CHAPTER 14
DEFINITIONS
1400 Definitions
SECTION 1400 DEFINITIONS
Abutting: In the context of a screening or enclosure requirement, abutting shall mean contiguous or separated there from only by a non-arterial street. In other instances, abutting shall mean contiguous.
Accessory Uses or Structure: A use or structure on the same lot with, and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to, the principal use or structure.
Alley: A permanent public way providing a secondary means of access for service and emergency vehicles, and not intended for general traffic circulation.
Arterial: A street designated on the Major Street Plan as a primary arterial or secondary arterial.
Board of Adjustment: The
Board of Adjustment of the City of
Building: A structure which is permanently affixed to the land, and has one or more floors and a roof, and is bounded by either another building with a common party wall, open air, or the lot lines of a lot.
Building Height: The vertical distance measured form the average ground elevation at the building wall to the highest horizontal point of the structure.
Building Setback: The horizontal distance, from the point of measurement, such as the centerline of an abutting street or the boundary line of an abutting zoning district to the nearest building wall.
Care Home: Premises used for the housing and caring for the aged or infirmed, and includes convalescent homes, homes for the aged, and nursing homes.
Cemetery: Land used or intended to be used for the interment of human remains and dedicated for cemetery purposes, including crematories, mausoleums and mortuaries when operated in conjunction with and within the boundary of such cemetery.
Certificate of Occupancy: An official certificate issued by the City through the enforcing official which indicated conformance with the zoning regulations and authorizes legal use of the premises for which it is issued.
Child Care Center: Any place, home, or institution which cares for four (4) or more children under the age of sixteen (16) years, apart form their parents, guardians, or custodians for regular periods of time for compensations; provided, however, that the term "child center" shall not include or apply to bona fide schools, custody fixed by a court, children related by blood or marriage within the third degree of the custodial person, or churches and other religious or public institutions caring for children within an institutional building.
City Council: The governing
and legislative body of the City of
Copy Area: The net geometric area enclosed by the smallest rectangles encompassing the outer extremities of all letters, figures, characters, and delineations contained in the sign.
Cluster Housing Development: A residential development containing attached or detached units on a limited portion of land with the remaining land areas consolidated into common open space areas.
Curb Level: The mean level of the established curb at the frontage of a lot. Where no curb has been established, the City Engineer shall establish such curb level or its equivalent for the purposes of this code.
Development: any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to, buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation, or drilling operations.
Display Surface: The surface of a sign upon, against, or through which the message is displayed or illustrated.
Display Surface Area: The net geometric area enclosed by the display surface of the sign including the outer extremities of all letters, figures, characters, and delineations, but not including the structural supports for free-standing signs if said structural supports are not arranged to become a part of the attention attracting aspects of the sign provided, that as applied to wall or canopy signs having a nonilluminated background, display surface area shall mean copy area.
Dust Free Surface: Surface constructed of double bituminous concrete or asphaltic concrete.
Dwelling: A building or structure used in whole or in part for human inhabitation.
Dwelling, Duplex: A building containing two dwelling units, designed for occupancy by not more than two families. Included are all forms of manufactured duplex dwellings but excluding mobile homes.
Dwelling, Manufactured: A structure designed and intended for human occupancy on a year-round or temporary seasonal basis which has ;undergone at least partial prefabrication or preassembly under indoor factory conditions, excluding dwellings utilizing only prefabricated or preassembled sublements such as roof trusses, floor trusses, plumbing trees, or wiring harness. Included are the following sub-classes:
a. Pre-cut - a manufactured dwelling involving no preassembly but all components have been cut and fabricated and then assembled on-site;
b. Panelized - a manufactured dwelling partially preassembled into roof, wall, floor, and ceiling components (which may range from exposed wood to having all finishing completed) which are assembled on-site, and constructed to national building code standards;
c. Sectionalized or Modular - a manufactured dwelling partially preassembled into two or more sections, none of which are habitable individually, permanently joined together and, utilize customary residential siding and roofing materials, built to national building code standards and are either:
1) Wood frame units designed to be transported by flat-bed truck and installed on conventional permanent foundations, or,
2) Chassis/under-carriage units designed to be towed or structurally capable of being towed on wheels and installed on permanent foundations after all hitches, running gear and chassis have been removed,
d. Mobile Home - a manufactured dwelling, either a portable or mobile living unit used or designed for human occupancy, having been manufactured to the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards and bearing a HUD label red in color, identifying the home as a "Manufactured Home."
Dwelling, Multifamily: A building containing three or more dwelling units. Included are all forms of manufactured multifamily dwelling but excluding mobile homes.
Dwelling, Single Family: A building, other than a mobile home, containing one dwelling unit designed for occupancy by not more than one family, and certified as complying with the building code of this jurisdiction whether constructed on or off site.
Dwelling Unit: A room or group of rooms arranged, intended, or designed as a habitable unit, containing kitchen, bath, and sleeping facilities, for not more than one family living independently of any other family.
Family: One or more persons occupying a single dwelling unit, provided that unless all members are related by blood, marriage, or other domestic bonds, no such family shall contain over three persons, but further provided that domestic servants may be housed on the premises without being designated as a family.
Floodplain: The land area adjoining a watercourse or drainage way which would be inundated by the floodwater of the regulatory flood based on full urbanization of the watershed.
Floodway: The channel of a watercourse or drain way and those portions of the adjoining floodplain which are reasonably required to carry and discharge the regulatory flood.
Floodway Fringe: Those portions of the floodplain which are not reasonably required to carry and discharge the floodwater of the regulatory flood.
Floor Area: The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors, including basements, of a building measured from the exterior faces of the exterior walls or from the centerline of walls separating two buildings. Provided that for the purpose of determining compliance with the permitted floor area, the floor area of enclosed required off-street parking areas shall not be included.
Floor Area Ratio: The floor area of a building or buildings on a lot divided by the lot area.
Foster Home: A dwelling used in whole or in part as living quarters for three (3) persons who are not members of the family occupying said dwelling, but are under their supervision.
Frontage: The lineal measurement of a lot boundary which abuts a public street or the lineal measurement of the building setback line when the boundary of the lot abuts a curbed nonarterial street or cul-de-sac.
Habitable Floor: Any floor usable for living purposes, which includes working, sleeping, heating, cooking or recreation or a combination thereof. A floor used for storage purposes only is not a "habitable floor."
Halfway House: A building used in whole or in part as a treatment center and dwelling quarters for persons unrelated by blood or marriage, who are undergoing care or rehabilitation for alcoholism or other forms of drug abuse.
Height, Building:
Height, Sign: The vertical distance measured from the curb level to the highest point of the sign.
Home Occupation: Any occupation or activity conducted within a dwelling unit which is clearly incidental and subordinate to the use of the premises for dwelling purposes.
Hundred Year-Frequency Flood: A flood having an average frequency of occurrence once in 100 years, although the flood may occur in any year, based on statistical analyses of stream flow records available for the watershed and analyses of rainfall and runoff characteristics in the general region of the watershed.
Kennel: The use of land or building for the purpose of selling, breeding, boarding or training cats or dogs or both.
Land Area: The area of a lot plus one-half or 30 feet, whichever is less, of the right-of-way of any abutting street to which the lot has access.
Land Coverage: The land area of a lot covered by building or buildings, except structural parking.
Livability Space: The open space of a lot which is not allocated to or used for off-street parking or loading areas or for paved access to the off-street parking or loading area.
Loading Berth, Off-Street: A space of at least 10 feet in width and 30 feet in length and having a vertical clearance of at least 14 feet, designed and located on a lot for the temporary parking of commercial vehicles while loading or unloading merchandise or materials.
Lot Line, Front: The boundary of a lot which abuts a public street. Where the lot abuts more than one street, the owner may select the front lot line.
Lot Line, Rear: The boundary of a lot which is most distant from and most nearly parallel to the front lot line.
Lot Line, Side: Any boundary of a lot which is not a front lot line or a rear lot line.
Lot of Record: A lot which is a part of a subdivision, the plat of which has been recorded in the office of the County Clerk of the County in which the lot is located or a parcel of land, the deed of which is recorded in the office of the County Clerk of the County in which the parcel is located.
Mini-Storage: A building containing small partitioned storage spaces, which are separately and individually rented or leased, for the storage of personal goods or merchandise, but excluding commercial warehousing as described in Use Unit 17.
Mobile Home: A structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities. It does not include recreational vehicles or travel trailers.
NEC: Not Elsewhere Classified.
Obstruction: Any dam, wall, wharf, embankment, levee, dike, pile, abutment, projection, excavation, channel rectification, bridge conduit, culvert, building, wire, fence, rock, gravel, refuse, fill, structure or matter in, along, across or projecting into any channel, watercourse, or regulatory flood hazard area which may impede, retard, or change the direction of the flow of water, either in itself or by catching or collecting debris carried by such water, or that is placed where the flow of water might carry the same downstream to the damage of life or property.
Overspeed Control: A mechanism used to limit the speed of blade rotation to below the design limits of the WECS.
Parking Duration: The length of time an individual vehicle remains in a given parking space. Duration is a function of the driver's trip, purpose and increases with increasing city size.
Parking Space, Off-Street:
A space on a lot intended and reserved for the parking of an
automobile. Such space
to be of at least nine (9) feet in width by twenty (20) feet in length,
together with a driveway connecting the space with a street or alley and
permitting safe ingress or egress of an automobile.
Pavement: Surface constructed of double bituminous concrete or asphaltic concrete.
Planning Commission:
The City of
Planned Unit Development: A discretionary type of development for a tract of land under single ownership or control, based upon an approved development plan permitting flexibility of principal land uses, lot sizes, and accessory uses not otherwise available under conventional development standards.
Private Club: Reference is
hereby made to that section of the code of the City of
Recreational Vehicle: A vehicular structure, portable or self propelled, designed as a temporary dwelling for travel use or recreational use not exceeding 35 feet in length.
Regulatory Flood: A flood having a one (1) percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year based upon the full potential urbanization of the contributing watershed considering the Comprehensive Plan, adopted Floodplain Management Policies and the watershed Master Drainage Plan where adopted.
Setback: A horizontal distance determining the location of a building with respect to a street, use district boundary line, or another use. Where the term "setback" is used in conjunction with a modifying word or words such as "parking area", the setback shall in its application include, but not be limited to, buildings.
Special Exception: A use or a design element of a use which is not permitted by right in a particular district because of potential adverse effects, but which if controlled in the particular instance as to its relationship to the neighborhood and to the general welfare, may be permitted by the Board of Adjustment, where specifically authorized by the code, and in accordance with the substantive and procedural standards of the code.
Street Wall: The wall or part of the building nearest to the street line.
Structure: Anything constructed or erected with a fixed location on the ground, or attached to something having a fixed location on the ground, and includes buildings, walks, fences, and signs. Provided that, for the purposes of Chapter 10, Floodway Zoning District "structure" means a walled and roofed building that is principally above ground, as well as a mobile home.
Substantial Improvement: Any repair, reconstruction, or improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure either, (1) before the improvement of repair is started, or (2) if the structure has been damaged and is being restored, before the damage occurred. For the purposes of this definition "substantial improvement" is considered to occur when the first alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure . The term does not, however, include either (1) any project for improvement of a structure to comply with the existing state or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which are solely necessary to assure safe living conditions, or (2) any alteration of a structure listed on a National Register of Historic Places or a State Inventory of Historic Places.
Supplemental District: A zoning district to be mapped as an overlay to a use district and which modifies or supplements the regulations of the general district in recognition of distinguishing circumstances such as unit development of flooding propensity while maintaining the character and purposes of the general use district area over which it is superimposed.
Top Plate: The horizontal timber directly carrying the trusses of a roof or the rafters.
Townhouse Development: A row of at least two attached dwelling units each separated by a party wall on individual lots and designated for separate ownership of the individual dwelling units with no separate dwelling unit constructed above anther dwelling unit.
Travel or Recreation Vehicle: A vehicular portable structure or a self propelled structure designed as a temporary dwelling for travel use or recreational use, not to exceed 35 feet in length.
Variance: A relaxation of a restriction of the code, granted by the Board of Adjustment, where by reason of exceptional narrowness, shallowness, shape, topography, or other extraordinary or exceptional situation, condition or circumstance of a particular property, the literal enforcement of the code restriction would result in unnecessary hardship.
Veterinary Clinic: A building used exclusively for the care and treatment of animals, including incidental overnight boarding of animals within the enclosed building, but excluding outside animal runs or boarding services.
Wind Energy Conversion System: (WECS, wind turbine, wind generator, windmill, and wind machine)-- a machine that converts the kinetic energy in the wind into a usable form of electrical or mechanical energy. The WECS includes all parts of a system except the tower and the transmission equipment.
Yard: An open unoccupied space on a lot between a building and a lot line.
Yard, Front: A yard extending along the full length of the front lot lines between the side lot lines.
Yard Required: The minimum permitted distance of open unoccupied space between a building and a lot line.
Yard, Rear: A yard extending along the full length of the rear lot line between the side lot lines.
Yard, Side: A yard
extending along a side lot line between the front yard and the rear yard.