Except where specifically defined herein, all words used in the Zoning Ordinance shall carry their customary meanings. Words used in the present tense include the future, and the plural includes the singular, the word “lot” includes the word “plot”; the word “building” includes the word “structure”; the word “shall” is intended to be mandatory; “occupied” or “used” shall be considered as though followed by the words “or intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied”.
(1) “Accessory use” means a use customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use of building, located on the same lot or premises as the principal use or building.
(2) “Alteration”, as applied to a building or structure, means a change or rearrangement in the structural parts or in the exit facilities, or an enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height or by moving from one location to another.
(3) “Auto graveyard”. See “junk yard”.
(4) “Basement” means a story, suitable for business or habitation, partially below the level of the adjoining street or ground and below the first tier of floor beams or joists. When a basement floor is less than two feet below the average grade, it will be rated as the first story or ground floor.
(5) “Billboard” means a sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service, or entertainment conducted, sold or offered elsewhere than on the premises and only incidentally on the premises if at all.
(6) “Building” means any structure having a roof supported by columns or by walls, including signs, billboards, tents, lunch wagons, dining cars, camp cars, or other structures, whether stationary or removable, used for living or business purposes.
(7) “Building line” means a line parallel to the right-of-way line of the road to which the lot has access, and intersecting the nearest point of the foundation of the principal building to that road right-of-way line.
(8) “Building, principal” means the building housing the principal activity performed on any lot.
(9) “Dumps” means any premises used primarily for disposal by abandonment, discarding, dumping, reduction, burial, incineration or any other means, and for whatever purpose, of garbage, sewage, trash, refuse, waste material of any kind, junk, discarded machinery, vehicles, or parts thereof or construction material, offal or dead animals.
(10) “Dwelling, one-family” means a detached building designed for, or occupied exclusively by one family.
(11) “Dwelling, two-family” means a detached building designed for, or converted or occupied exclusively by two families, living independently of each other.
(12) “Dwelling, multifamily” means a dwelling designed for, or occupied by, three or more families, living independently of each other.
(13) “Family” means one or more persons related by marriage or immediate blood relationship occupying a premises and living as a single housekeeping unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, a lodging house, club, fraternity or hotel.
(14) “Garage, public” means any garage, other than a garage available for the public for storage where repairs, rental, servicing, adjusting or equipping of motor vehicles is permitted or at which the sale of accessories and filling station services is permitted.
(15) “Gasoline service station” means any area of land, including any structure or structures thereon, that is or are used for the supply of gasoline or oil or other fuel for the propulsion of vehicles. For the purpose of the Zoning Ordinance, there shall also be deemed to be included within this term any area or structure used or designed to be used for polishing, greasing, washing, spraying, dry cleaning or otherwise cleaning or servicing such motor vehicles.
(16) “Height, building” means the vertical dimension measured from the average elevation of the finished lot grade at the front of the building; to the highest point of ceiling of the top story in the case of a flat roof; to the deck line of a mansard roof; and to the average heights between the plate and ridge of a gable, hip or gambrel roof.
(17) “Home occupation” means any use customarily conducted entirely within a dwelling and carried on by the inhabitants thereof, which use is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling for dwelling purposes and does not change the character thereof; and provided that no article is sold or offered for sale except such as may be produced on the premises by members of the immediate family. Offices, clinics, doctors’ offices, hospitals, barber shops, beauty parlors, dress shops, automobile repair shops, woodworking shops, welding shops, tea rooms, restaurants, tourist homes, animal hospitals, kennels, among others, shall not be deemed to be home occupations. Any home occupation that creates objectionable noise, fumes, odors, dust, electrical interference or more than normal residential traffic shall be prohibited.
(18) “Junk yard” means any land used for abandonment, storage, keeping, collecting or bailing of paper, rags, scrap metals, other scrap or discarded materials, or for abandonment, demolition, dismantling, storage or salvaging of automobile or other vehicles not in running condition, machinery or parts thereof. Any automobile, truck or other vehicle which is unlicenced and which is not in operating condition shall be deemed a junk vehicle.
(19) “Loading space” means an off-street space or berth on the same lot with a building, or contiguous to a group of buildings, for the temporary parking of a commercial vehicle while loading or unloading merchandise or materials, and which abuts upon a street, alley or other appropriate means of access.
(20) “Lot” means a parcel of land occupied or capable of being occupied by one or more buildings or uses customarily incidental to it, including such open spaces as are required by the Zoning Ordinance.
(21) “Lot, corner” means a lot at the point of intersection of and abutting on two or more intersecting streets, the angle of intersection being not more than 135 degrees. It is the land occupied by the corner buildings.
(22) “Lot, depth of” means the mean distance from the right-of-way line of the street at the front of the lot to its opposite rear line measured in the general direction of the side lines of the lot; where the right of way is not established, it shall be assumed to be sixty feet.
(23) “Lot, interior” means a lot other than a corner lot.
(24) “Lot lines” means the lines defining the limits of a lot.
(25) “Lot, width of” means the width measured along the minimum setback line.
(26) “Lot of record” means a lot which is a part of a subdivision, the plot of which has been recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Portage County; or a lot described by metes and bounds, the deed to which has been recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Portage County.
(27) “Major thoroughfare” means a thoroughfare designated as a major thoroughfare by the Planning Commission.
(28) “Minimum building setback line” means the line parallel to the street right of way, side and rear property lines, and at a distance therefrom equal to the required depth of the front, side, and rear yards, and extending across the full width and/or depth of the lot. Where the established street right-of-way line, if any, cannot be ascertained it shall be deemed to be thirty feet from the central line of the existing roadway. When a major thoroughfare or collector street is designated on the Land Use and Thoroughfare Plan, the front setback line shall be measured from the proposed right of way.
(29) “Minimum living floor area” means the areas such as living room, bedroom, bathroom, dining room, rooms for cooking, den, library and family rooms, but shall not include areas such as porches, breezeways, terraces, recreation rooms, utility rooms, garages and basements.
(30) “Net density” means the residential density measured by dividing the number of dwelling units into the lot area, excluding all public or private highways, but including all off-street parking areas and accessory uses.
(31) “Nonconforming use” means a building, structure or use of land existing at the time of the enactment of the Zoning Ordinance and which does not conform to the use regulations of the district in which it is located.
(32) “Nursing or convalescent home” means any dwelling with sleeping rooms where persons are housed or lodged and furnished with meals and nursing care for hire.
(33) “Open space” means an area of land which is in its natural state, or is developed only for the raising of agricultural crops, or for public outdoor recreation.
(34) “Parking” means the temporary storage, in operable condition, of registered vehicles.
(35) “Parking space” means an area having a width of not less than nine feet and drives or aisles giving access thereto accessible from streets or alleys and to be used for the storage of parking of passenger automobiles.
(36) “Parking facilities, adequate” means an area outside the street right of way exclusively used for parking vehicles belonging to employees or patrons of the
principal use; of usable shape; improved with bituminous concrete, or equivalent surfacing; graded and drained so as to dispose of all surface water accumulation within the parking area; within 100 feet of the principal use; and adequate to accommodate the vehicles of all employees and patrons of the principal use who can reasonably be expected to need parking spaces at one time. The minimum number of nine foot by twenty foot spaces deemed to be adequate shall not be less than, but to fulfill the standards of this definition may be more than, the standards outlined herein:
Auditorium, stadium, theater or other places of public assemblage: At least one parking space for each eight seats provided for its patrons.
Motels: At least one parking space for each “unit room”.
Hotels: At least one parking space for each three guest sleeping rooms.
Restaurant or other eating place: At least one parking space for each five seats, except when it is in a building which provides parking space, in which case the number of places already provided may be taken to be available for the restaurant or other eating place.
Hospital, sanitarium or nursing home: At least one parking space for each five patients.
Stores or shopping centers: At least one parking space for each 150 square feet of store floor area.
Office buildings: At least one parking space for each 200 square feet of office floor area.
Industrial or manufacturing establishment: At least one parking space for each 400 square feet of gross floor area.
(37) “Quarry” means any use of land for the removal of any mineral or material, including open or strip mining and shaft mining.
(38) “Sign” means any device for visual communication that is used for the purpose of bringing the subject thereof to the attention of the public, but not including any flag, badge or insignia of any government or government agency, or of any civic, charitable, religious, patriotic, fraternal, or similar organization.
(39) “Sign, area of” means that area which is normally visible from any one direction. For example, a rectangular sign four feet by five feet with a display on both sides shall be considered to be twenty square feet.
The square footage determination shall be ascertained by adding all sign surface areas and dividing by two.
In addition:
Signs which require other signs to display full meaning, such as individually displayed letters of the name of an establishment or adjacent pictorial displays, shall be considered one sign. Sign supporting structures, which by size or ornateness have been designed to attract attention shall be considered part of the sign square footage.
(40) “Sign, business” means a sign which directs attention to a business or profession conducted on the premises. A “for sale” sign or a “for rent” sign relating to the property on which it is displayed shall not be deemed a “business sign”.
(41) “Street, private” means a thoroughfare which affords principal means of access to abutting property, but which has not been deeded to the public.
(42) “Structure” means anything constructed or erected which requires location on the ground, including signs, and billboards, but not including fences or walls used as fences.
(43) “Structural alterations” means any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders or any substantial changes in the roof and exterior walls.
(44) “Tank, storage” means, in reference to petroleum products, a closed vessel for the storage of liquid hydrocarbon substances of atmospheric pressures.
(45) “Usable open space” means the required portion of a lot excluding the required front yard area which is unoccupied by principal or accessory buildings and available to all occupants of the building for use for recreational and other leisure activities normally carried on outdoors. This space shall be unobstructed to the sky and shall not be devoted to service or driveways or off-street parking or loading space, and shall be twenty feet in least dimension on the ground. Balconies at least four feet, six inches wide, roof areas which are improved, and side and rear yards which have fences or walls at least five feet high between the open space and adjacent property may also be counted as usable open space.
(46) “Use” means the principal purpose for which a lot and/or the main building thereon, is designed, arranged or intended and for which it may be used, occupied or maintained.
(47) “Width, side yard” means the perpendicular distance between the established side lot line and any portion of any structure existing or to be constructed on the lot.
(48) “Yard depth, front” means the perpendicular distance between the street right- of-way line and the nearest portion of any structure existing or to be constructed. Where the right of way is not established, it shall be assumed to be sixty feet.
(49) “Yard depth, rear” means an open, unoccupied space on the same lot with the building between the rear line of the building and the rear line of the lot and extending the full width of the lot.
(50) “Zone” means the area within which only certain uses of land and buildings are permitted; yards and other open spaces are required; lot areas, building height limits, and other requirements are established; all of the foregoing being identical for the zone in which they apply.
(Ord. 1500. Passed 12-14-99.)
(Ord. 1500. Passed 12-14-99.)