The purpose of the Neighborhood Commercial District
is to allow for small areas throughout the Township where retail and
service businesses may be located primarily for the convenience of
the residents of the immediate neighborhood. Each designated zone
is large enough to permit expansion of these convenience centers in
anticipation of continued population growth and increased demand for
the goods and services. It is intended that development in these areas
be designed to enhance and improve the centers by ensuring that an
adequate traffic circulation plan evolves so that each building does
not have its own access point(s) to the highway(s), that the building
appearances and signs are compatible and that parking facilities are
interrelated and capable of common usage where advisable.
Permitted principal uses on the land and in
the buildings shall be as follows:
A.
All uses permitted in the RA District, subject to
all bulk requirements as found for said district.
B.
Local retail activities, including grocery stores,
meat markets, seafood markets, supermarkets, delicatessens, bakeries,
drugstores, furniture stores, sporting goods shops, gift shops, hobby
shops, bookstores, clothing stores, shoe stores, hardware stores,
packaged liquor stores, pet shops, stationery stores, fabric stores
and florists.
C.
Local service activities, including barber- and beauty
shops, tailors, dry-cleaning and laundering operations, appliance
repair shops and upholsterers.
D.
Restaurants, bars and package stores.
E.
Banks, including drive-in facilities.
F.
Professional offices.
G.
Service stations as conditional uses.
H.
Dwelling quarters in the same building as the commercial
use, which quarters must contain not less than 850 square feet of
living space.
Permitted accessory uses in the NC District
shall be as follows:
A.
Off-street parking.
B.
Fences and walls.
C.
Garages to house delivery trucks or other commercial
vehicles.
D.
Temporary construction trailers and one sign not exceeding
50 square feet advertising the prime contractor, subcontractor(s),
architect, financing institution and similar data for the period of
construction, beginning with the issuance of a building permit or
one year, whichever is less, provided that said trailer and sign are
on the site where construction is taking place and set back at least
15 feet from the street to the lot lines.
No building shall exceed 25 feet in height or
two stories.
A.
Principal building. Minimum requirements shall be
as follows:
(1)
Lot area: 20,000 square feet.
(2)
Lot frontage: 125 feet.
(3)
Lot width: 125 feet.
(4)
Lot depth: 150 feet.
(5)
Front yard: 60 feet.
(6)
Rear yard: 25 feet.
(7)
Side yard.
(a)
In order to encourage an end product which provides
parking, access and architectural continuity even where development
occurs piecemeal and with diverse ownership, buildings may be attached
and may be built to the interior side line(s) in order to be attached.
(b)
Attached buildings may include two walls, which
must be keyed to each other. Where buildings are built to both side
lot lines, the site plan shall be accompanied by appropriate legal
documents and plans showing properly located loading spaces and trash
receptacles, with permitted access across adjacent properties. If
structures are not attached, the side yard(s) shall be 20 feet each.
Each building shall have a minimum gross floor
area of 400 square feet, with a width of each store no less than 20
feet.
A.
One building may contain more than one use, provided
that the total building coverage of the combined uses does not exceed
the maximum building coverage specified for this district, and further
that each use occupies a minimum gross floor area of 400 square feet.
B.
At least the first 20 feet adjacent to any street
line shall not be used for parking and shall be planted and maintained
in the lawn area or ground cover or landscaped with evergreen shrubbery
and separated from the parking area by poured concrete, Belgian block
curbing or concrete bumper blocks.
C.
No merchandise, products, waste, equipment or similar
material or objects shall be displayed or stored outside.
D.
All buildings shall be compatibly designed, whether
constructed all at one time or in stages over a period of time. All
building walls facing any street or residential district line shall
be suitably finished for aesthetic purposes, which shall not include
unpainted or painted cinder block or concrete block walls.
E.
All areas not utilized for buildings, parking, loading,
access aisles and driveways or pedestrian walkways shall be suitably
landscaped with shrubs, ground cover, seedlings or similar plantings
and maintained in good condition.
F.
A minimum buffer area of 25 feet in width shall be
provided along any common property line with a residential district
or residential use.
A.
Minimum off-street parking shall be provided as follows:
(1)
Grocery stores, meat markets, seafood markets, supermarkets,
delicatessens and bakeries: 5.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross
floor area or fraction thereof.
(2)
Drugstores, furniture stores, sporting goods shops,
gift shops, hobby shops, bookstores, clothing stores, shoe stores,
hardware stores, package liquor stores, pet shops, stationery stores,
fabric stores, florists, tailors, dry-cleaning and laundering operations,
appliance repair shops, shoe repair shops and upholsterers: five spaces
per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof.
(3)
Barber- and beauty shops: two spaces per chair, with
a minimum of three spaces.
(4)
Restaurants, bars and taverns: one space for every
two seats.
(5)
Banks and professional offices: six spaces per 1,000
square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof.
(6)
Service stations shall provide at least six spaces
for the first lift, wheel alignment pit or similar work area, five
additional spaces for a second work area and an additional three spaces
for each additional work area. Such spaces shall be separated from
the driveway and general apron areas which give access to the gasoline
and air pumps and service areas. No designated parking space shall
obstruct access to such facilities.
B.
Parking areas for individual uses shall be designed
to be interconnected with adjacent properties and shall utilize access
points to the street.
C.
Where more than one use occupies one building or where
there is an attached group of buildings, the total parking spaces
shall be an accumulation of the various standards appropriate to the
uses noted above, except that where more than five separate uses are
grouped into one area using common parking facilities and controlled
access points to the parking area(s), the total parking need may be
computed on the basis of providing at least 5.5 spaces per 1,000 square
feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof to serve the total complex.
Minimum off-street loading shall be provided
as follows:
A.
Each activity shall provide for off-street loading
and unloading with adequate ingress and egress from streets and shall
provide such area(s) at the side or rear of the building. Each space
shall be at least 15 feet by 30 feet, and one space shall be provided
for every 4,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof
in each building. There shall be no loading or unloading from the
street.
B.
There shall be at least one trash and garbage pickup
location provided by each building, which shall be separated from
the parking spaces by either a location within the building or in
a pickup location outside of the building, which shall be a steel-like,
totally enclosed container located in a manner to be obscured from
view from parking areas, streets and adjacent residential uses or
zoning districts by a fence, wall, planting or combination of the
three. If located within the building, the doorway may serve both
the loading and trash/garbage functions, and if located outside of
the building, it may be located adjacent to or within the general
loading area(s), provided that the container in no way interferes
with or restricts loading and unloading functions.
C.
All off-street loading areas shall be lighted.
A.
Local retail service activities, banks and professional
offices may have one lighted or unlighted sign displaying the name
of the use, attached flat against the front of the building and not
exceeding an area equivalent to 5% of the front of the building or
50 square feet, whichever is smaller. Where the building(s) is(are)
designed for rear or side entrances, one unlighted sign may be attached
flat against the building at the rear and side entrances, such sign
not to exceed an area equivalent to one-half ( 1/2) that of the
sign on the front of the building.
B.
A shopping center consisting of more than five separate
uses grouped together may have one lighted freestanding, but nonmoving,
sign along each arterial or collector road which the tract in question
abuts, provided that there exists at least 200 feet of unbroken frontage.
Such sign shall not exceed 20 feet in height, shall be set back from
any property line a minimum of 50 feet and shall not exceed an area
of 100 square feet.
(1)
Where uses share a common walkway, each use served
by the walkway may have one additional sign identifying the use, suspended
in perpendicular fashion from the roof over the walkway. Suspended
signs shall be no closer than eight feet at their lowest point to
the finished grade level below them. No such signs shall exceed eight
square feet in area.
(2)
All signs in a shopping center shall conform in character
with all other signs in the complex and shall blend with the overall
architectural scheme of the shopping center.
C.
Service stations may be permitted one freestanding
sign, lighted but nonmoving, and one sign attached flat against the
building. The freestanding sign shall not exceed the building height,
shall be set back at least one foot from the street right-of-way and
shall not exceed 30 square feet in area. The attached sign shall not
exceed 20 square feet in area nor exceed the height of the roofline.
