For the purpose of this Ordinance, the following definitions
shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different
meaning.
ACCESSORY BUILDING.
A subordinate building detached from the main building without
separate utilities, and not used for commercial purposes other than
a home occupation unless in a commercial or industrial district and
not for habitation unless otherwise specifically as an allowed use
in a particular district. In districts other than residential, an
ACCESSORY BUILDING is a subordinate building, the use of which is
incidental to and used only in conjunction with the main building.
ACCESSORY STRUCTURE.
A structure including an accessory building, the use of which
is customarily incidental and subordinate to that of the main building
on the same lot, such as a swimming pool, sports court, greenhouse,
tool shed and the like.
ACCESSORY USE.
A use customarily incidental and subordinate to the primary
use of the main building [or] to the primary use of the premises.
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES.
Administrative and clerical offices, public contact services
and incidental activities of federal, state, county and city governments.
Typical uses include city halls, post offices and held offices of
federal and state agencies.
AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY.
Uses and facilities engaged primarily in the initial processing
and storage of farm and ranch products including, but not limited
to crops, livestock, poultry and fish. Typical uses include cotton
gins, grain elevators, hatcheries, livestock auction facilities and
slaughtering facilities.
ANIMAL SERVICES.
Businesses engaged in the treatment, care and boarding of
livestock and other animals including those listed under pet services,
and for which an outside run is provided. The uses typically include
blacksmith shops, commercial stables and veterinary hospitals with
an outside run.
APARTMENT.
A suite of rooms located in an apartment house and arranged,
designed or occupied as a place of residence by a single family.
APARTMENT HOUSE.
Any building thereof, which is designed, built, rented, leased
or let to be occupied as a name or place of residence for any two
or more families living in independent dwelling units.
BASIC INDUSTRY.
Uses engaged primarily in the basic processing and manufacturing
of materials or products predominantly from extracted or raw materials,
or a use engaged in storage of or manufacturing processes utilizing
flammable or explosive materials or storage or manufacturing processes
which potentially involve hazardous or commonly recognized offensive
conditions. Typical uses include food processing and dehydrating,
salvage yards, tire recapping, welding shops, shop forges, tool and
die shops, machine shops and metal products, manufacturing of chemicals,
acids, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and plastic products, and mineral
extraction.
BROADCAST/RECEPTION PRODUCTION.
Antennas, towers and satellite dishes used to broadcast and/or
receive signals for radio, television, radar or other telecommunications
for other than personal use.
BUILDING.
Any roofed structure designed or used for the housing or
enclosure of persons, animals or property.
CEMETERY.
Land used or intended to be used for burial of the dead.
Crematoriums, columbaria, mausoleums and mortuaries are allowed when
operated in conjunction with and within the boundary of the CEMETERY.
CITY.
The City of Jourdanton, Atascosa County, Texas.
CIVIC USE.
Any public or semi-public facilities, including governmental
offices, police and fire facilities, hospitals, religious, public
and private schools and other community facilities.
COMMERCIAL RECREATION.
Businesses engaged primarily in the provisions of facilities
for sports, entertainment or recreation for participants or spectators
indoors or outdoors. Typical uses include amusement arcades, billiard
and pool rooms, bowling alleys, camping facilities, including hook-up
facilities for recreational vehicles, canoe rentals, dance halls,
golf courses, driving ranges, miniature golf courses and theaters.
COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.
Businesses engaged primarily in the recording and broadcasting
of information and other services. Typical uses include radio and
television studios, recording studios and telecommunications service
centers.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN.
The plan required by Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ch. 219.
It is an independent, long-term policy document for use and development
of land and the provision of facilities and services within the city’s
corporate area and extraterritorial jurisdiction.
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS PRODUCTION.
Uses engaged primarily in the extraction, processing and
finishing of construction materials. Typical uses include sand and
gravel pits, cement manufacturing, concrete block and brick manufacturing,
and steel processing plants.
COUNCIL.
The City Council of Jourdanton. Texas.
CULTURAL SERVICES.
Uses preserving and exhibiting objects of community and cultural
interest in one or more of the arts and sciences. Typical uses include
libraries, exhibition grounds, museums and auditoriums or similar
registered nonprofit organizational uses.
DAY-CARE SERVICES.
A use designed or adapted for the care of children or adults
for a set number of daytime hours, not to include overnight boarding
or care. Typical uses include nursery schools, preschools, care centers
for children or adults and similar uses.
DISTRICT.
A section of the city for which the regulations governing
the uses of and development standards for buildings or lots are uniform.
DWELLING.
A building designed and having facilities for year-round
human habitation.
(1)
SINGLE-FAMILY DWELLING.
A detached dwelling unit, including an industrialized home
but not a mobile home or manufactured home, on its own lot, and designed
and having facilities for year-round human habitation by only one
family.
(2)
DUPLEX or TWO-FAMILY DWELLING.
A dwelling, including an industrialized home but not a mobile
home or manufactured home, on its own lot, and designed, arranged
or used exclusively for the use and occupancy of two families living
independently of each another.
(3)
TRIPLEX or THREE-FAMILY DWELLING.
A dwelling, not a mobile home or manufactured home, on its
own lot, and designed, arranged or used exclusively for the use and
occupancy of three families living independently of each other.
(4)
FOURPLEX or FOUR-FAMILY DWELLING.
A dwelling, not a mobile home or manufactured home, on its
own lot, and designed, arranged or used exclusively for the use and
occupancy of four families living independently of each other.
(5)
MULTIPLE-FAMILY or MULTIFAMILY DWELLING.
A dwelling, not a mobile home or manufactured home, designed,
arranged or used exclusively for the use and occupancy of two or more
families living independently of each other.
DWELLING UNIT or DU.
Several interrelated rooms designed for human habitation
by one family with facilities for living, sleeping, cooking, eating
and sanitation.
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.
Public or private primary, secondary and post-secondary educational
facilities offering instruction in the branches of learning and study
required to be taught by the public schools of the state.
FAMILY.
An individual, or two or more persons related by blood, marriage
or adoption, or a group of not to exceed three persons, not any of
whom are related by blood, marriage or adoption occupying the premises
and living as a single nonprofit housekeeping unit.
FARMING or RANCHING.
A use engaged primarily in the raising of crops, livestock
and other agricultural products, including storage and processing
facilities other than those listed under “stockyard” uses.
FINANCIAL SERVICES.
Establishments engaged primarily in the provision of banking
and other FINANCIAL SERVICES. Typical uses include banks, savings
and loan institutions, stock and bond brokers, and loan and lending
services.
FOUNDATION, PERMANENT.
A concrete slab or wooden, concrete and/or steel pier and
beam substructure upon which a building is permanently fastened and
attached so as to preclude the transport of the building an [on] its
own chassis.
FUNERAL SERVICES.
Undertaking services engaged primarily in the preparation
of the human dead for burial, including the arranging and managing
of funerals. Typical uses include funeral homes and mortuaries.
GENERAL RETAIL.
Establishments serving a large market area and engaged primarily
in the rental or sale of retail of goods and service commonly purchased
by the general public. However, this does not include any commercial
uses classified more specifically in other commercial sections. Typical
uses include appliance and furniture sales and services, auction sales
except livestock, building materials sales, business or trade schools,
department stores, plumbing, electric, heating and air conditioning
sales and service, health or athletic clubs, hotels and motels, supermarkets,
pawnshops, radio and television sales and service, variety stores
and upholstery stores.
GENERAL SHIPPING AND STORAGE.
Uses engaged primarily in the handling, warehousing and distribution
of materials and equipment, other than live animals or plants, either
in enclosed structures or open-air fenced-in areas. Typical uses include
distribution centers, monument or stone yards and other storage yards.
GROUP RESIDENTIAL.
A dwelling unit designed, arranged or used for any more than
six persons, not defined as a family, on a weekly or longer basis.
Typical uses include fraternity or sorority houses, dormitories, residence
halls and boarding houses.
HOME OCCUPATION
An occupation customarily carried on in a dwelling unit,
or in an accessory building to a dwelling unit, by a resident of the
premises, which occupation is clearly incidental and secondary to
the use of the premises for residential purposes.
INDUSTRIALIZED HOUSING.
A residential structure that is designed for the occupancy
of one or more families, constructed in one or more modules or constructed
using one or more modular components built at a location other than
the permanent site, and designed to be used as a permanent residential
structure when the module or the modular component is transported
to the permanent site and erected or installed on a permanent foundation
system. Industrialized housing includes the structure's plumbing,
heating, air-conditioning, and electrical systems. Industrialized
housing does not include:
(1)
Housing constructed of a sectional or panelized system that
does not use a modular component.
(2)
A ready-built home constructed in a manner in which the entire
living area is contained in a single unit or section at a temporary
location for the purpose of selling and moving the home to another
location.
(3)
Mobile homes or HUD-code manufactured homes as defined in the
Texas Manufactured Housing Standards Act (Article 5221f, V.A.C.S.).
LIGHT MANUFACTURING.
Uses engaged primarily in the processing, fabrication, assembly,
treatment and packaging of finished products and parts, including
the incidental storage and distribution of the products. Anything
defined as “basic industry” is excluded.
LIMITED RETAIL.
Establishments, generally serving a neighborhood, local area
or portion of the city, which are engaged primarily in the provision
of personal services, the sale of food or household products for home
consumption or the rental or retail sale of goods for personal consumption
or household use. This category does not include those items specifically
noted under the definitions of “general retail.” Typical
uses include barber and beauty shops, book or stationery stores, camera
stores, convenience stores, craft or hobby shops (without an outside
garage), dressmakers and tailors, dry cleaners and laundries, fabric
shops, florists, hardware and paint stores, jewelers, optical shops,
photo, artistic, dance and music studios, and printing and copying
shops.
LIMITED SHIPPING AND STORAGE.
Uses engaged primarily in warehousing services for household
goods and wholesale distributors in enclosed structures. Typical uses
include moving and storage firms and wholesale distributors.
LOT.
A designated parcel, tract or area of land, established by
a plat or otherwise as allowed by law, to be used, developed or built
upon as a unit.
MANUFACTURED BUILDING.
(1)
Either an independent, individual building, combination of modules
or a module for combination with other elements to form a building,
not a mobile home, which has been mass-produced in a factory and designated
and constructed for transportation to a site for installation and
use on a permanent foundation when connected to required utilities
at that site.
(2)
All MANUFACTURED BUILDINGS must either meet the standards set
by the city’s building, plumbing, electrical and energy codes
as determined by an on-site inspection by the City Inspector or be
certified as meeting the codes and standards established by either
the Texas Department of Labor and Standards or the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as appropriate.
MANUFACTURED HOUSING (HUD code).
A structure, constructed on or after June 15, 1976, according
to the rules of the United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and Article 5221f V.T.C.S., transportable in one or more
sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight body feet or more
in width or 40 body feet or more in length, or, when erected on-site,
is 320 or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis
and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent
foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes
the plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical systems.
MEDICAL SERVICES.
Establishments providing consultation, diagnosis, therapeutic,
preventive or corrective personal treatment by doctors, dentists,
medical and dental laboratories and similar practitioners of medical
and healing arts for humans licensed for the practice by the state.
Typical uses include clinics, convalescent homes, hospitals, laboratories
and sanitariums.
MOBILE HOME.
A structure that was constructed before June 15, 1976, transportable
in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight body
feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length, or, when
erected on-site, is 320 or more square feet, and which is built on
a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or
without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities,
and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical
systems. The term does not include a recreational vehicle.
NEIGHBORHOOD RECREATION.
Indoor or outdoor recreational facilities for use by residents
and guests of a particular residential development, church, private
educational facility, social club or fraternal organization. Typical
uses include private parks and recreation areas and swimming pools.
Uses do not include those listed under “commercial recreation.”
NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE.
Any building, or part thereof, lawfully existing or occupied
at the effective date of this Ordinance that does not comply, after
the passage of this Ordinance, with the height, yard, parking, loading,
coverage area, or screening regulations of the district in which it
is located.
NONCONFORMING LOT.
Any lot lawfully existing at the effective date of this Ordinance
that does not comply, after the passage of this Ordinance, to the
width, depth, and area regulations of the zoning district in which
it is located.
NONCONFORMING USE.
Any use lawfully existing at the effective date of this Ordinance
that does not comply, after the passage of this Ordinance, with the
use regulations of the district in which it is located.
NUISANCE.
Any substance or disturbance that, if extended over a period
of time or repeated at periodic intervals, would endanger the health,
safety, morals or general welfare or otherwise diminish the quality
of the utility afforded a person living, working or otherwise in free
use, possession or enjoyment of his or her property, including but
not limited to noise, dust, smoke, fumes, odor, glare, flashes, heat,
electronic or atomic radiation, effluent, vibration, shock waves,
bases [sic], debris and hazardous material.
OVERLAY DISTRICT.
A district which is applied in conjunction with one or more
of the other districts in this Ordinance to address special circumstances
which add requirements to those districts or allow alternative development
standards based on specific site plans or building plans.
PARKING SPACE.
An area designated for the parking of one light-duty vehicle.
PET SERVICES.
Establishments engaged primarily in retail sales, veterinary
services, grooming and boarding (when totally within the confines
of a building) of small animals, customarily defined as household
pets. These uses typically include veterinary offices, pet stores
and kennels, but excluding those with outside runs.
PROFESSIONAL and ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE.
Establishments engaged primarily in providing professional
or consulting services in the fields of accounting, architecture,
design, engineering, law, management and planning. Uses may also include
employment services and individual medical and dental offices.
PUBLIC RECREATION.
Publicly owned and operated parks, recreation areas and playgrounds,
swimming pools, and open spaces available for use by the general public
without requirement of membership or affiliation.
PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES.
Uses for the conduct of public safety and emergency services,
including police and fire protection, emergency medical and ambulance
services, and municipal jails.
PUBLIC UTILITY FACILITIES.
Facilities and structures relating to the provision and maintenance
of various utility services to local residents. Services may include,
but shall not be limited to water, wastewater, natural gas, electricity,
telephone and cable communications.
QUARRYING.
The removal from the earth of stone, sand, gravel, caliche,
minerals, topsoil or other natural material for the purpose of sale
or another commercial purpose, other than such as may be incidental
to excavating or regrading in connection with or in anticipation of
building development or landscaping on the site.
RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLY.
A use located in a permanent building and providing regular
organized religious worship and religious education incident thereto,
but excluding private primary and secondary educational facilities,
community recreation facilities and day-care services. A property
tax exemption obtained pursuant to the property tax code of the state
shall constitute prima facie evidence of RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLY use.
RESTAURANT.
(1)
An establishment whose primary business is selling food for
consumption at tables on the premises or for take-out.
(2)
Establishments engaged primarily in the preparation and retail
sale of food and beverages, including the sale of alcoholic beverages
as allowed by § 2.46 [sic]. Service may be of a take-out or drive-in
nature (excluding the sale of alcoholic beverages) or provide service
for on-premise consumption. Live entertainment may also be provided.
(3)
Typical uses include cafes, cafeterias, coffee shops, indoor
and drive-in restaurants and sandwich shops.
SETBACK.
The minimum distance required between a structure and the
front, side or rear boundary line of the parcel of land on which the
structure is located. For parcels adjacent to an alley, the SETBACK
line may be measured from the centerline of the alley.
SITE PLAN.
A development plan of one or more lots on which is shown
the following:
(1)
The existing and proposed conditions of the lot, including but
not necessarily limited to topography, vegetation, drainage, floodplains
and waterways;
(2)
The location of all existing and proposed buildings, drives,
parking spaces, walkways, means of ingress and egress, drainage facilities,
utility services, landscaping, structures and signs, lighting and
screening devices; and
(3)
Any other information that may be reasonably required in order
to determine whether the proposed development complies with the criteria
and standards in this Ordinance and with the requirement of other
city ordinances.
SPECIAL USE.
A use not allowed by right and not expressly prohibited that
may be authorized by the City Council if the applicant can show to
the satisfaction of the Council that the use may be suitable in the
district if developed and operated under specific conditions and/or
for a limited period of time.
STOCKYARD.
A use engaged primarily in the storage and processing of
livestock for slaughter and shipment to market.
STRUCTURE.
Anything constructed or erected on the ground including,
but not limited to, buildings, factories, sheds, cabins, mobile homes/manufactured
homes, and other similar forms.
TOWNHOUSE.
A dwelling unit occupying the entire width of the lot or
constructed with common walls or walls abutting another building and
located on a separate lot.
TRANSPORTATION TERMINAL.
A facility for loading, unloading and interchange of passengers
and incidental baggage, freight and package express between modes
of transportation, including bus depots, railroad stations, airport
terminals and mass transit vehicles.
VEHICLE.
(1)
COMMERCIAL VEHICLES.
Any motorized vehicle, except as otherwise defined in this
Ordinance, commonly used for the transport of persons, goods or livestock
over public streets for a commercial purpose, including but not limited
to dump trucks, tractor-trailer combinations, buses and commercial
delivery vehicles.
(2)
LIGHT-DUTY VEHICLES.
Any motorized vehicle, except these defined as “commercial
vehicles” in this Ordinance, commonly used for the transport
of persons over public streets, including but not limited to automobiles,
mopeds, motorcycles, passenger trucks and vans.
VEHICLE AND EQUIPMENT SALES AND SERVICE.
Businesses engaged primarily in vehicle and heavy equipment
related sales and/or services. This includes, but is not limited to,
any one or more of the following for vehicles, farm and implement
equipment and boats, showrooms, vehicle washing, commercial off-street
parking (not an accessory to another use), rentals, long-term vehicle
storage and repair service. These do not include those uses specifically
listed as “vehicle fuel and service stations.”
VEHICLE FUEL AND SERVICE STATIONS.
Businesses engaged primarily in the retail sale of fuel,
parts, accessories and repair and maintenance services only for light-duty
vehicles.
YARD.
An open, unoccupied space other than a court, on the same
lot as a building and which is unobstructed from the ground to the
sky and is the minimum horizontal distance from the nearest lot line
and the main building or any projections thereof other than roof overhangs.
YARDS, CORNER LOT.
Corner lots shall be construed to have two front yards, in
keeping with the setback requirements for corner lots. Either of the
remaining two yards may be designated as the rear yard and the other
side yard as appropriate to meet the setback requirements for rear
and side yards.
(Ordinance 484 adopted 2/18/08; Ordinance
878 adopted 8/15/2022)