[Added 10-21-2004 by L.L. No. 43-2004]
The intent of the Village Center (VC) Zoning Use District is
to transform village commercial nodes into vibrant "Main Streets"
with small shops, restaurants, and professional services following
a traditional pattern of development and design in a compact, pedestrian-oriented
setting.
In the VC Zoning Use District, no building, structure, or premises
shall be used or arranged or designed to be used, and no building
or structure shall be hereafter erected, reconstructed, or altered,
unless otherwise provided in this chapter, except for the following
permitted uses or specially permitted uses and their customary accessory
uses:
A.
Permitted uses:
[Amended 2-7-2006 by L.L. No. 7-2006]
(1)
Retail stores.
(2)
Antiques stores.
(3)
Art galleries.
(4)
Arts and crafts shops.
(5)
Personal services.
(6)
Restaurants, cafes, banquet facilities and ice cream parlors.
(7)
Bakeries with retail sales on premises, and specialty food stores.
(8)
Banks.
(9)
Professional offices (excluding veterinary offices).
(10)
Museums.
(11)
Libraries.
(12)
Schools.
(13)
Places of worship.
(14)
Parks and playgrounds.
(15)
Apartments on upper floors.
B.
Special permit uses:
(1)
Indoor recreation facilities.
(2)
Day-care establishments and nursery schools.
(3)
Live entertainment as a principal use.
(4)
Bed-and-breakfast establishments.
(5)
One-family dwellings.
(6)
Microbreweries, brewpubs, microcideries, and microwineries are subject
to the following additional criteria:
[Added 2-2-2016 by L.L.
No. 2-2016]
(a)
The use shall not be located within 200 feet of a house of worship
or 500 feet of a school.
(b)
The use shall be limited to serving prepackaged food products
unless the applicant obtains approval and a certificate of occupancy
for use as a brewpub or restaurant use within that portion of the
premises used for preparation and service of food.
(c)
The use shall permit tastings and sale for on-site consumption,
subject to all required permits and approvals required by state and
local laws, rules and regulations.
(d)
The use shall permit sales for off-site consumption (i.e., filling
of growlers) limited to 1,000 barrels annually and offers to licensed
retailers and wholesalers limited to 2,500 barrels of beer, cider
or wine annually.
(e)
Processing and manufacturing shall not exceed 10,000 barrels
(310,000 gallons) annually.
(f)
All manufacturing and processing activities, including storage
of grains, shall take place within an enclosed building.
(g)
A maximum of 70% of the total square footage shall be used for
manufacture and processing.
(h)
A minimum of 30% shall be used for sale and marketing of the
manufactured product.
(i)
All sales and marketing shall be located in the portion of the
building located along road frontage.
(j)
A microbrewery, brewpub, microcidery, or microwinery use shall
be required to hook up to the sewer system and enter into a monitoring
agreement with the Sewer District to determine flow and calculate
use fee. (Note: A separate hook-up and fee shall be assessed for a
pub/restaurant use related to a brewpub.)
(k)
All loading areas shall be located in the rear portion of the
building.
A.
No buildings shall be erected nor any lot or land area utilized unless
in conformity with the Zoning Schedule[1] incorporated into this chapter by reference and made a
part hereof with the same force and effect as if such requirements
were herein set forth in full as specified in said schedule, except
as may be hereafter specifically modified.
[1]
Editor's Note: The Zoning Schedule is included as an attachment to this chapter.
B.
New buildings in the VC Zoning Use District shall comply with the
lot, yard, bulk and height requirements of the Zoning Schedule. However,
the Town Board shall have discretion during site plan approval to
grant variances in front setbacks based on the contextual pattern
of nearby commercial or residential properties, so as to maintain
a unified street wall pattern.
[Amended 5-5-2009 by L.L. No. 14-2009]
The design standards and parking standards listed in the provisions
below (Subsections A and B of this section) are intended as a guide
or measure for improvements in parcels in this zoning district, and
the word "shall" recited in the provisions below, with the exception
of Subsection B(1) of this section which requires adherence to the
Parking Schedule, is intended to obtain compliance with the provisions
to the extent practicable as determined by the Board responsible for
review.
A.
Design standards.
(1)
The principal building entrance and front shall face the primary
street frontage and sidewalk.
(2)
Building design and landscaping should serve to reinforce and announce
the main pedestrian building entrances.
(3)
Development shall provide walkways for safe and convenient pedestrian
access to storefront entries from sidewalks, and to link storefronts
to any nearby public parks and residential and commercial areas.
(4)
For ground-floor commercial space, at least 25% of linear width of
the front facade shall be comprised of transparent windows. Where
shade is desired, awnings are encouraged. Windows may not be obscured
more than 20% by opaque banners, or either permanent or temporary
advertisements or signs.
(5)
The exteriors of buildings shall utilize natural cladding materials
such as wood, brick, stucco, stone or a combination of such materials.
The use of synthetic, metallic, and reflective materials should be
avoided.
(6)
Building shape, proportions, massing, and design should be appropriate
to the historic character of the commercial center in which the building
is located. Architectural features such as porches, porticoes, shutters,
decorative door and window frames, balconies, cornices, dormers, chimneys,
turrets, and spires should be used to create pedestrian-scale interest
and variety in the facade.
(8)
Buffering and transitions.
(a)
Trash/dumpster areas shall be screened by wood fences or landscaping, or a combination thereof, pursuant to § 245-8.
(b)
Buffer plantings or landscaping or opaque fences, preferably
wood fences, shall be provided between commercial uses and adjoining
residential uses or zones.
(c)
Deliveries and loading activities shall to the extent possible
be restricted to the hours between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays.
B.
Parking standards.
(1)
The number of off-street parking spaces in the VC Zoning Use District shall be provided in accordance with § 301-231, Off-street parking, of this chapter.
(2)
Where credible evidence is provided by traffic counts or data by
a licensed traffic engineer, up to 20% reduction in off-street parking
may be permitted for shared parking, where the peak parking of two
or more uses occurs at different times.
(3)
Parking requirements may be reduced with payment of a fee or land dedication in lieu of providing off-street parking as provided for in § 301-231.
(4)
Off-street parking shall not be permitted in the front yard. Parking
shall be sited to rear of buildings, away from street frontage(s)
when possible, or to the side of buildings. In all cases, garages
and parking areas shall be recessed at least five feet from the primary
front facade plane of the main building, and at least 15 feet back
from the front property line.
(5)
Curb cuts to parking lots and garages shall be minimized by sharing
driveways for access to adjacent parking lots. However, curb cuts
and driveways are prohibited along the front property line for properties
less than 30 feet in width; in these situations, parking must be accessed
from a rear alley, side street, or shared rear lot.
(6)
Shared parking lots with cross-access agreements are encouraged so
as to allow drivers to park in one lot and walk to other businesses
without moving their cars, or to drive from one lot to another without
returning to the street.
(7)
In order to soften the appearance of parking lots, parking lots shall
be landscaped with ground cover, grasses, or low shrubs for at least
15% of their land area.
(8)
In order to provide shade, parking lots with 21 or more spaces shall
have "orchard" planting: one tree per 10 off-street spaces. Such trees
shall be spread throughout the parking lot, rather than clustered
only along the edges.
(9)
In order to provide recharge of the groundwater basin and minimize
runoff into water bodies, at least one of the following stormwater
management techniques shall be used in parking lots where underlying
soils support infiltration of precipitation to the groundwater:
(a)
Entire parking areas shall be surfaced with gravel, rather than
pavement.
(b)
Where sanding and salting are not used in the winter, low-traffic
or seasonal parking overflow areas of the parking lot shall be surfaced
with porous pavement or gravel.
(c)
Landscaped areas of the parking lot shall be sited, planted,
and graded in a manner to provide infiltration and detention of runoff
from paved areas.
C.
Additional requirements.
[Added 2-17-2016 by L.L.
No. 6-2016]
(1)
Hours of operation of retail business establishments. As used herein,
a "retail business establishment" shall mean and include a retail
store, shop, or other business establishment in which goods, wares,
foods, commodities, articles or products are sold at retail, except
that a retail business establishment shall not be construed to include
any business establishment licensed to sell alcoholic beverages at
retail for on-premises consumption. No retail business establishment
shall remain open for business during the five-hour period between
12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m. Every retail business establishment shall
be closed to the public during the aforementioned five-hour period,
and business with the public therein is prohibited after the hour
of 12:00 midnight and before the hour of 5:00 a.m. of every day.
