The regulations contained in this article are necessary to encourage
the most appropriate uses of land; maintain and stabilize the value
of property; reduce fire hazards and improve public safety and safeguard
the public health; decrease traffic congestion and its accompanying
hazards; prevent undue concentration of population; and create a comprehensive
and stable pattern of land uses upon which to plan for transportation,
water supply, sewerage, schools, parks, public utilities, and other
facilities. In interpreting and applying the provisions of these regulations,
they are held to be the minimum requirements for the promotion of
the public health, safety, comfort, convenience, and general welfare.
(2002 Code, sec. 54-71)
This article classifies and regulates the use of land, buildings,
and structures within the limits of the city. The regulations contained
in this article are necessary to promote the health, safety, convenience,
and welfare of the inhabitants by dividing the city into zones and
regulating therein the use of the land and the use and size of buildings
as to height and number of stories, the coverage of the land by buildings,
the size of yards and open spaces, density of population and location
of buildings.
(2002 Code, sec. 54-72)
Except as otherwise provided in this article, no land is to
be used and no building, structure, or improvement is to be made,
erected, constructed, moved, altered, enlarged, or rebuilt which is
designed, arranged, or intended to be used or maintained for any purpose
or in any manner except in accordance with the requirements established
in the district in which such land, building, structure, or improvement
is located, and in accordance with the provisions of the sections
contained in this article relating to any or all districts.
(2002 Code, sec. 54-73)
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article,
shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where
the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
A building customarily incidental and appropriate and subordinate
to the main building or use and located on the same lot with the main
building.
A use customarily incidental, appropriate and subordinate
to the principal use of land or buildings located upon the same premises.
Any cloth, card, paper, metal, painted, glass, wooden, plastic,
plaster, stone sign or other sign, device or structure of any character
whatsoever, including statuary, placed for outdoor advertising purposes
on the ground or on any tree, wall, bush, rock, post, fence, building
or structure. The term “placed” means erecting, constructing,
posting, painting, printing, tacking, nailing, gluing, sticking, carving,
or otherwise fastening, affixing or making visible in any manner whatsoever.
The area of an advertising structure other than a sign is determined
as the area of the largest cross-section of such structure. Neither
directional, warning nor other signs posted by public officials in
the course of their public duties nor merchandise or materials being
offered for sale are construed as advertising signs for the purpose
of this definition.
The use of land for agricultural purposes, including farming,
dairying, pasturage, apiculture, horticulture, floriculture, viticulture
animal and poultry husbandry and the necessary accessory uses for
packing, treating, or storing the produce; provided, however, that
the operation of any such accessory uses is secondary to that of the
normal agricultural activities.
A public passage or way affording a secondary means of vehicular
access to abutting property and not intended for general traffic circulation.
A multiple-family dwelling. (See “Dwelling, multiple-family.”)
A self-propelled mechanical vehicle designed for use on streets
and highways for the conveyance of goods and people including, but
not limited to, the following: passenger cars, trucks, buses, motor
scooters, and motorcycles.
A structure designed primarily for washing automobiles.
Any area of land, including structures thereon, that is used
for the sale of gasoline or oil fuels, but not butane or propane fuels,
or other automobile accessories, and which may or may not include
facilities for lubricating, washing, cleaning, or otherwise servicing
automobiles, but not including the painting thereof.
An area outside of a building where motor vehicles are disassembled,
dismantled, junked or wrecked, or where motor vehicles not in operable
condition or used parts of motor vehicles are stored.
A story partly or wholly underground. For purposes of height
measurement, a basement is counted as a story when more than one-half
of its height is above the average level of the adjoining ground or
when subdivided and used for commercial or dwelling purposes by other
than a janitor employed on the premises.
A dwelling other than a hotel where, for compensation and
by prearrangement for definite periods, meals or lodging and meals
are provided for three or more but not exceeding 12 persons.
Any structure intended for the shelter, housing or enclosure
of persons, animals or chattels. When separated by dividing walls
without openings, each portion of such structure so separated is deemed
a separate structure.
The percentage of the lot area covered by the building, excluding
all overhanging roofs.
The vertical distance from the average line of the highest
and lowest points of that portion of the lot covered by the building
to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, or the deck line
of a mansard roof, or to the average height of the highest gable of
a pitch or hip roof.
A building in which is conducted the principal use of the
lot on which it is situated. In any residential district any dwelling
is deemed to be a main building on the lot on which it is situated.
A single parcel of land occupied or intended to be occupied
by a building or structure.
A permanent roofed structure permanently open on at least
two sides, designed for or occupied by private passenger vehicles.
Any place, home or institution which receives three or more
children under the age of 16 years, and not of common parentage, for
care apart from their natural parents, legal guardians or custodians,
when received for regular periods of time for compensation; provided,
however, that this definition shall not include public and private
schools organized, operated or approved under the laws of this state,
custody of children fixed by a court of competent jurisdiction, children
related by blood or marriage within the third degree of the custodial
person, or to churches or other religious or public institutions caring
for children within the institutional building while their parents
or legal guardians are attending services or meetings or classes or
engaged in church activities.
A facility for the examination and treatment of ill and afflicted
human outpatients; provided, however, that patients are not kept overnight
except under emergency conditions, including but not limited to dental
and doctors’ offices.
A health facility where persons are housed and furnished
with meals and continuing nursing care for compensation.
An open unoccupied space, other than a yard on the same lot
with a building or group of buildings and which is bordered on two
or more sides by such a building.
A court other than an outer court. The length of an inner
court is the minimum horizontal dimension measured parallel to its
longest side. The width of an inner court is the minimum horizontal
dimension measured at right angles to its length.
A court the full width of which opens onto a required yard,
or street or alley. The width of an outer court is the minimum horizontal
dimension measured in the same general direction as the yard, street
or alley upon which the court opens. The depth of an outer court is
the minimum horizontal dimension measured at right angles to its width.
Any section of the city for which regulations governing the
use of buildings and premises or the height and area of buildings
are uniform.
Any establishment where food, frozen desserts or beverages
are sold to the consumer and where motor vehicle parking space is
provided and where such food, frozen desserts or beverages are intended
to be consumed in the motor vehicle parked upon the premises or anywhere
on the premises outside of the building.
Any attended or unattended place, building or portion thereof,
available to the general public for the purpose of washing, drying,
extracting moisture from, or dry cleaning wearing apparel, cloth,
fabrics, and textiles of any kind by means of a mechanical appliance
which is operated primarily by the customer.
Any building, or portion thereof, which is designed or used
as living quarters for one or more families.
A dwelling having any portion of each of one or more walls
in common with adjoining dwellings.
A dwelling having open space on all sides.
A dwelling designed for occupancy by three or more families
living independently of each other, exclusive of auto or trailer courts
or camps, hotels or resort type hotels.
A detached dwelling designed to be occupied by one family.
Three or more dwelling units attached at the side, each unit
of which has a separate outdoor entrance and is designed to be occupied
and may be owned by one family.
A dwelling designed to be occupied by two families living
independently of each other.
One or more persons related by blood or marriage, including
adopted children, or a group of not to exceed five persons, excluding
servants, not all related by blood or marriage, occupying premises
and living as a single nonprofit housekeeping unit, as distinguished
from a group occupying a boardinghouse or lodginghouse, hotel, club,
or similar dwelling for group use. A family is deemed to include domestic
servants employed by the family.
The sum of the gross horizontal areas of all of the floors
of a building or buildings, measured from the exterior faces of exterior
walls or from the centerline of walls separating two buildings and
including, but not limited to, the following spaces:
Basements;
Elevator shafts and stairwells at each floor;
Floor space for mechanical equipment with structural headroom
of seven feet;
Penthouses;
Attic space providing headroom of seven feet or more;
Interior balconies, mezzanines and enclosed covered porches
and enclosed steps; and
Accessory uses in enclosed covered space, but not including
space used for off-street parking.
The total floor area within a building devoted or intended
to be devoted to a particular use, with structural headroom of seven
feet or more, whether above or below the finished lot grade, excluding:
A mathematical expression determined by dividing the gross
floor area of a building by the area of the lot on which it is located,
as such.
A dwelling unit for one family erected above a private garage.
An accessory building or a part of a main building used for
storage purposes only for automobiles used solely by the occupants
and their guests of the building to which it is accessory.
Any garage other than a private garage, available to the
public, used for the care or servicing of automobiles where such vehicles
are parked or stored for remuneration, hire or sale.
A building in which are provided facilities for the care,
servicing, repair, or equipping of automobiles.
See “Floor area, gross.”
See “Dry cleaning or laundry, self-service.”
An incorporated nonprofit organization, LLP or LLC, operating
under recorded land agreements through which:
Each lot or homeowner in a planned unit or other described land
area is automatically a member;
Each lot is automatically subject to a charge for a proportionate
share of the expenses for the organization’s activities, such
as maintaining a common property; and
The charge, if unpaid, becomes a lien against the property.
Any occupation or profession carried on by the inhabitants
which is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling
for dwelling purposes, which does not change the character thereof,
and which is conducted entirely within the main or accessory buildings;
provided, however, that only limited trading in merchandise is carried
on and in connection with which there is no display of merchandise
or sign other than one nonilluminated nameplate, not more than three
square feet in area attached to the main or accessory building or
freestanding within the owner’s property line (it may not be
placed on the right-of-way); and no mechanical equipment is used or
activity is conducted which creates any noise, dust, odor or electrical
disturbance beyond the confines of the lot on which the occupation
is conducted. The conducting of a tearoom or restaurant, rest home,
clinic, doctor or dentist office, child care center, tourist home,
real estate office, or cabinet, metal or auto repair shop is not deemed
a home occupation. Home occupations are subject to all city taxes
and to all zoning and parking regulations for the district in which
they are located.
An institution providing health services primarily for human
inpatient medical or surgical care for the sick or injured and including
related facilities such as laboratories, outpatient departments, training
facilities, central service facilities and staff offices which are
an integral part of the facilities.
A building or group of buildings under one ownership containing
six or more sleeping rooms occupied, intended or designed to be occupied
as the more or less temporary abiding place of persons who are lodged
with or without meals for compensation, but not including an auto
or trailer court or camp, sanatorium, hospital, asylum, orphanage
or building where persons are housed under restraint.
Any lot or premises on which four or more dogs, more than
six months of age, are kept.
Any plot of land occupied or intended to be occupied by one
building or a group of buildings, and accessory buildings and uses,
including such open spaces as required by this article and other laws
or ordinances, and having its principal frontage on a street.
The total horizontal area included within lot lines.
A lot of which at least two adjacent sides abut for their
full lengths on a street, provided that the interior angle at the
intersection of such two sides is less than 135 degrees.
The average distance from the street line of the lot to its
rear line, measured in the general direction of the side lines of
the lot.
A lot having a frontage on two nonintersecting streets, as
distinguished from a corner lot.
That dimension of a lot or portion of a lot abutting on a
street, excluding the side dimension of a corner lot.
A lot other than a corner lot.
The lines bounding a lot.
Shall be defined in section 14.03.181.
A portable or mobile living unit used or designed for human occupancy on a permanent basis and shall be defined in section 14.03.181.
A mobile home located outside of a mobile home park or subdivision.
Land or property which is used or intended to be used or
rented for occupancy by one or more trailers or movable sleeping quarters
of any kind.
A lawful condition of a structure or land which does not
conform to the regulations of the district in which it is situated.
This may include, but not be limited to, failure to conform to use,
height, area, coverage or off-street parking requirements.
A structure or land lawfully occupied by a use that does
not conform to the regulations of the district in which it is situated.
The growing of trees, shrubs, bushes, plants or other similar
vegetation where no retail sales of any vegetation is conducted on
the site.
A permanently surfaced area, enclosed or unenclosed, sufficient
in size to store one automobile together with a permanently surfaced
driveway connecting the parking space with a street or alley and permitting
ingress or egress of an automobile. For purposes of this article,
the size of a parking space for one vehicle shall consist of a rectangular
area having dimensions of not less than nine feet by 20 feet, plus
adequate area for ingress and egress.
A development planned in accordance with the provisions of
division 6 of this article.
See “Convalescent home.”
A building where lodging only is provided for compensation
to three or more, but not exceeding 12 persons; all in excess of this
number are defined as a hotel under the terms of this article.
The distance between the lot line and the building line.
A stable with a capacity for not more than two horses or
mules.
A stable, other than a private stable, with a capacity for
more than two horses or mules.
An institution providing health facilities for inpatient
medical treatment or treatment and recuperation using natural therapeutic
agents.
See “Advertising sign.”
A plan drawn at a scale of not less than one inch equals
50 feet which shows the topographic characteristics of the site at
two-foot contour intervals; the location and dimensions of buildings,
yards, courts, and other features; the use of each building and area;
the height of buildings; adjacent streets, alleys, utility drainage
and other easements; and the relationship of the development to adjacent
areas which it may affect.
That portion of a building, other than a basement, included
between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next
above it, or if there is no floor above it, then the space between
the floor and the ceiling next above it.
A space under a sloping roof which has the line of intersections
of roof decking and wall face not more than three feet above the top
floor level, and in which space not more than two-thirds of the floor
area is finished off for use. A half story containing independent
apartment or living quarters is counted as a full story.
Any public thoroughfare which affords the principal means
of access to abutting property.
Any street which joins another street at an angle, whether
or not it crosses the other.
Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires
location on the ground or attached to something having a location
on the ground.
Any change in the supporting members of a building, such
as bearing walls or partitions, columns, beams, or girders, or any
substantial change in the roof or in the exterior walls.
An area containing one or more structures designed or intended
to be used as temporary sleeping facilities of one or more transient
families and intended primarily for automobile transients.
A dwelling in which sleeping accommodations in not more than
four rooms are provided or offered for transient guests for compensation.
See “Dwelling, townhouse or row house.”
See “Mobile home park.”
See “Mobile home.”
A vehicle to be pulled behind an automobile or truck which
is designed for hauling animals, produce, goods or commodities, including
boats.
A portable or mobile living unit used for temporary human
occupancy away from the place of residence of the occupants, and not
constituting the principal place of residence of the occupants.
An open space at grade between a building and the adjoining
lot lines, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure
from the ground upward except where otherwise specifically provided
in this article that an accessory building may be located in a portion
of a yard required for a main building. In measuring a yard for the
purpose of determining the width of the side yard, the depth of a
front yard or the depth of a rear yard, the least horizontal distance
between the lot line and the main building is used.
A yard located in front of the front elevation of a building
and extending across a lot between the side lot lines and being the
minimum horizontal distance between the front property line and the
main building or any projections thereof, other than steps.
A yard extending across the rear of a lot measured between
lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the rear
lot line and the rear of the main building or any projections other
than steps, unenclosed balconies or unenclosed porches. On corner
lots, the rear yard is considered as parallel to the street upon which
the lot has its least dimension. On both corner lots and interior
lots, the rear yard shall in all cases be at the opposite end of the
lot from the front yard.
A yard between the building and the side line of the lot
and extending from the front lot line to the rear lot line and being
the minimum horizontal distance between a side lot line and the side
of the main building or any projections other than steps.
(2002 Code, sec. 54-74)
