"Seat"means, for purposes of determining the number of off-street parking spaces for certain uses, the number of seats; or the number of seating units installed or indicated; or each 24 lineal inches of benches, pews, or space for loose chairs.
"Self-storage"means a facility where an individual stores personal belongings in rented stalls, bays or lockers and that is designed for self-service access.
"SEPA rules,"for the purposes of Chapter
17.110 LCC, State Environmental Policy Act, means Chapter
197-11 WAC adopted by the Department of Ecology as revised.
means a distance from a fixed boundary, property line, or right-of-way as set forth in this title. A front setback is measured to the street or point of access. A side setback is measured to an abutting property on the same street or access. A rear setback is the side of the structure away from the street or point of access, and is measured to the nearest property line. A structure may have two front yards.
"Sewage sludge"means semisolid matter consisting of settled sewage solids combined with varying amounts of water and dissolved material, remaining after the completion of wastewater treatment.
"Short-term rental"means a lodging use, that is not a hostel, hotel, motel, cabin or yurt village, or bed and breakfast, in which a dwelling unit, or portion thereof, is offered or provided to a guest for a fee for fewer than 30 consecutive nights. "Short-term rental" does not include the following:
(a) A dwelling unit that is occupied by the owner for at least six months during the calendar year and in which fewer than three rooms are rented at any time.
A dwelling that is rented on a month-by-month basis where the renter is required to sign a full month lease.
A dwelling unit, or portion thereof, that is operated by an organization or government entity that is registered as a charitable organization with the Secretary of State, state of Washington, or is classified by the federal Internal Revenue Service as a public charity or a private foundation, and provides temporary housing to individuals who are being treated for trauma, injury, or disease, or their family members.
"Sign"means any communication device visible from any public right-of-way, bicycle or pedestrian path, or sidewalk such as a placard, billboard, display, structure, fixture, messages, design, or other device intended to identify, inform, advertise, or attract attention to any private or public premises to aid in promoting the sale of products, goods, services or events or to identify a building or place using graphics, letters, figures, illustration, symbols, trademarks or written copy. Excluded from this definition are official traffic, directional, or warning devices; other official public notices; signs required by law; or flag of government; painted wall designs or patterns that do not represent a product, service or trademark or that do not identify the user are not considered signs.
"Significant"means a reasonable likelihood of more than a moderate impact. The determination of the significance of the impact should consider the physical setting, the magnitude or duration of the impact, along with its chance of occurring.
"Single-family dwelling"means a building designed or used for residence purposes by not more than one family, and containing one dwelling unit only.
"Site area"means the measured square footage of any lot, tract, or parcel of land or contiguous lots for purposes of determining density.
"Sleeping unit"means the sleeping provisions and measure of density provided in co-housing. A sleeping unit in co-housing equals one-quarter of a one-dwelling unit. For example, in zoning where three dwelling units per lot are allowed, 12 sleeping units would be permitted.
"Small wind energy system (SWES)"means a wind energy conversion system which converts wind energy into electricity through the use of a wind turbine generator, and includes any of the following to accomplish this production: a wind turbine, rotor blades, tower, foundation, and associated control or conversion electronics, which has a rated capacity of not more than 25 kW, less than 120 feet high and which is intended to primarily reduce on-site consumption of utility power.
"Solar power production facilities" or "SPPF"means a utility on an area of land designated for the purpose of producing photovoltaic electricity with a nameplate capacity of over 100 kilowatts (100 kW) and includes, but is not limited to, an assembly of solar panels and solar equipment that converts sunlight into electricity and then stores and/or transfers that electricity. Solar power production facilities may include mechanical buildings and other uses that are typical to SPPF; however, offices and other commercial uses are prohibited.
"Solid waste disposal facilities or sites"means the location where any final treatment, unitization, processing, or deposition of solid waste occurs in accordance with Chapters
8.15,
8.20, and
8.45 LCC. For the purposes of this title, "interim solid waste handling sites" of the following types are included: transfer stations, baling and compaction sites, source separation centers, and treatment sites. Drop boxes which provide the general public with containers to collect materials to be recycled and household hazardous waste collection stations for transfer elsewhere are excluded, but are defined as transitory solid waste facilities. For the purposes of this title, three types of solid waste disposal facilities or sites are defined:
(a) Demolition materials, inert materials, limited purpose landfills and wood waste landfills.
Sewage sludge when a unitization permit is issued by the Lewis County department of public health and social services in accordance with WAC
173-304-300, biosolids application when siting approval is given by the Washington State Department of Ecology in accordance with Chapter
173-308 WAC, and any application site for compost which comes under Lewis County environmental health division regulation and has received the appropriate permits.
All other solid waste disposal facilities and sites of a permanent nature including, but not limited to, landfills, incinerators, and transfer stations, in accordance with Chapters
8.15,
8.20, and
8.45 LCC.
"Special use"means a use permitted only after "public" review and approved by the hearing examiner, and to which "special" conditions may be attached by the hearing examiner to address mitigation requirements by reason of the specific location of a proposed use.
"Sport center, outdoors"means outdoor spaces for active and passive recreation that are provided to the public, typically for a fee, including but not limited to golf courses, ball fields, tennis courts, swimming, bike trails, hiking trails, zip lines, and other similar uses and associated accessory uses and buildings such as a clubhouse, offices, bathrooms, picnic shelters, food stands, warming huts, etc.
"Standalone food or beverage manufacturing"means a food or beverage processing use that is not accessory or incidental to a primary underlying agricultural use. The use may include the assembly or manufacturing of packaging for the processed product. Processing or manufacturing uses that are accessory or incidental to a primary agricultural use are considered an "agricultural" use for the purpose of Chapter
17.42 LCC. "Standalone food or beverage manufacturing" does not include the extraction of ground or surface water for bottled water and/or facilities for producing bottled water.
means a space or structure used for storage of personal belongings, such as a garage or shed; not including junkyards.
"Stormwater management facilities"include measures to control stormwater flow and water quality, and may include, but are not limited to, ditches designed and intended primarily for conveyance, biofiltration swales, filter strips, bubble diffusers, detention ponds, retention ponds, wet ponds, and similar facilities.
"Streams"means those areas where naturally occurring surface waters flow sufficiently to produce a defined channel or bed which demonstrates clear evidence of the passage of water, including, but not limited to, bedrock channels, gravel beds, sand and silt beds, and defined-channel swales. The channel or bed need not contain water during the entire year. The definition does not include watercourses that were created entirely by artificial means, such as irrigation ditches, canals, roadside ditches, or storm or surface water runoff features, unless the artificially created watercourse contains salmonids or conveys a stream that was naturally occurring prior to the construction of the artificially created watercourse.
"Structure,"for the purpose of this title, means anything which is built or constructed, an edifice or building of any kind, or any piece of work artificially built up or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner, but not including unroofed paved areas, fill, any vehicle, or any fence six feet or less in height.
"Structure,"for the purpose of Chapter
17.80 LCC, Airport Obstruction Zoning, means an object, including a mobile object, constructed or installed by persons, including but without limitation buildings, towers, cranes, smokestacks, earth formations, and overhead transmission lines.
also known as "permanent supportive housing," means subsidized leased housing, utilizing admissions practices with lower barriers to entry than would be typical for other subsidized or unsubsidized rental housing and which is paired with on-site or off-site voluntary services.
"Supportive housing, shelter"also known as "emergency shelter," means a facility that provides a temporary shelter for individuals or families who are currently homeless. Emergency shelters may not require occupants to enter into a lease or an occupancy agreement. Emergency shelter facilities may include day and warming centers that do not provide overnight accommodations. (RCW
36.70A.030(15))
also known as "transitional housing," means a project that provides housing and supportive services to homeless persons or families for up to two years and that has as its purpose facilitating the movement of homeless persons and families into independent living.
"Surface mining"means the process or business of extracting materials, including but not limited to sand, gravel, shale, rock, coal, soil, peat, or clay, from an open excavation in the earth. This shall not include (a) excavation and grading at building construction sites where such construction is authorized by a valid building permit; or (b) excavation and grading in county road or state highway rights of way or in public or private streets for purposes of on-site road construction when the work has been authorized by the engineering division; or (c) excavation and grading for the purpose of developing ponds or manure lagoons where the amount excavated does not exceed 10,000 cubic yards and where the total time of material hauling does not exceed 45 calendar days; or (d) excavation and grading in connection with and at the site of any creek, river or flood control or storm-drainage channel for the purpose of enlarging the hydraulic capacity or changing the location or constructing a new channel or storm drain where such work has been approved by the Public Works Department; or (e) gravel bar scalping projects within the jurisdiction of the shoreline management program; or (f) minor excavation on less than three acres (cumulative) and less than 5,000 yards of excavated material per year. The administrator may be called upon to determine whether other activities similar to those identified fall within or without of the regulated activity.
(Ord. 1170B, 2000; Ord. 1253, 2014; Ord. 1284 § 1, 2018; Ord. 1292 §§ 6, 7, 2018; Ord. 1315 § 1, 2020; Ord. 1367 (Exh. C), 2025)