not listed above.
(23) "Hotel" means a building designed for occupancy as the temporary residence of individuals who are lodged with or without meals. No cooking is provided in any individual room or suite.
(24) "Junkyards" means buildings or premises where junk, waste, discarded or salvage materials are bought, sold, stored, packed or handled. Junkyards include automobile wrecking yards, house wrecking, and structural steel materials and equipment. The purchase or storage of used furniture, household equipment and used cars in operable condition is not included.
(25) "Junk" includes scrap metals and their alloys, bones, used materials and products, such as rags and cloth, rubber, rope, tinfoil, bottles, old tools and machinery, fixtures and appliances, lumber, boxes or crates, pipe and pipe fittings, and other manufactured goods that are so worn, deteriorated or obsolete as to make them unusable in their existing condition, but are subject to being dismantled.
(26) "Lot" or "zone lot" means a piece or parcel of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building or a group of such buildings, or utilized for a principal use and uses accessory or incidental to the operation thereof. It includes open spaces as required by this Zoning Ordinance, and has frontage on a public street. The lot lines are the property lines bounding the lot.
A. Lot, corner. A lot abutting upon the intersection of two or more streets which form an interior angle of less than 120 degrees. The point of intersection of the street lot lines is the "corner".
B. Lot, depth. The main horizontal distance between the front and the rear lot lines, but in no case shall any side lot line be less than ninety percent (90%) of this main, horizontal distance.
C. Lot lines.
1. Lot line, front. The line separating the lot from the street upon which the lot faces.
2. Lot line, rear. The lot line opposite and most distant from the front line.
3. Lot line, side. Any lot line other than a front or rear lot line. A side lot line separating a lot from a street is called a side street lot line.
4. Lot line, street or alley. A lot line separating the lot from a street or alley.
D. Lot width. The width of the lot measured at right angles to its depth, at the building line.
E. Lot area. The computed area contained within the lot lines.
(27) "Nonconforming lot" means a zone lot in single ownership, adjacent on all sides to properties in different ownership, which does not conform with the minimum dimension specified for the district or for the use contained upon the lot.
(28) "Nonconforming use" means a building, structure or premises legally existing and/or used at the effective date of this section which does not conform with the use regulation of the district in which it is located.
(29) "Nursing home" means any premises with less than fifteen sleeping rooms where persons are lodged and furnished with meals and nursing care.
(30) "Office building" means a building comprised more than fifty percent (50%) of offices. Home occupations with offices are not considered to be office buildings.
(31) "Permits".
A. Permit, zoning. A permit issued under the terms of this Zoning Ordinance which shall enable persons to erect, alter or convert a structure or alter a use of any land.
B. Permit, occupancy. A permit issued under the terms of this Ordinance indicating that premises comply with the provisions of this Ordinance.
(32) "Parking area, private" means an open area for the same uses as a private garage, and subject to the same conditions.
(33) "Parking area, public" means an open area, other than a street or other public way, used for the parking of automobiles, and available to the public.
(34) "Principal permitted use" means any use requiring no special action by the Board or the Commission before the zoning permit is granted by the Zoning Officer, subject to all other applicable provisions of the Zoning Ordinance.
(35) "Recreation".
A. Recreation, commercial. Recreation facilities operated as a business and open to the general public for a fee.
B. Recreation, private, noncommercial. Clubs or recreation facilities, operated by a nonprofit organization, and open only to its members.
C. Recreation, public. Recreation facilities operated as a nonprofit enterprise by a governmental entity or a nonprofit organization, and open to the general public.
D. Recreational facility, outdoor. Any activity normally conducted outdoors, including swimming, tennis, baseball, football and similar recreational and/or athletic activities. Such activities conducted within an enclosed building or structure shall be considered to be outdoor recreational facilities.
(36) "Rooming house" means a building containing a single dwelling unit and rooms for the rooming and/or boarding of between three and twenty-five persons for definite periods of not less than one week.
(37) "Special use" means any use requiring special review and action and a special exception by the Board of Zoning Appeals and by the Planning Commission for the purpose of determining compliance with the special requirements established by this Zoning Ordinance for such use and further requiring specific authorization by the Board before a zoning permit is granted.
(38) "Sign" means any name, identification, description, illustration, display or device which is affixed to, painted or represented upon a building, structure or land and which directs attention to a product, place, activity, person, institution or business.
(39) "Story" means the portion of a building included between the surfaces of any floor and the floor above it. If there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it.
(40) "Street" means any thoroughfare so designated on the general plan of the City, or so designated by appropriate resolution of Council.
A. Residential street. A street between two intersecting streets upon which an R-1 District abuts, or where fifty percent (50%) or more of the abutting street frontage is in predominantly residential use.
B. Side street. The street adjacent to a corner lot which extends in the general direction of the depth of the lot.
(41) "Strip mining" means any mining operation by which the earth and rocks overlying a coal vein are removed by mechanical means or by hand for the purpose of recovering, mining or removing coal thereunder.
(42) "Structure" means anything constructed which requires a permanent location on the ground, or an attachment hereto. In includes stationary and portable carports.
(43) "Variance" means the Board's authorized departure to a minor degree from the requirements of the Zoning Ordinance in accordance with the procedures set forth in this Ordinance.
(44) "Yard" means an open space lying between a building or group of buildings on the same lot, and the nearest lot line. It is unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as otherwise permitted.
A. Yard, front. An open space extending the full width of the lot between a building and the front lot line.
B. Yard, rear. An open space extending the full width of the lot between a building and the rear lot line.
C. Yard, side. An open space extending from the front yard to the rear yard between a building and the nearest side lot line.
(45) "Zoning Officer" means the person designated by the Zoning Board of Appeals who shall administer and enforce the provisions of this Zoning Ordinance. (5-16-67)
(46) "Zoning Ordinance" or "Ordinance" means the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Wellsburg, passed May 16, 1967, and amendments thereto.