This chapter is adopted for the purpose of:
A. 
Promoting the public health, safety, comfort, morals, convenience, and general welfare;
B. 
Securing adequate natural light, pure air, and safety from fire and other dangers;
C. 
Lessening or avoiding the hazards to persons and damage to property resulting from the accumulation or runoff of storm or flood waters;
D. 
Lessening or avoiding congestion in the public streets and highways;
E. 
Conserving the value of land and buildings throughout the City; and
F. 
Preserving and enhancing aesthetic values throughout the City.
To these ends, this chapter is intended to establish and accomplish certain standards and objectives by:
A. 
Dividing the entire City into districts and regulating therein the location, construction, reconstruction, alteration, and use of buildings, structures, and land, whether for agriculture, residence, business, manufacturing or other specified uses;
B. 
Avoiding or lessening congestion in the public streets by adequate requirements for off-street parking and loading facilities;
C. 
Preventing the overcrowding of land by regulating and limiting the height and bulk of buildings hereafter erected;
D. 
Establishing, regulating, and limiting the building or setback lines along streets, alleys, and property lines;
E. 
Regulating and limiting the intensity of the use of lot areas, and regulating and determining the area of open spaces surrounding buildings;
F. 
Establishing standards to which buildings or structures therein shall conform;
G. 
Permitting in each zoning district only those uses, buildings, and structures that are compatible with the character of each district;
H. 
Preventing additions to, and alterations or remodeling of, existing buildings or structures, in such a way as to avoid the restrictions and limitations imposed under this chapter;
I. 
Providing controls governing the continuation of those existing uses, buildings, and structures which are incompatible with the character of the districts in which they are located;
J. 
Providing for the gradual elimination of structures and uses which are incompatible with the character of the districts in which they are located;
K. 
Defining the powers and duties of the administrative officers and bodies as provided in this chapter; and
L. 
Prescribing penalties for the violation of the provisions of this chapter, or of any amendment thereto.
In their application, the provisions of this chapter shall be held to be the minimum requirements for the promotion and protection of the public health, safety, comfort, morals, convenience, and general welfare, and the provisions shall be interpreted in accordance with the following:
A. 
Where the conditions imposed by any provision of this chapter are either more restrictive or less restrictive than comparable standards imposed by any other provision of this chapter or of any other law, ordinance, resolution, rule, or regulation of any kind, the regulations which are more restrictive, or which imposed higher standards or requirements, shall govern.
B. 
This chapter is not intended to abrogate any easement, covenant, or other private agreement, provided that where the regulations of this chapter are more restrictive or impose higher standards or requirements than such easements, covenants, or other private agreements, the requirements of this chapter shall govern.
C. 
No building, structure, or use not lawfully existing at the time of the adoption of this chapter shall become or be made lawful solely by reason of the adoption of this chapter; and to the extent that, and in any manner that, said unlawful building, structure, or use is in conflict with the requirements of this chapter, said building, structure or use remains unlawful under the provisions of this chapter.