The intent of the Downtown Center 3: Office (DC-3) Zoning Use
District is to allow, maintain, and foster a traditional downtown
character, similar to that of the Downtown Center 1: Main Street (DC-1)
Zoning Use District, but with lower intensities. The DC-3 Zoning Use
District complements the State Supreme Court of Suffolk County Complex
by allowing a moderate-intensity mix of uses, with ground-floor offices
and retail and a greater mix of housing types.
In the DC-3 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:
(3)
Personal services businesses.
(5)
Art galleries and studios.
(6)
Restaurants, cafes, bakeries with retail sales on premises,
banquet facilities, ice cream parlors.
(7)
Offices and professional offices.
(8)
Governmental offices or other public offices.
(9)
Museums, libraries and other cultural attractions.
(10)
Schools (including business and secretarial).
(14)
Movie theater and multiplex cinema.
[Added 6-7-2005 by L.L. No. 15-2005]
B. Special permit uses:
(3)
Indoor recreation facilities.
(4)
Day-care, nursery schools.
(5)
Bed-and-breakfast establishments.
(7)
Single-family dwelling units.
C. Accessory uses. Accessory uses shall include those uses customarily
incidental to any of the above permitted uses or specially permitted
uses when located on the same lot. Specifically permitted are the
following:
(1)
Home occupations, but not in apartment buildings.
D. Prohibited uses:
(1)
Gas stations, car washes, and other automobile-oriented uses.
(2)
Drive-through windows for restaurants and banks.
[Amended 5-5-2009 by L.L. No. 23-2009]
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) 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)
For ground-floor commercial space, at least 50% of the 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.
(3)
Building shape, massing, and siting should reflect the prevalent
character of surrounding buildings on the block.
(4)
Facades of commercial buildings that face sidewalks or pedestrian
walkways shall be broken up into bays of no more than 30 feet in width,
through use of variations in facade plane, piers, or other architectural
features.
(5)
Signage in the DC-3 Zoning Use District shall be provided in accordance with Article
XLVIII, Signs, of this chapter.
(6)
Buffering and transitions.
(a)
Trash and/or 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 businesses and adjoining
residential uses.
(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 DC-3 Zoning Use District shall be provided in accordance with §
301-231, Off-street parking.
(2)
Where credible evidence is provided by traffic counts or data
by a licensed traffic engineer, up to a twenty-percent 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)
The parking requirement may be reduced with payment of a fee 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 the 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)
Parking may also be located fully below buildings, partially
below grade in a building, or at grade within a building, provided
it is fully enclosed and no entry is provided facing a public street
or front yard. Structured parking that is partially below grade shall
be screened from the street by steps, trellises, or screens.
(6)
Curb cuts to parking lots shall be minimized by sharing driveways
for access to adjacent parking lots.
(7)
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 and along the
edges.
(8)
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.
(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)
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.
(b)
Landscaped areas of parking lots shall be planted, situated
and graded in a manner to provide infiltration and detention of runoff
from paved areas.