As used in this Zoning Code:
(1) "Accessory use" means a use or building naturally and normally incidental to, subordinate to and devoted exclusively to the main use of the land or building. Accessory uses include home occupations and roadside stands, as herein defined.
(2) "Agriculture" means plant cultivation.
(3) "Apartment" means a room or suite of rooms intended, designed or used as a residence by a single family.
(4) "Apartment building" means a building designed for or containing apartments or suites of rooms for residential purposes.
(5) "Automotive repair" means the repair, rebuilding or reconditioning of motor vehicles or parts thereof, including collision service, painting and steam cleaning of vehicles.
(6) "Automotive sales" means the sale or offer for sale, or rental of three or more new or used vehicles, trailers, recreational vehicles or boats, at any one time.
(7) "Automotive salvage" means the dismantling, storage, sale or dumping of used motor vehicles, trailers or parts thereof.
(8) "Building Inspector" means the Building Inspector or his or her authorized representative appointed by the City Manager of the Municipality.
(9) "Billboard or signboard" means any sign situated on private premises with an area greater than 100 square feet on which the written or pictorial information is not directly related to the principal use of the land on which such sign is located.
(10) "Board" means the Building and Zoning Board of Appeals.
(11) "Boarding house" means a building, other than a hotel, where, for compensation and by arrangement, meals and/or lodging are provided for three or more persons, but not exceeding twenty persons.
(12) "Building, front line of" means the line of that face of a building nearest the front line of the lot on which it is located. This face includes sun parlors and covered porches, whether enclosed or unenclosed, but does not include steps.
(13) "Building, height of" means the vertical distance from the grade to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, or to the deck line of a mansard roof, or to the mean height level between the eaves and the ridge of gable, hip and gambrel roofs.
(14) "Building, principal" means a building in which is conducted the main or principal use of the lot on which such building is situated.
(15) "Business service" means any activity conducted for gain which renders service primarily to other commercial or industrial enterprises, or which services and repairs appliances and machines used in homes or businesses.
(16) "Clinic" means an establishment where patients, who are not lodged overnight, are admitted for examination and treatment by one or more physicians practicing medicine.
(17) "Club" means a building, or portion thereof, or premises, owned or operated by a corporation, association, person or persons for a social, educational or recreational purpose, but not primarily for profit or to render a service which is customarily carried on as a business.
(18) "Code Enforcement Officer" means that person appointed by the City Manager to enforce this Zoning Code and/or other regulatory codes, or his or her authorized representative. Included within this definition are those people who perform the functions of Zoning Inspector, Zoning Administrator, Building Inspector and Housing Inspector.
(19) "Commission" means the City Development Commission.
(21) "Council" means the Council of the City of Willard.
(22) "Drive-in commercial use" means any retail commercial use providing off-street parking and catering primarily to vehicular trade such as drive-in restaurants, drive-in theaters, drive-in banks and similar uses.
(23) "Dwelling" means any building or portion thereof, which is designed for or occupied exclusively by one family.
(24) "Dwelling, multiple" means a building used or designed as a residence for three or more families living independently of each other and doing their own cooking therein, including apartment houses, apartment hotels, flats and group houses.
(25) "Dwelling, single-family" means a building designed for or occupied exclusively by one family.
(26) "Dwelling, two-family" means a building designed for or occupied exclusively by two families.
(27) "Entertainment facilities" means facilities used in or for any activity conducted for gain which is generally related to the entertainment field, such as motion picture theaters, bowling alleys, roller skating rinks, miniature golf courses, golf driving ranges, commercial swimming pools, carnivals and related uses.
(28) "Essential services" means the erection, construction, alteration or maintenance by public utilities having the power of eminent domain, or by Municipal or other governmental agencies, of underground or overhead gas, electrical, steam or water transmission or distribution systems, or collection, communication, supply or disposal systems, including poles, wires, mains, drains, sewer pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants and other similar equipment and accessories in connection therewith which are reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utilities or Municipal or other governmental agencies or for the public health, safety or general welfare, but not including buildings other than structures for the purpose of housing the essential services named herein.
(29) "Family" means one or more persons occupying a dwelling and living as a single housekeeping unit and doing their own cooking on the premises, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house or hotel, as defined in this chapter.
(30) "Frontage" means all the property on one side of a street between two intersecting streets, crossing or terminating, measured along the line of the street; or if the street is dead-ended, then all of the property abutting on one side between an intersecting street and the dead-end of the street.
(31) "Garage, private" means an accessory building designed or used for the storage of motor-driven vehicles owned and used by the occupants of the building to which it is accessory. Not more than one of the vehicles may be a commercial vehicle of not more than two ton capacity.
(32) "Garage, public" means a building or portion thereof, other than a private garage, designed or used for equipping, servicing, repairing, hiring, selling or storing motor-driven vehicles.
(33) "Gasoline station" means any building or other structure or land used for the dispensing, sale or offering for sale at retail of automobile fuels, oils or accessories, including lubrication of automobiles and replacement or installation of minor parts and accessories, but not including major repair work such as motor replacement or spray painting.
(34) "Ground sign" means a sign erected, constructed or maintained directly upon the ground or upon uprights or braces placed in the ground, with a maximum permitted ground clearance of eighteen inches.
(35) "Highway, major." See "Streets, arterial and major."
(36) "Home occupation" means the use of premises by professional and personal services that will not be detrimental to the residential character of a neighborhood. Specifically, the following criteria will be applied:
A. The home occupation shall occupy not more than twenty-five percent of the floor area of the principal building.
B. No change shall be made to the exterior facade to indicate that the premises are used for anything other than a residence.
C. An unlighted or indirectly lighted sign of not over two square feet will be permitted.
D. The use shall not cause noise, smoke, odor or other nuisances.
E. Not more than one person not a resident of the premises shall be employed.
(37) "Hotel" means a building in which lodging or boarding are provided and offered to the public for compensation and in which ingress and egress to and from all rooms is made through an inside lobby or office supervised by a person in charge at all hours. As such, it is open to the public in contradistinction to a boarding house, a lodging house or an apartment, which are separately defined in this chapter.
(38) "Industry" means any manufacturing or industrial business excluded from the other designated districts and not objectionable by reason of odor, noise, vibration, cinders, gas, fumes, dust, smoke, refuse matter or water-carried waste.
(39) "Junk yard" means any open space where waste or discarded materials are stored, processed or sold.
(39A) "Lattice" means a framework or structure of crossed metal strips constructed vertically, to which antennas are affixed.
(40) "Law Director" means the Law Director of the Municipality.
(41) "Light manufacturing" means any light manufacturing or industrial processing which, by the nature of the materials, equipment and process utilized, are, to a considerable measure, clean, quiet and free from any objectionable or hazardous element. Light industrial uses shall comply with the performance requirements specified in Section 1139.07 and shall include the light industrial uses listed in Section 1153.06 and any other uses which are determined by the Board to be of the same general character.
(42) "Loading space" means a space within the main building or on the same lot therewith, providing for the standing, loading or unloading of trucks and having minimum dimensions of twelve feet by thirty-five feet and a vertical clearance of at least fourteen feet.
(43) "Local retail business" means any retail establishment which caters to and can be located in close proximity to residential districts without creating undue vehicular congestion, excessive noise or other objectionable influence. To prevent congestion, local retail uses include only those enterprises which normally employ less than ten persons.
(44) "Lodging house" means a building other than a hotel where lodging for three or more persons is provided for compensation pursuant to previous arrangement and not to anyone who may apply.
(45) "Lot" means a parcel of land occupied or intended for occupancy by a use permitted in this Zoning Code, including the main building(s), together with any accessory buildings, the open spaces and parking spaces required by this Code, and having its principal frontage upon a street or upon an officially approved place.
(46) "Lot, minimum area of" means the area of a lot computed exclusive of any portion of the right-of-way of any public thoroughfare.
(47) "Lot of record" means any lot which, individually or as part of a subdivision, has been recorded in the office of the County Recorder or Auditor.
(48) "Lot width" means the width of a lot and the building setback line measured at right angles to its depth.
(49) "Manager" means the City Manager of Willard, Ohio.
(50) "Modular home" means a structure comprised of one or more self-sufficient units, except site preparations, transported on a separate vehicle or on temporarily attached axles from the place of manufacture to a site where it is to be occupied as a dwelling, and bearing a registration plate permanently attached to the structure, indicating that such structure has been inspected by the State and meets all of the requirements established by the chapter regulating Industrialized Dwelling Houses (One, Two and Three-Family) of the current edition of the Ohio Basic Building Code, as amended, adopted by the Board of Building Standards, Department of Industrial Relations, State of Ohio, pursuant to the authority vested in such Board by Ohio R.C. 3781.07 et seq.
(50A) "Monopole" means a single, slender and typically cylindrical, vertical structure to which antennas or antenna support structures are affixed.
(51) "More restrictive" refers to a nonconforming use, the changing of a use to more nearly conform to the permitted use, thus increasing the requirements such as side yards, etc. or generally increasing compatibility of a nonconforming use, to the requirements of the district in which it is located.
(52) "Motor court or motel" means a building or group of buildings used for the temporary residence of motorists or travelers in which access to each rental unit is provided directly through an exterior door or by an entrance connected to a common interior hallway leading to the exterior.
(53) "Municipality" means the Municipality of Willard, Ohio.
(54) "Nonconforming use" means a use of land or a building, or portion thereof, which does not conform with the use regulations of the district in which it is situated.
(55) "Off-street parking space" means any parking space located wholly off any street, alley or sidewalk, either in an enclosed building or on an open lot and where each parking space has an area of not less than 160 square feet exclusive of access drives or aisles.
(56) "Personal service" means any enterprise conducted for gain which primarily offers service to the general public, such as shoe repair, valet service, watch repair, barber shops, beauty parlors and related activities.
(57) "Plant cultivation" means the cultivation of crops, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture, fruit trees, nursery stock, truck garden products and similar plant materials.
(58) "Pole sign" means a free-standing sign which is supported by one or more poles, posts or braces
(59) "Political sign" means a sign advocating action on a public issue or indicating support for a candidate for public office.
(60) "Professional service" means the use of offices and related space for such professional services as are provided by doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, engineers and realtors.
(61) "Public use" means public parks, cemeteries, schools and administrative, cultural and service buildings, including public land or buildings devoted solely to the storage and maintenance of equipment and material.
(62) "Recreational facilities" means country clubs, golf courses and other private noncommercial recreation areas and facilities, or recreation centers, including swimming pools.
(63) "Recreational vehicle" means a vehicular-type structure primarily designed either as:
A. Temporary living quarters for recreation, camping or travel use, which is either self-propelled or is mounted on or drawn by another vehicle which is self powered;
B. Any entity, after allowing for engineering variations, which is described as a travel trailer, camping trailer, boat or boat trailer, motor home or truck camper.
(64) "Residential floor area" means the interior floor area of a dwelling, including stairways, halls and closets, but not including basements, porches, garages or carports.
(65) "Retail business" means any business normally found in a business district, where goods or services are offered for sale in small quantities directly to the consumer.
(66) "Rooming house." See "Lodging house."
(67) "Semipublic use" means churches, Sunday schools, parochial schools, colleges, hospitals, libraries and other institutions of an educational, religious, charitable or philanthropic nature.
(68) "Service station." See "Gasoline station."
(69) "Shopping center" means a building or attached or associated group of buildings, usually exceeding 100,000 square feet in floor area, containing a number of businesses, possibly including one or more outlot buildings, sharing a single parking lot, and each business having access provided directly through one or more exterior doors.
(70) "Shopping mall" means a building, usually exceeding 100,000 square feet, containing a number of businesses sharing a single parking lot, with each business having access provided by an interior corridor.
(71) "Shopping plaza" means a building or attached group of buildings, usually less than 100,000 square feet in floor area, containing at least three businesses and possibly associated with one outlot building, which share a common parking lot, and usually having access provided directly through an exterior door.
(72) "Sign" means any combination of letters, pictures, characters or other display used to identify or direct attention to some activity or direction.
(73) "Social activity" means any building and land used for private or semiprivate club activities, including lodges, fraternities and similar activities.
(74) "Story" means that portion of a building, other than a cellar, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it or, if there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it.
(75) "Street line or right-of-way line" means a dividing line between a lot, tract or parcel of land and a contiguous street.
(76) "Streets, arterial and major" means those streets of considerable continuity used for the movement of traffic between a large and/or widely separated area, including the following streets: Conwell Avenue; Main Street; Myrtle Avenue; State Route 99; State Route 103; Tiffin Street; U.S. Route 224; Walton Street; and Woodland Avenue, between Main Street and Myrtle Avenue.
(77) "Structural alteration" means any change which would tend to prolong the life of a supporting member of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
(78) "Structure" means anything constructed or erected, other than a building, the use of which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground, including, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, advertising signs, billboards, backstops for tennis courts and pergolas.
(78A) "Substantial evidence" means more than a mere scintilla of evidence. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.
(78B) "Technically suitable" means that the location of a wireless telecommunication antenna reasonably serves the purpose for which it is intended within the band width of frequencies for which the owner or operator of the antenna has been licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate, without a significant loss of communication capability within developed areas of the City.
(78C) "Telecommunication" means technology permitting the passage of information from the sender to one or more receivers in a usable form by means of any electromagnetic system.
(79) "Temporary sign" means any sign or advertising display, by either use or construction thereof, which is intended to be displayed for a limited time only and is not of a permanent nature. Such signs shall include, but not be limited to, banners, pennants and other signs constructed of cloth, canvas or light fabric; signs constructed of cardboard, wallboard or other light material, with or without frames; and mobile signs on wheels, runners, casters, parked trailers, parked vehicles or other mobile devices. Real estate signs as regulated by Chapter 1165 of this Zoning Code are excluded from this definition.
(80) "Tourist home" means a building other than a hotel where lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensation for not more than twenty individuals and open to transient guests.
(81) "Trailer coach or mobile home" means any vehicle manufactured as a single- family dwelling, comprised of one or more units, which has been designed and manufactured for transportation on the public streets and highways on its own wheels, arriving at the site ready for occupancy as a dwelling except for normal unpacking, assembly, operating and connections to utilities. This definition does not include a modular home or an industrial sized unit as defined by the Board of Building Standards, Department of Industrial Relations, State of Ohio, in the Ohio Basic Building Code.
(82) "Trailer park" means any area where one or more trailers are parked and/or used for residential purposes.
(83) "Video rental stores" means those stores which rent and/or sell videotapes of movies, shows, sporting events, etc. for use as entertainment in a private residence.
(83A) "Wireless telecommunication antenna" means an antenna system mounted on a tower or other structure designed to transmit or receive communications as authorized by the FCC, excluding amateur radio operator antennas.
(83B) "Wireless telecommunication equipment building" means the structure in which the electronic receiving and relay equipment for a wireless telecommunication facility is housed.
(83C) "Wireless telecommunication facility" means a facility consisting of the equipment, buildings, tower, antennas and other structures involved in receiving telecommunication or radio signals from a mobile radio communications source and transmitting those signals to a central switching computer, which connects the mobile unit with the land-based telephone lines.
(83D) "Wireless telecommunication tower" means a tower, including, but not limited to, a self-supporting lattice or monopole which elevates the wireless communication antenna and may include accessory transmission and receiving equipment.
(84) "Yard" means an open space at grade between a building and the adjoining lot lines, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from the ground upward, except for a roof overhang of no more than three feet. In measuring a yard for the purpose of determining the width of a side yard, the depth of a front yard or the depth of a rear yard, the minimum horizontal distance between the lot lines and the main building shall be used.
(85) "Yard, front" means a yard extending across the front of a lot between the side lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the street or place line and the main building or any projections thereof other than the projections of the usual uncovered steps, uncovered balconies or uncovered porch or roof overhang of no more than three feet. On corner lots, the front yard shall be considered as parallel to the street upon which the lot has its least dimension.
(86) "Yard, rear" means a yard extending across the rear of a lot and being the required minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the main building or any projections thereof, other than the projections of uncovered steps, unenclosed balconies, unenclosed porches, or a roof overhang of no more than three feet.
(87) "Yard, side" means a yard between the main building and the side line of the lot, and extending from the required front yard to the required rear yard, and being the minimum horizontal distance between a side lot and the side of the main building or any projections thereto, other than a roof overhang of not more than three feet.
(88) "Zoning certificate" means the document issued by the Code Enforcement Officer authorizing the use of land or buildings.
(89) "Zoning Map" means the Zoning Map or Maps of the Municipality together with all amendments subsequently adopted.
(90) "Zoning Code" means Ordinance 4320, passed November 15, 1993, as amended, codified herein as Title Three of Part Eleven - the Planning and Zoning Code.
(Ord. 4741. Passed 6-21-99; Ord. 4742. Passed 6-21-99; Ord. 5121. Passed 12-6-04.)