A. 
One dwelling unit serving as an accessory apartment shall be permitted as an accessory use within a single-family dwelling in any residential district subject to special use permit approval by the Planning Board. The accessory apartment shall be located within the principal building. Notwithstanding the foregoing, within the Rural District, the Rural Riverfront District and the Rural Light Industrial District, the accessory apartment may be located within the principal building or within a detached or attached accessory building on the same lot. The certificate of occupancy for the principal use shall clearly identify such accessory dwelling unit and its floor area.
[Amended 10-8-2008 by L.L. No. 3-2008]
B. 
In addition to the above, an accessory apartment shall comply with the following provisions:
(1) 
The apartment shall be clearly subordinate to the single-family dwelling unit.
(2) 
The number of bedrooms in the apartment shall be not more than two.
(3) 
The floor area of the apartment shall be greater than 400 square feet.
(4) 
The floor area devoted to the apartment shall be less than 40% of the entire floor area of the single-family dwelling or 1,000 square feet, whichever is less.
(5) 
The apartment and single-family dwelling shall have a safe and proper means of entrance, clearly marked for the purpose of firesafety and mail service.
(6) 
If the water supply is from a private source, the applicant shall certify that the water supply is potable and of adequate flow.
(7) 
The applicant shall certify that the sewage disposal system is adequate for the two units. Failure to correct promptly any resulting sewage system problem shall result in revocation of the special permit.
(8) 
No special permit shall be granted in any case where the County Department of Health has determined that the water or sewage system serving the dwelling or dwellings in question is for any reason not capable of handling the additional demand that would be imposed upon it in the event the special permit were issued thereunder.
(9) 
Stairways leading to any floor or story above the first floor shall be located within the walls of the building wherever practicable. Stairways and fire escapes shall be located on the rear wall in preference to either side wall. In no instance shall a stairway or fire escape be located on any wall fronting on a street.
(10) 
The owner(s) of the single-family lot upon which the accessory apartment is located shall occupy at least one of the dwelling units on the premises.
(11) 
Any apartment within a single-family dwelling that is in existence at the time of the adoption of this subsection shall be subject to the provisions outlined above.
(12) 
Upon issuance of a special use permit, the owner shall refile the deed to the property in the County Clerk's Office incorporating the following notice in said deed: "The single family residence on the property includes an accessory apartment approved by the Town of Bethlehem Planning Board subject to the provisions of § 128-73 of the Town Code, which among other things requires that one of the dwelling units on the premises shall be occupied by the lot owner." A copy of the filed deed shall be provided to the Planning Board together with proof of filing.
[Added 12-14-2016 by L.L. No. 5-2016]
C. 
Special use permit and site plan review. For any accessory apartment requiring a special use permit and site plan review, said reviews shall be limited in scope to the physical improvements, impacts and mitigation that are directly caused by and/or related to establishment of the accessory apartment. In no instance shall the approval of a special permit or site plan for an accessory apartment be construed to prevent alterations to the premises that are unrelated to the accessory apartment, or to require an amendment to the approved special permit and site plan for such unrelated alterations.
[Added 10-8-2008 by L.L. No. 3-2008]
A. 
Statement of purpose. In the execution of these provisions, the Town of Bethlehem recognizes that there are some adult business uses which, due to their very nature, have serious objectionable operational characteristics, particularly when located in close proximity to residential neighborhoods and other sensitive land uses. The objectionable characteristics of these uses are further heightened by their concentration within an area, thereby having deleterious effects on adjacent areas. It has been acknowledged by communities across the nation that state and local governments have a special concern in regulating the operation of such businesses under their jurisdiction to ensure that their objectionable characteristics will not contribute to the degradation of adjacent neighborhoods nor endanger the well-being of the youth in their communities. The special regulations deemed necessary to control the undesirable secondary effects arising from these enterprises are set forth below. The primary purpose of these controls and regulations is to preserve the integrity and character of residential neighborhoods and important natural and human resources of the Town, to deter the spread of blight and to protect minors from objectionable characteristics of these adult business uses by restricting their proximity to places of worship, schools, nursery schools, day-care centers, educational institutions, parks, historic and scenic resources, civic and cultural facilities and residential areas.
B. 
Adult business uses, as defined in § 128-22 of this chapter, are to be restricted in the following manner, in addition to any other requirements of the Code:
(1) 
Adult business uses are permitted only in the Heavy Industrial District.
(2) 
Adult business uses shall not be located within a one-thousand-foot radius of any residential district or any property used for residential purposes. For measurement purposes, the distance shall be measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the closest structural wall of such adult use to the boundary line of such residential district or residential property.
(3) 
Adult business uses shall not be located within a one-thousand-five-hundred-foot radius of another adult use. For measurement purposes, the distance between adult business uses shall be measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the closest structural wall of any adult use to the closest structural wall of any other adult use.
(4) 
Adult business uses shall not be located within a one-thousand-foot radius of any school, nursery school, day-care center, educational institution, place of worship, park or playground, historic or scenic resource and civic or cultural facility. For measurement purposes, the distance between an adult business use and other such named uses shall be measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the closest structural wall of such adult use to the closest property boundary of such school, nursery school, day-care center, educational institution, house of worship, park or playground, historic or scenic resource and civic or cultural facility.
(5) 
Not more than one adult business use shall be located in the same building or upon the same lot or parcel of land.
(6) 
No loudspeakers or sound equipment shall be used for adult business uses that can be discerned by the public from public or semipublic areas.
A. 
The establishment of a new junkyard use, and the expansion or alteration of a junkyard in existence as of the effective date of this chapter, shall be subject to special use permit review and approval pursuant to § 128-69 of this chapter.
B. 
Junkyards are permitted only in the Heavy Industrial District. In addition, no display, storage, or collection of junk or junk cars, and no more than one unregistered vehicle, shall be permitted in a location visible from adjoining properties, or public roads, in any district.
C. 
A special use permit for a junkyard use shall be valid for five years and may be renewed. It shall be the responsibility of the owner/applicant to apply for a renewal of the special use permit before the expiration date. The Town will not provide any notice to the owner/applicant of the pending expiration of said permit.
D. 
Standards. The Planning Board shall consider the character of the neighborhood in which the proposed junkyard is located and is expressly authorized to require vegetative and/or fence screening as a visual buffer to adjacent and nearby properties. In addition, the Planning Board is expressly authorized to require additional yard setback(s) as may be required to screen stored and waste material from adjacent and nearby properties. In this regard the Planning Board may consider collectively the type of road servicing the junkyard or from which the junkyard may be seen, the natural or artificial barriers protecting the junkyard from view, the proximity of the proposed junkyard to established residential and recreational areas or main access routes thereto, as well as the reasonable availability of alternative locations on the property for the storage of waste and stored materials.
E. 
No junkyard hereafter established shall be licensed to operate if such yard, or any part thereof, shall be within 500 feet of a church, school, hospital, public building or place of public assembly.
A. 
The establishment of a new kennel use, and the expansion or alteration of a kennel in existence as of the effective date of this chapter, shall be subject to special use permit review and approval.
B. 
The minimum lot area is five acres. In addition, no dog kennel, runway or exercise pen shall be located within 200 feet of any lot line.
[Amended 10-8-2008 by L.L. No. 3-2008]
A. 
Purpose.
(1) 
Mined materials such as clay, sand, silt, gravel, and rock for construction purposes. Facilities to contribute to the supply of these materials are necessary to support construction activity in a cost-effective manner. Providing a reasonable supply of competitively priced extractive materials is a goal of the Town.
(2) 
While the Town of Bethlehem wishes to contribute to the continued supply of mined materials, it believes that it must protect the health and welfare of its residents by confining mining and mineral extraction to certain specific zones where such activities will be a specially permitted use along with the several other uses permitted in those zones.
(3) 
The health of the residential, agricultural, and business community in the Town of Bethlehem is an essential goal of the Town. This goal requires that adverse effects to the environment, such as excessive noise and dust, degradation of water resources, and other hazards to the public, be mitigated or avoided entirely. Accordingly, the special use permit requirements will be used by the Town to determine whether a mining or mineral extraction use is appropriate for the neighborhood in which it is proposed and whether the use can be operated in a manner that meets the criteria for approval of a special use permit pursuant to this chapter. These standards are designed to work in conjunction with Environmental Conservation Law § 23-2701 et seq.
B. 
The Town recognizes that processing is an integral part of mining and mineral extraction processes. However, the Town is also mindful that processing is one of the more invasive of the activities that is part of mining and mineral extraction activity in terms of noise and other environmental hazards. If the processing of mined products is permitted as a standalone use in the designated zones it would give soil mines a potential for a life well beyond the exhaustion of materials available from the site where the processing machinery is located. It is the Town's intention not to permit this to occur by providing that the permitted uses in the zones where mining and mineral extraction are allowed do not include the processing of materials not mined at the subject site. The Town considers the processing of material taken from other sites to be an industrial activity and not included within the uses permitted in the zones where mining and mineral extraction are permitted uses.
C. 
While state law has denied to the Town the power to regulate the reclamation of land used for mining and mineral extraction, it is the purpose and intention of the Town to make full use of special permit powers granted to it by state law. To protect the health and welfare of its residents and to achieve the goals of the Town as stated above, it is the intention of the Town that the special permit powers described herein be utilized to the full extent permitted by law.
D. 
Exemptions. The following, to the extent specified herein, are exempt from the permitted zone requirements of this section:
(1) 
Excavation in conjunction with utility installation, which is to be backfilled;
(2) 
Excavation in conjunction with a development project that has a special use permit approval, site plan approval or subdivision approval and where the excavation is incidental to the development project;
(3) 
Excavation in conjunction with road construction within the limits of the right-of-way or slope rights of any Town, county, or state highway, or for the sole purpose of building roads and slopes incidental thereto which lie within the area of a subdivision approved by the Planning Board;
(4) 
Excavation which by its nature lasts for a matter of hours or days, e.g., graves, septic tanks, swimming pools, etc., and does not involve removal of material from the property;
(5) 
Agricultural drainage work incidental to agricultural operations, including farm ponds, if no material is removed from the property;
(6) 
Excavation for structures, parking areas, and rights-of-way;
(7) 
Regrading of property for aesthetic purposes that does not affect existing drainage, if no material is removed from the property;
(8) 
Dredging operations under the jurisdiction of the United Stated Army Corps of Engineers and other governmental entities;
(9) 
Excavation in conjunction with the drainage maintenance or improvements under Town, county or state jurisdiction;
(10) 
The improvement of a single lot or parcel of land in connection with construction of a dwelling, multifamily dwelling, building, or any other structure or structures for which a building permit has been issued; and
(11) 
The excavation, in any calendar year, of not more than 200 cubic yards of material per acre within any parcel or any contiguous parcels in any twelve-month period, provided that no more than 750 cubic yards of material may be removed from any parcel in any calendar year.
E. 
Location. Mining and mineral extraction are allowed in the districts as shown on the Schedule of Uses of this chapter, subject to special use permit review and approval.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: The Schedule of Uses is included at the end of this chapter.
F. 
Special use permits.
(1) 
No mining or mineral extraction activity shall be conducted within the Town without the issuance of a special use permit.
(2) 
An application for a special use permit shall not be complete unless it is accompanied by the requisite filing fee, a complete copy of the application to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for a mining permit, including all maps, reports and documentation incidental thereto, and the mining permit which has been issued by the Department in relation to the subject operation. An application for a special use permit shall not be acted upon by the Planning Board unless the location of the proposed activities lies entirely within the boundaries of a zone where soil mining is a permitted use or a variance has been obtained from the Zoning Board of Appeals for any land not within said zones.
(3) 
The Planning Board is authorized, pursuant to § 128-85 of this chapter, to retain the services of consultants having expertise in the field of mining and mineral extraction. The reasonable cost of any consultation and review shall be borne by the applicant.
(4) 
The special use permit shall be subject to the following conditions which shall be established by the Planning Board and shall be set forth in the special use permit:
(a) 
Any conditions of special use permit approval pursuant to § 128-69 of this chapter.
(b) 
Any limitations or prohibitions on the use of Town roads for the purpose of ingress and egress to and from the mining site to and from public thoroughfares.
(c) 
Any limitations or prohibitions on the routing of mineral transport vehicles on Town roads.
(d) 
All of the limitations, requirements and conditions as specified in the applicant's mining permit issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation concerning setback from property boundaries and public thoroughfare rights-of-way, natural or man-made barriers to restrict access, if required, dust control and hours of operation.
(e) 
The ability of the Town to enforce all of the reclamation requirements contained in the applicant's mined land reclamation permits issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
G. 
It is the intention of this chapter to obtain and this chapter does, therefore, include all power and authority granted by New York State law to the Town to enforce all conditions of an applicant's mining permit, any special use permits hereunder and the conditions of the applicant's mined land reclamation permit.
A. 
No public cemetery, or the expansion or extension of a public cemetery in existence as of the date of adoption of this section, shall hereafter be established without a special use permit issued by the Planning Board.
B. 
In the case of an existing public cemetery the Planning Board may use its discretion to waive the requirement of site plan review and approval.
C. 
In addition to the standards of § 128-69 for issuance of a special use permit, public cemeteries shall comply with the following additional requirements:
(1) 
The minimum lot size is 10 acres.
(2) 
The establishment of a crematorium and the cremation of human remains are prohibited.
(3) 
No interment shall take place within 75 feet of any street right-of-way, property line, wetland or stream. In addition, such seventy-five-foot buffer area shall be suitably landscaped so as to screen the cemetery from view insofar as is practicable as determined by the Planning Board.
(4) 
Caretakers' cottages, mausoleums, chapels, and columbarium, which are incidental to the cemetery, shall be permitted as accessory uses, provided that any such structure shall comply with the setback and yard requirements for the district in which it is located.
The establishment of a family cemetery must comply with the following criteria:
A. 
The cemetery shall be an accessory use.
B. 
The cemetery shall not be located in a floodplain or within 250 feet of a reservoir or watercourse.
C. 
The cemetery shall not be located within 100 feet of any dwelling.