For the purpose of this chapter, certain words and terms are defined as listed below. Also, words used in the present tense include the future; the singular number includes the plural number, and the plural number includes the singular number; the word "building" includes the word "structure"; and the word "shall" is mandatory and not directory. Any words not herein defined shall be construed as defined in the State and City Building Codes.
ACCESSORY BUILDING OR STRUCTURE
A building or portion of a building subordinate to the main building or structure and used for a purpose customarily incidental to the permitted use of the main building or structure or the use of the premises, including but not limited to garages, prefabricated metal buildings for storage, carports, greenhouses, screened enclosures, swimming pools, bathhouse and filter equipment sheds, playhouses, gazebos, satellite dish antennas, and open storage. Accessory buildings shall not occupy more than 1,000 square feet. Any accessory building projected forward of the rear building line of the principal building shall satisfy the same front and side yard requirements as the principal building.
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT USE
An establishment consisting of, including, or having the characteristics of any or all of the following:
A. 
ADULT BOOKSTOREAn establishment having as a substantial or significant portion of its stock-in-trade books, magazines, publications, tapes, or films that are distinguished or characterized by their emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to sexual activities or anatomical genital areas.
B. 
(1) 
An establishment devoted to adult entertainment, either with or without a liquor license, presenting material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to sexual activities or anatomical genital areas.
(2) 
A cabaret that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators, or similar entertainers for observation by patrons.
C. 
ADULT MINI MOTION-PICTURE THEATERAn enclosed building with a capacity for fewer than 50 persons used for presenting material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to sexual activities or anatomical genital areas.
D. 
ADULT MOTION-PICTURE THEATERAn enclosed building with a capacity for 50 or more persons used for presenting material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to sexual activities or anatomical genital areas.
ALLEY
A street or thoroughfare less than 21 feet wide and affording only secondary access to abutting property.
BED-AND-BREAKFAST
Any place of lodging that provides four or fewer rooms for more than 10 nights in a twelve-month period, is the owner's personal residence, is occupied by the owner at the time of rental, and in which the only meal served to guests is breakfast.
BUILDING
Any structure used, designed or intended for the protection, shelter, enclosure, or support of persons, animals, or property. When a building is divided into separate parts by unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part shall be deemed a separate building. A carport shall be considered a building.
BUILDING HEIGHT
The vertical distance from the average curb level in front of the lot or the finished grade at the building line, whichever is higher, to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, to the deckline of a mansard roof or to the average height of the highest gable of a gambrel, hip, or pitch roof.
CAMPGROUND
A privately or municipally owned parcel or tract of land maintained, intended or used for the purpose of supplying temporary or overnight living accommodations to the public by providing designated areas for the placement of trailers, tents, buses, automobiles, or sleeping bags, and may include structures to provide services to the patrons, such as rest rooms and bathing and laundry facilities.
DECK
An uncovered exterior structure designed or intended for outdoor living space. Decks shall have a minimum fifteen-foot rear yard setback in all residential districts.[1]
DWELLING, MULTIPLE-FAMILY
A building or portion thereof designed for and occupied by more than two families, including row houses, apartment houses, and condominiums.
DWELLING, ONE-FAMILY
A detached building designed for or occupied exclusively by one family.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY
A detached or semidetached building designed for or occupied exclusively by two families.
FAMILY
A person living alone or two or more persons living together in a domestic relationship based upon birth, marriage or other domestic bond, in a dwelling unit.
FARMING
The raising of crops and keeping of farm animals, including but not limited to cattle, fowl, rabbits, sheep, goats, and horses.
FEEDLOT
Any livestock feeding or housing area or structure in which the concentration of animals is such that a vegetative cover is not maintained during the summer.
FENCE
Any barrier constructed of wood, wire, metal, stone, or a combination thereof, excluding single-strand or barbed wire fences. Such fences shall not exceed 72 inches in height in the side or rear yard or 48 inches in height in the front yard. In the M District, fences shall not exceed 15 feet in height. All fences in the front yard or a vision triangle shall not exceed 48 inches in height, shall be ninety-percent see-through, and shall not obstruct the vision of pedestrians or motorists.
FRONTAGE
All the property abutting a public road or street.
GARAGE, PRIVATE
An accessory building in residential areas for the storage of motor-driven vehicles.
GARAGE, PUBLIC
Any building or premises, other than a private or storage garage, where motor-driven vehicles are equipped, repaired, painted, serviced, hired, sold, or stored.
HOME OCCUPATION
A gainful occupation conducted by members of the family only, within their place of residence, provided that the area used does not exceed 25% of the total floor area, excluding attached garage; that no article or service is sold or offered for sale on the premises except such as is produced by such occupation; that no materials used in or produced by said occupation are displayed or stored outside; that no stock-in-trade is kept or sold; that no mechanical equipment is used other than such as is permissible for purely domestic purposes; that the volume of vehicular or pedestrian traffic or parking shall not result in congestion or be abnormal for a residential neighborhood; that no sign other than one unlighted nameplate as provided in § 625-38 is installed; that no structural alterations that are not customarily part of the dwelling unit are needed; and that no person other than a member of the immediate family living on the premises is employed.
[Amended 12-10-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-001]
HOTEL
A building where rooms, with or without meals, are supplied to the transient public or to anyone who may apply, for compensation.
JUNK OR SALVAGE YARD
An area consisting of buildings, structures, or premises where junk, waste, discarded or salvage materials are bought, sold, exchanged, stored, baled, packed, disassembled, or handled, including automobile wrecking yards, but not including the purchase or storage of used furniture or household equipment or used cars in operable condition.
KENNEL
The use of land with related buildings and structures for the breeding, rearing, boarding, or training of more than two dogs and/or cats over five months of age.
[Amended 12-10-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-001]
LIVESTOCK UNIT
One thousand five hundred pounds of live animal weight. "Animal" includes but is not limited to cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and buffalo.
LOT
A parcel of land having frontage on or legal access to a public street, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal structure or use and sufficient in size to meet the lot width, lot frontage, lot area, yard, parking area, and other open space provisions of this chapter.
LOT, CORNER
A lot abutting on two or more streets at their intersection.
LOT, DEPTH OF
The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
LOT LINES
The lines bounding a lot as defined herein.
LOT, THROUGH
An interior lot having frontage on two nonintersecting streets.
LOT WIDTH
The width of a parcel of land measured at the rear of the specified setback lines.[2]
MANUFACTURED HOME
A dwelling structure or component thereof fabricated in an off-site manufacturing facility for installation or assembly at the building site bearing a HUD label or insignia certifying that it is built in compliance with federal manufactured housing construction standards. (Reference 42 U.S.C. § 5401.)[3]
MEMBRANE STORAGE STRUCTURE
A temporary accessory storage structure consisting of a frame that is covered with a plastic, fabric, canvas or similar nonpermanent material, which is used to provide storage for vehicles, boats, recreational vehicles and other personal property; which term shall also apply to accessory structures commonly known as hoop houses, canopy covered carports, and garages; but shall not apply to greenhouses or temporary tents or canopies used for limited time special events such as weddings, festivals, graduations or farmers markets.
[Added 8-13-2018 by Ord. No. 2018-002]
MOBILE HOME
A transportable, factory-built structure designed for long-term occupancy built prior to enactment of the Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, which became effective June 15, 1976.
MOBILE HOME LOT
A parcel of land in a mobile home park of not less than 5,000 square feet and designed for the placement of one mobile home.
MOBILE HOME PARK
Any park, court, plot, parcel, or tract of land of at least five acres in size owned by a person, state government, or a local government and designed, maintained, intended, or used for the purpose of accommodating more than one mobile home or manufactured home, and shall include all buildings used or intended for use in conjunction therewith. Mobile home parks are intended to be used to protect property owners' values. However, mobile home parks shall not include automobile, motor home or mobile home sales lots on which unoccupied mobile homes are parked for purposes of inspection and sale. Also excluded are farms where the occupants of the mobile homes work on the farm or are related to the farm owner or operator as father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister.[4]
MOTEL
A series of attached, semi-attached, or detached sleeping units for the accommodation of transient guests.
NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE
Any structure lawfully used, occupied, or erected at the time of the effective date of this chapter or amendments thereto which structurally does not conform to the regulations of this chapter or amendments thereto. Any such structure conforming in respect to use but not in respect to frontage, width, height, area, yard, parking, loading or distance requirements shall be considered a nonconforming structure and not a nonconforming use.
NONCONFORMING USE
A building or premises lawfully used or occupied at the time of the passage of this chapter or amendments thereto, which use or occupancy does not conform to the regulations of this chapter or amendments thereto.
OCCUPANCY
The residing of an individual or individuals overnight in a dwelling unit, or the installation, storage or use of equipment, merchandise or machinery in any public, commercial or industrial building.
OCCUPANT
The individual or individuals in actual possession of a premises.
PARKING AREA
An area other than a street used for the temporary parking of motor vehicles.
PRINCIPAL USE OR BUILDING
The main use of the land or building(s) as distinguished from an incidental and subordinate accessory use of land or building(s).
PROFESSIONAL OFFICE
The office of a doctor, surveyor, planner, dentist, minister, architect, landscape architect, professional engineer, lawyer, author, musician or a member of a recognized profession. When established in a residential district, a professional office shall be incidental to the residential occupation; not more than 25% of the floor area, excluding the garage, of only one story of a dwelling unit shall be occupied by such office, only one nonresident person shall be employed, and only one unlighted nameplate as provided in § 625-38 containing the name and profession of the occupant of the premises shall be exhibited.[5]
PUBLIC AND SEMIPUBLIC USES
Governmental and cultural uses, such as administrative offices, fire and police stations, community centers, libraries, public emergency shelters, parks, playgrounds and museums, public, private and parochial preschool, elementary and secondary schools, and churches, cemeteries, private clubs and lodges and public storage garages.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE
A vehicular unit designed as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping or travel use which either has its own motive power or is mounted on or drawn by another vehicle. The basic entities are travel trailer, camping trailer, truck camper, or motor home.
SETBACK
The minimum horizontal distance between the street line and the nearest point of a building or any projection thereof, excluding uncovered steps.
SETBACK LINES
Lines established along highways and streets at specified distances from the right-of-way line, which buildings or structures shall be set back of, or outside of, and within which they may not be placed except as hereinafter provided. "Within the setback line" means between the setback line and the highway or street.
SIGN
Any identification, description, illustration, or device, illuminated or nonilluminated, which is visible from any public place or is located on private property and exposed to the public and which directs attention to a product, service, place, activity, person, institution, business, or solicitation, including permanently installed or situated merchandise, or any emblem, painting, banner, pennant, placard, or temporary sign designed to advertise, identify, or convey information, with the exception of window displays and flags. For the purpose of removal, "sign" shall also include all sign structures.
STORY
That portion of a building included between the surface of a 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. A basement or cellar having 1/2 or more of its height above grade shall be deemed a story for purposes of height regulation.
STORY, HALF
The space under any roof except a flat roof which, if occupied for residential purposes, shall be counted as a full story.
STREET
All property dedicated or intended for public street purposes.
STREET LINE
A dividing line between a lot, tract, or parcel of land and a contiguous street.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION
Any change in the supporting members of a building or any substantial change in the roof structure or in the exterior walls.
STRUCTURE
Anything constructed or erected which is not readily or usually relocated and moved, the use of which requires a permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having a permanent location on the ground.
SWIMMING POOL
A container either temporarily or permanently constructed upon or within the ground so designed as to contain water exceeding 12 inches in depth and having an area greater than 150 square feet which is used primarily for swimming.
TEMPORARY STRUCTURE
A movable structure not designed for human occupancy nor for the protection of goods or chattels and forming an enclosure.
TRAFFIC LANE
A strip of roadway intended to accommodate a single line of moving vehicles.
YARD
An open space on the same lot with or without a structure, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except for vegetation and as otherwise provided herein. The front and rear yards extend the full width of the lot.[6]
YARD, FRONT
A yard extending the full width of the lot between the front lot line and the nearest part of the main building, excluding uncovered steps. On a corner lot, the front yard will be the yard with a street address.
YARD, REAR
A yard extending the full width of the lot, being the minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the nearest part of the building, excluding uncovered steps.
YARD, SIDE
A yard extending from the front yard to the rear yard, being the minimum horizontal distance between a building and side lot line.
[1]
Editor's Note: Provisions relating to dwelling design and construction which immediately followed this definition are now included in § 625-8P.
[2]
Editor's Note: The definition of "manufactured dwelling" which immediately followed this definition was repealed 12-10-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-001.
[3]
Editor's Note: The definition of "mobile coach" which immediately followed this definition was repealed 12-10-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-001.
[4]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II).
[5]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II).
[6]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II).