Township of Plymouth, PA Planned Office Park District

A building or combination of buildings may be erected, altered or used and a lot may be used or occupied for any of the following purposes, but for no others:

Offices for administration, executive, professional, sales, data processing, or other similar uses, the normal attributes of which do not involve the actual storage, exchange or delivery of merchandise on the premises.

Banks or other financial institutions; municipal uses; educational or conference center uses when allied with permitted office uses.

Restaurants within the confines of an office building, but excluding establishments maintaining drive-in, drive-thru or curb service, outdoor counters; provided, however, that a terrace or accommodations for exterior dining or drinking shall be permitted as an adjunct to such use; and further provided, that any restaurant premises shall be equipped with refrigerated garbage storage facilities.

Personal service shops primarily for the convenience of tenants and their employees, so long as such facilities shall not constitute more than ten (10) per cent of the gross floor area, such as:

(1)

Barber shop, beauty shop;

(2)

Travel agency, transportation ticket office;

(3)

Newsstand, pharmacy.

Hotel.

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, provided that such use shall be permitted subject to such reasonable restrictions as the Zoning Hearing Board may impose.

Accessory uses on the same lot customarily incidental to any of the foregoing permitted uses.

Parking structures shall be permitted as accessory uses pursuant to Section 1705 of this Ordinance.

Section 3201 Development requirements.

[Ord. No. 869, § 1, 2-8-1982; Ord. No. 935, § 5, 7-8-1985; Ord. No. 1133, § 21, 9-27-1993; Ord. No. 1204, § 1, 10-29-1996; Ord. No. 1253, § 12, 1-26-1998; Ord. No. 1476, §§ 34, 35, 6-11-2007]

The plan for the office park shall include specific evidence and facts showing that it has considered and made provision for, and the development shall be executed in accordance with, the following essential conditions:

Development shall consist of a harmonious grouping of buildings, service and parking area, circulation and open spaces, planned and designed as an integrated unit in such manner as to constitute a safe, efficient and convenient office park project. The distance at the closest point between buildings or groups of attached buildings shall be not less than seventy-five (75) feet.

The appropriate use of property adjacent to the office park shall be safeguarded. Where such office park abuts any residential district, a suitable and uninterrupted buffer area, not less than fifty (50) feet in depth, and planted in accordance with the requirements of Section 505.3.E. of the Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, shall be provided and maintained by the owner of the office park or an association of owners thereof. Lighting facilities shall be arranged in such manner as will protect the highway and neighboring properties from direct glare or hazardous interference of any kind.

All buildings within the Planned Office Park District shall be served by Township sanitary sewage disposal systems and public water supply.

Adequate provisions shall be made for safe and efficient ingress and egress to and from public streets and highways serving the Planned Office Park District without undue congestion to or interference with the normal traffic flow within the township. All points of vehicular access to and from the public streets shall be located not less than two hundred and fifty (250) feet from the intersection of any public street lines with each other.

Adequate provisions shall be made for safe and efficient pedestrian and vehicular traffic circulation within the boundaries of the Planned Office Park District.

Off-street parking.

(a)

Four and one-half spaces per one thousand (1,000) square feet of gross leasable floor area, except in the case of hotel usage which shall require one and one-half (1 1/2) parking spaces for each hotel room or suite. All ancillary uses of the hotel shall be included for the requirement of one and one-half (1 1/2) parking spaces for each hotel room or suite. The required parking may be reduced to [one and three-tenths] (1.3) parking spaces for each hotel room or suite when authorized by special exception on a showing that sufficient parking will be available and readily accessible to the hotel facility within the planned office park.

(b)

The size of the parking space for one vehicle shall consist of a rectangular area having dimensions of not less than nine (9) feet in width and eighteen (18) feet in length. Aisles serving such parking spaces shall have a minimum width of twenty-six (26) feet.

(c)

Parking spaces may consist of enclosed areas such as basements, attached or detached garages, or open space parking areas including open lot, deck and roof parking areas.

(d)

In no case shall any parking area be permitted closer than fifty (50) feet to any residential district except that parking shall be permitted up to within ten (10) feet of any limited access highway.

(e)

Adequate loading area shall be provided in addition to the required parking area and shall be so designed that its use will not block or otherwise interfere with pedestrian or vehicular traffic flow within the Planned Office Park District.

(f)

Land upon which off-street parking and loading spaces are located shall be owned or controlled by the same entity which owns or controls the land on which the principal use is located.

All utility lines serving the buildings within the Planned Office Park District shall be placed underground.

If the development of the Planned Office Park District is to be carried out and to progress in stages, each stage shall be so planned that the foregoing requirements and the intent of this Ordinance shall be fully complied with by the developer at the completion of any stage of development.

Required minimum area, street frontage and yard regulations.

(1)

District area, forty (40) acres;

(2)

Lot area, four (4) acres;

(3)

Building setback from district boundary line, one hundred (100) feet; except where bounded by a limited access highway, in which case the building setback may be fifty (50) feet;

(4)

Building setback from street line, one hundred (100) feet;

(5)

Building setback from a property line, fifty (60) feet;

(6)

Distance between buildings, seventy-five (75) feet;

(7)

District frontage, no less than one thousand (1,000) feet of frontage along public roads.

Building coverage. The maximum building coverage shall be twenty-five (25) percent of the total lot area.

Maximum height. The maximum height of any building or other structure erected or used in the Planned Office Park District shall be six (6) stories.

Impervious surface coverage. The maximum impervious surface coverage, including buildings, driveways, parking and storage areas, shall be sixty-five (65) percent of the total lot area.

Green space area requirement. The minimum required green space area on any lot shall not be less than thirty-five (35) percent.

Section 3201.1 Buffering requirements.

[Ord. No. 1019, § 9, 11-13-1989]

Buffering shall be required pursuant to Section 1706 of this Ordinance.

Section 3201.2 Berming requirements.

[Ord. No. 1019, § 9, 11-13-1989]

Berming shall be required pursuant to Section 1707 of this Ordinance.

Section 3201.3 Landscape plan.

[Ord. No. 1019, § 9, 11-13-1989]

A landscape plan prepared by a registered landscape architect shall be submitted with each plan application. The plan shall identify existing and proposed trees, shrubs, ground cover, natural features such as rock outcroppings, and other landscaping elements. The plan shall show planting and/or construction details. When existing natural growth is proposed to remain, the applicant shall include in the plans proposed methods to protect existing trees and growth during and after construction. Other regulations that apply are:

Areas to be Landscaped. All areas of the site not occupied by buildings and required improvements shall be landscaped by the planting of grass or other ground cover, shrubs and trees.

Street Trees.

Street trees shall be installed on both sides of all streets in accordance with the approved landscape plan. Trees shall either be massed at critical points or spaced evenly along the street, or a combination of the two (2) techniques.

When trees are planted at predetermined intervals along streets, spacing shall depend on tree size at maturity, as follows:

	Tree Height at Maturity (in feet)	Planting Interval (in feet)
	Large trees (40+)	50-70
	Medium-size trees (30—40)	40-50
	Small trees (to 30)	30-40

The trees shall be planted so as not to interfere with utilities, roadways, sidewalks, sight easements or street lights.

Tract Buffer. Along all tract perimeter boundary lines which abut any residential district, buffers shall be provided in accordance with the following regulations:

The owner shall place and maintain a planting area twenty-five (25) feet in width containing hedge, evergreens, shrubbery or suitable vegetation of sufficient planted density to produce a visual screening appropriate to the topography, the existing vegetation and the use of adjacent land. Wherever possible, the owner shall make every effort to retain existing natural screening, such as vegetation and topography. Earth berms and/or fencing may be used in combination with vegetation to achieve the buffer, but may not be used alone.

As an alternative to the possibly linear appearance of the minimum requirements above, applicants are encouraged to provide innovative, free-form buffers which need not be located entirely within the minimum required twenty-five (25) feet width. Such alternative buffers shall be subject to approval by the township council, which may seek the advice of technical experts in the review of the alternative plans.

Planting Specifications.

All evergreen vegetation to be installed shall not be less than five (5) feet in height at the time of planting and shall be such that the species' expected height at maturity shall not be less than fifteen (15) feet.

All deciduous material to be installed shall not be less than ten (10) feet in height and two and one-half (2 1/2) inches in caliper at the time of planting.

All plant material shall be installed according to the American Nurserymen's Association guidelines, as they are amended and adopted, and guaranteed for a period of one (1) year. All plant material which dies within that time shall be replaced by the applicant at his cost.

Section 3202 Application and review by planning agency; approval or disapproval by Township Council.

[Ord. No. 869, § 1, 2-8-1982]

The office park plan for any Planned Office Park District shall be submitted to the Township and reviewed and approved by Township Council prior to the issuance of any permits. Information to be shown on all Office Park District plans shall meet the requirements of Section 401 and Section 404 of the Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance.

The planning agency shall review any office park plans for Planned Office Park District projects submitted to them and shall submit these plans, with recommendations thereon, to the Township Council for final review and action thereon.

Upon receipt of the office park plan together with the recommendations of the planning agencies for any Planned Office Park District project, the Township Council shall, after review, have the power to approve or disapprove such plan and to impose reasonable conditions on an approval. The secretary of the Township Council shall notify the applicant in writing of Council's final decision and any required special conditions imposed upon any Office Park District use.

Section 3203 Definitions.

[Ord. No. 869, § 1, 2-8-1982]

The following words and phrases when used in this Article XXXII shall have the following meaning:

Lot. One or more contiguous parcels of land, whether or not in single and separate ownership, occupied or to be occupied by one or more buildings or other structures to be devoted to any or all of the uses permitted in Section 3200 of this Article XXXII, together with any accessory buildings, structures or groups of principal buildings, or other structures or uses and any service and parking areas, circulation and open spaces as are arranged or designed to be used in connection with such principal building or buildings, or groups of principal buildings or other structures or uses, such areas and open spaces and the area and dimensions of such lot being not less than the minimum required by this Ordinance.

Lot line. A property boundary line of any lot (not including any interior property line separating contiguous parcels comprising a lot as defined in the foregoing paragraph) except that, in case of any lot abutting a public street, the lot line for such portion of the lot as abuts the street shall be deemed to be the same as the street line, and shall not be the center line of the street, or any other line within the street lines even though such may be the deeded property boundary line.

Section 3204 Division of lot or part thereof.

[Ord. No. 869, § 1, 2-8-1982]

Where the Township Council shall have approved plans of a planned office park use in accordance with Section 3202 hereof, the subsequent division of that tract or part thereof into lots incident to the development of the office park use shall thereafter be exempted from the provisions of the Plymouth Township Subdivision Ordinance; provided, that the deeds conveying lots or parts of the tract shall contain covenants requiring the purchasers to, at all times, operate and maintain such lots or parts of the tract in good order and repair and in a clean and sanitary condition uniformly with the appearance and maintenance of the balance of the Office Park District complex.

The failure of any purchaser to so covenant and agree shall thereby subject the proposed division of the lots or parts of the tract to the Subdivision Ordinance of Plymouth Township notwithstanding paragraph A. above.