This chapter is enacted and ordained under the grant of powers
contained in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC).
This chapter shall be known as and may be cited as the "Zoning Ordinance of the Township of Lower Moreland, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania," "this chapter," "Chapter
208," "the Lower Moreland Township Zoning Ordinance," or "Zoning Ordinance."
The purpose of this chapter is to:
A. Promote, protect, and facilitate one or more of the following: the
public health, safety, morals, or general welfare; the provision of
adequate light and air; and other public requirements.
B. Prevent one or more of the following: overcrowding; blight; or loss
of health, life or property from fire, flood, or other dangers.
C. Establish an Official Zoning Map dividing Lower Moreland Township
into zoning districts with varying regulations.
D. Permit, prohibit, regulate and determine the uses of land, watercourses,
and other bodies of water; the size, height, bulk, location, erection,
construction, repair, expansion, razing, removal, and use of buildings
and structures, as well as yards and other open areas to be left unoccupied.
E. Establish the requirements for density and intensity of uses.
F. Promote innovative design to preserve and enhance the established
and important sense of community neighborhoods, and areas.
G. Serve as a tool that is part of an overall strategy for the orderly,
appropriate and compatible preservation, growth and development in
Lower Moreland Township, by implementing the most recent version of
the:
(1)
Community development objectives set forth below:
(a)
Continue to promote the revitalization of the Philmont Avenue
Corridor through the application and fine-tuning as necessary of the
Mixed Use Revitalization Zoning District/MU-REV regulations.
(b)
Maintain the stability and livability of Lower Moreland Township's
residential neighborhoods.
(c)
Promote the enjoyment of pedestrian walkways or bicycle/pedestrian
pathways and open space along the Philmont Avenue Corridor and Huntingdon
Valley Creek through the execution of the Township of Lower Moreland's
Redevelopment Plan of the Philmont Avenue Corridor and partnerships
with the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust.
(d)
Provide a range of housing choices to those who live or wish
to live in Lower Moreland Township through the application of a variety
of allowable residential densities.
(e)
Support Lower Moreland Township's Mixed Use Village Center Zoning
District/MU-VC (central business district) along Huntingdon Pike and
Welsh Road with flexible use and site design provisions.
(f)
Enable efficient provision of community services and facilities.
(g)
Promote neighborhood commercial uses where deemed appropriate;
and
(2)
Any applicable plan adopted by the Lower Moreland Township Board
of Commissioners (LMT BOC), including but not limited to:
(b)
Greenway and Redevelopment Plan of the Philmont Avenue Corridor;
and
(c)
Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan.
H. Effect any additional purposes provided for in Articles I, VI, VII-A,
and elsewhere in the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC).
Within Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania,
no land, body of water, or structure shall hereafter be used or occupied
and no structure or part thereof shall hereafter be erected, constructed,
reconstructed, moved or structurally altered except in conformity
with all regulations and procedures specified for the zoning district
in which such land, body of water, or structure is located, as well
as with all other applicable provisions of this chapter and other
applicable chapters of the Codified Ordinances of the Township of
Lower Moreland.
The granting approval pursuant to this chapter for the erection
or use of a structure, building, or lot shall not constitute a representation,
guarantee or warranty of any kind or nature by the Township of Lower
Moreland, or an official or employee, thereof, of the safety of any
structure, building, use, or other proposed plan from cause whatsoever,
and shall create no liability upon or a course of action against the
Township of Lower Moreland or such public official or employee for
any damage that may be pursuant thereto.
It is hereby declared to be the legislative intent that if a
court of competent jurisdiction declares any provisions of this chapter
to be invalid or ineffective in whole or in part, the effect of such
decision shall be limited to those provisions which are expressly
stated in the decision to be invalid or ineffective, and all other
provisions of this chapter shall continue to be separately and fully
effective.
All ordinances or resolutions, or parts of ordinances or resolutions,
which are inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
The provisions of this chapter shall become effective on the
date of adoption.