[1]
Editor's Note: This article (originally Part 15 of Ch. 27 of the 1995 Code) was renumbered 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276 as Part 22.
In expansion of the declaration of legislative intent contained in § 250-3 and the community development objectives contained in § 250-5 of this chapter, it is hereby declared to be the intent of the LI Limited Industrial District to provide for a variety of nonpolluting and smaller-scale industrial, research and development and office facilities within Lower Pottsgrove Township.
[Amended 10-1-1979 by Ord. No. 127-H; and 10-5-1992 by Ord. No. 127-R; 3-23-1995 by Ord. No. 192; 4-17-2003 by Ord. No. 240]
A building may be erected, altered or used and a lot may be used or occupied for any of the following purposes and no other.
A. 
The uses permitted in this district shall be the erection, construction, alteration or use of buildings or premises for the following uses and no other, to be conducted wholly within completely enclosed buildings or in a court enclosed on all sides by buildings except for on-street parking and loading incidental thereto:
(1) 
The manufacture of musical instruments, toys, novelties, electrical or electronic devices; home, commercial and industrial appliances and instruments, including the manufacture of accessory parts or assembly; dental and medical equipment; watches and clocks; optical goods; drafting equipment; canvas products.
(2) 
Storage buildings and warehouses, parking garages and/or lots. The storage of gas, hazardous materials, flammable materials and/or explosives is prohibited.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
(3) 
Laboratories, experimental, research or testing.
(4) 
Carpet or rug cleaning, laundry, dry cleaning and dying plant.
(5) 
Wholesaling and distributing activities.
(6) 
Job printing, newspaper or book publishing and bookbinding.
(7) 
Baking and food processing.
(8) 
Art needlework, hand weaving.
(9) 
Creamery or ice cream manufacture.
(10) 
Monument establishment, packaging and crating business.
(11) 
Business and professional offices and similar uses.
(12) 
Any use of the same general character as any of the above permitted uses when authorized as a special exception by the Zoning Hearing Board.
(13) 
Signs when erected and maintained in accordance with the provisions of Article XXVI of this chapter.
(14) 
Agriculture, farm buildings and conventional farm structures and outdoor farm operations with the exception of piggeries.
(15) 
Utilities by special exception.
(16) 
Dwelling quarters for watchmen and caretakers employed on the premises.
B. 
The following uses when located not less than 300 feet from a residential use or district:
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
(1) 
Bottling, canning (excluding meat and fish products).
(2) 
Combining or processing of food products (excluding meat and fish), compounding of perfume and pharmaceutical products, ink mixing.
(3) 
Manufacture of products from the following previously prepared materials: canvas, ceramics, feathers, felt and hair (excluding washing, curing and dying), glass, leather, paper (small products), plastics, rubber (small products and synthetic threaded fabrics, excluding all rubber and synthetic processing).
(4) 
Manufacture of beverages, cosmetics, electrical appliances and supplies (including assembly of small equipment), hat bodies, hosiery, ice, silverware, tobacco products, small or hand tools and hardware.
(5) 
Textile manufacture and processing, excluding bleaching.
C. 
The following uses shall not be permitted:
(1) 
Abattoir.
(2) 
Acetylene gas manufacture and/or storage.
(3) 
Acid manufacture (hydrochloric, nitric, picric, sulfuric, sulfurous, carbolic).
(4) 
Ammonia, bleaching powder or chlorine manufacture.
(5) 
Ammunition manufacture and/or storage.
(6) 
Arsenal.
(7) 
Asphalt manufacture or refining.
(8) 
Blast furnace.
(9) 
Celluloid manufacture.
(10) 
Cement, lime, gypsum or plaster of paris manufacture.
(11) 
Coal distillation.
(12) 
Coke ovens.
(13) 
Creosote treatment or manufacture.
(14) 
Distillation of bones, coal, petroleum, refuse grain or wood (except in the manufacture of gas).
(15) 
Explosives, fireworks and gun powder manufacture or storage.
(16) 
Fat rendering.
(17) 
Fertilizer manufacture.
(18) 
Forge plant.
(19) 
Hog farm.
(20) 
Incineration, reduction, storage or dumping of slaughterhouse refuse, rancid fats, garbage, dead animal or offal.
(21) 
Oilcloth or linoleum manufacture.
(22) 
Oil reduction.
(23) 
Potash works.
(24) 
Power forge (riveting, hammering, punching, chipping, drawing, rolling or tumbling of iron, steel brass or copper except as a necessary incident or manufacture of which these processes form a minor part and which are carried on without objectionable noise outside the plant).
(25) 
Rolling mill.
(26) 
Steel furnace, blooming or rolling mill.
(27) 
Stockyards.
(28) 
Tar distillation or manufacture.
D. 
Conditional uses. The following uses shall be permitted as a conditional use in the Limited Industrial District.
(1) 
Car wash that is either automatic or self-serve.
(a) 
Minimum lot area: 40,000 square feet.
(b) 
Minimum lot width: 150 feet.
(c) 
Minimum front yard: 40 feet.
(d) 
Minimum side yard: 20 feet.
(e) 
Maximum building height: not to exceed 35 feet.
(f) 
Maximum building coverage: 25%.
(g) 
Maximum impervious surface area: 50%.
(h) 
Car wash that is automatic or self-serve will be required to submit a traffic study, which will indicate the probable impact of the use on streets in the surrounding area and demonstrate that sufficient area will be provided on the tract to prevent the backup of vehicles on the street.
(i) 
Each automatic car wash bay shall provide stacking space 200 feet in length for cars waiting to be washed and 80 feet in length for cars exiting the car wash bay.
(j) 
Each self-service car wash bay shall provide for stacking space of 40 feet in length for cars entering or exiting these bays.
(k) 
Each car wash must take preventive measures to reduce excess water runoff onto adjacent street(s) to avert any hazardous driving condition in or around the facility.
(l) 
All car washing equipment shall be contained within the confinement of the building.
(m) 
A car wash facility that will be using public or private water source must recycle at a minimum of 75% of its water intake monthly.
(n) 
All vehicular access to the car wash facility shall be from either a collector or feeder street.
(o) 
Landscaping shall be provided as described in §§ 215-49 to 215-58, Landscape Regulations, of the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215). The landscaping areas shall extend toward the interior of the lot for a minimum distance of 15 feet from the property line. Additionally, landscaping between the ultimate right-of-way and the curbline or edge of the roadway shoulder shall be encouraged. In all instances, landscaping shall be so installed that clear sight triangles are provided.
(p) 
All self-service vacuum machines shall be located within 30 feet of the perimeter of the building in order to reduce noise from interfering with adjacent property owners.
A. 
No smoke shall be emitted from any chimney or other source of a visible grey greater than No. 1 on the Ringlemann Smoke Chart as published by the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
B. 
Smoke of a shade not darker than No. 2 on the Ringlemann Smoke Chart may be emitted for not more than four minutes in any 30 minutes.
C. 
These provisions, applicable to visible grey smoke, shall also apply to visible smoke of a different color but with an equivalent apparent opacity.
A. 
No emission shall be made which can cause any damage to health, to animals or vegetation or other forms of property or which can cause any excessive soiling at any point.
B. 
No emission of liquid or solid particles in gases resulting from combustion; standard correction shall be applied to a stack temperature of 500° F. and 50% excess air.
At no point on the boundary of a residential or commercial office district shall the sound pressure level of any operation exceed the described levels in the designated octave bands shown below for the districts indicated.
Sound Levels
Octave Band in Cycles per Second
Along Residential District Boundaries, Maximum Permitted Sound Level in Decibels
At Any Other Point on the Lot Boundary, Maximum Permitted Sound Level in Decibels
0 to 75
72
79
75 to 150
67
74
150 to 300
59
66
300 to 600
52
59
600 to 1,200
46
53
1,200 to 2,400
40
47
2,400 to 4,800
34
41
Above 4,800
32
39
There shall be no emission of odorous gases or other odorous matter in such quantities as to be offensive along a lot boundary line. Any process which may involve the creation or emission of any odors shall be provided with a secondary safeguard system so that control will be maintained if the primary safeguard system shall fail. There is hereby established as a guide in determining such quantities of offensive odors Table III (Odor Thresholds) in Chapter 5, Air Pollution Abatement Manual, copyright 1951, by Manufacturing Chemists Association, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Any operation producing intense glare or heat shall be performed within an enclosed building or behind a solid fence in such manner as to be completely imperceptible from any point beyond the lot lines.
No vibration which is discernible to the human sense of feeling shall be perceptible without instrument at any point beyond the lot line.
There shall be no activities which emit dangerous or harmful radioactivity. There shall be no electrical disturbance (except from domestic household appliances) adversely affecting the operation of any equipment located beyond the property of the creator of such disturbances.
A. 
No flammable or explosive liquids, solids or gases shall be stored in bulk above ground; provided, however, that tanks or drums of fuel directly connecting with energy devices, heating devices or appliances located on the same lot as the tanks or drums of fuel are excluded from this provision.
B. 
All outdoor storage facilities for fuel, raw materials and products and all fuel and all raw materials and products stored outdoors shall be enclosed by a fence adequate to conceal the facilities from any adjacent properties.
C. 
No materials or wastes shall be deposited upon a lot in such form or manner that may be transferred off the lot by natural causes or forces.
D. 
All materials or wastes which might cause fumes or dust or which constitute a fire hazard or which may be edible or otherwise be attractive to rodents or insects shall be stored outdoors only in closed containers.
Every use requiring power shall be so operated that the service lines, substation, etc., shall conform to the most acceptable safety requirements recognized by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Labor and Industry and shall be so constructed, installed, etc. to be an integral part of the architectural feature of the plant or, if visible from abutting residential properties, shall be concealed by coniferous planting.
No use shall be conducted in such a way as to discharge any treated or untreated sewage or industrial waste treatment and disposal except as shall be approved by sanitary engineers or other qualified persons employed by the Township at the expense of the owner of the premises. Where the sanitary sewers of the Lower Pottsgrove Municipal Authority are involved, approval of the Authority Board shall be required.
All water requirements shall be stated in the application. Water shall be supplied from wells only after approved or accepted geologic study furnished by the applicant and certification by a professional geologist that the underground water supply and levels will not be appreciably altered in such a way as to endanger the water level and supply for other properties.
[Amended 6-3-1974 by Ord. No. 135]
A. 
Lot area and width. No individual lot area will be less than one acre with a minimum width of 125 feet at the building line.
B. 
Front yard. The required minimum front yard shall be 50 feet in depth, measured from the ultimate right-of-way line.
C. 
Side yards. There shall be two side yards, each of which shall not be less than 30 feet in width, subject to the exceptions hereinafter set forth in § 250-173.
D. 
Rear yard. The required minimum depth of a rear yard shall be 40 feet, subject to the exceptions hereinafter set forth in § 250-173 and except where a lot abuts railroad trackage.
E. 
Building coverage. Not more than 50% of the total lot area may be occupied by building.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
In no case shall any building, structure or outside storage area be closer than 100 feet to any residential use or district nor should any temporary parking area be closer than 50 feet from the property line. The distances between the property line and the building(s), structure(s), and/or parking area(s) shall be devoted to buffer areas to be maintained as green areas covered by well maintained lawns, evergreens and suitable tree and shrub plantings in accordance with §§ 215-49 to 215-58 of Chapter 215, Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance.
The maximum height of any building or structure erected or enlarged in this district shall be 45 feet except that the height of any such other building or other structures may be increased to a maximum of 60 feet or such increased height as may be warranted when approved by the Zoning Hearing Board for such structures as water towers, chimneys, stacks, radio antennas and transmission towers, provided that for every foot of height in excess of 35 feet there shall be added to each yard requirement one foot.
[Amended 11-15-2007 by Ord. No. 275]
Each use shall be subject to the off-street parking and loading requirements of Article XXVII of this chapter.