[Added 10-19-1981 by Ord. No. 224]
The Professional and Business Office District
is to provide appropriate locations primarily for office and related
uses. The regulations which apply within the district are designed
to encourage the formation and continuance of a quiet, compatible
and uncongested environment for business and professional offices
intermingled harmoniously with residences and certain limited service
uses. Specifically, it is the intent of the district to:
A.
Discourage any encroachment by unrestricted commercial
or industrial establishments or other uses which might adversely affect
the specialized office, service and residential character of the district.
B.
Encourage the conversion of existing dwellings to
office use in order to encourage the preservation of sound residential
structures, which maintains the visual character and architectural
scale of existing development.
C.
Attract professional office and service uses which
do not generate large volumes of traffic and continuous customer turnover.
D.
Encourage the orderly, well-planned development of
professional and business offices and limited service establishments
within the district when a proliferation of unrestricted commercial
usage would be undesirable.
[Amended 9-17-1990 by Ord. No. 301]
In the PBO Professional and Business Office
District, a building or group of buildings may be erected, altered
or used and a lot may be used or occupied for any of the following
uses and no other:
A.
Professional offices for doctors, dentists, chiropractors
or any other licensed practitioner of the healing arts for humans
and lawyers, engineers, architects, urban planners, accountants, economic
consultants and business and management consultants.
B.
Business offices providing credit services, security
and commodity brokerage, real estate sale, employment counseling,
insurance sales, advertising and mailing and stenographic services.
C.
Single-family and two-family dwellings, in accordance with the requirements of the R-3 Residence District with respect to area and height regulations as set forth in § 182-52E.
E.
Accessory uses on the same lot with and customarily
incidental to any of the above-permitted uses.
A.
Conditional uses. The following conditional uses shall be permitted when authorized by the Board of Supervisors, pursuant to the procedural requirements set forth in Article XXII, § 182-204, of this chapter and additional criteria set forth in Subsection B below:
[Amended 12-16-1991 by Ord. No. 307]
(1)
Service establishments which directly serve the needs of the permitted uses in § 182-98A and B herein, including but not limited to such uses as a pharmacy, optometrist, dental equipment laboratory and any other use of a similar nature; provided, however, that any such use shall not be visible from any abutting public right-of-way or parking area and no external signs advertising said use(s) shall be permitted.
(3)
Any use(s) listed in § 182-98A and B herein and in Subsection A(2) of this section may be allowed as a conditional use on an existing lot which does not meet the lot area and width requirements of § 182-100A herein. Modifications to the dimensional standards of § 182-100B herein may be allowed as part of a conditional use under this subsection, provided that any adjacent residential or institutional use is properly buffered with the following: a minimum fifteen-foot buffer between a new building and an existing property line; a minimum ten-foot buffer between a new parking lot and an existing property line; and a minimum five-foot buffer between a new driveway/accessway and an existing property line. A combination of fencing and/or landscaping to the satisfaction of the Township shall be placed in said buffer areas. The requirements of § 182-104 shall be applicable for all buffers; provided, however, that where there is a discrepancy in buffer width, the width shall be as prescribed in this subsection.
[Added 8-6-2001 by Ord. No. 407]
B.
Standards for consideration of conditional uses. The
Board of Supervisors shall determine that the following standards
are met, prior to granting approval of a conditional use application:
(1)
The use will not generate a significantly greater amount of traffic volume than those uses permitted in § 182-98 herein in the judgment of the Township Board of Supervisors, upon recommendation of the Township Engineer.
[Amended 12-16-1991 by Ord. No. 307]
(2)
The use shall not generate noise, noxious odors, air
pollution or glare nor result in pedestrian-vehicular conflict or
other safety hazards.
(3)
Any necessary loading and unloading operations shall
be carried on within or contiguous to the facade of any conditional
use structure.
[Added 6-1-1998 by Ord. No. 372]
The following special exception uses shall be
permitted:
A.
As a special exception only, communications antennas, in accordance with the provisions of § 182-21.1, mounted on an existing public utility transmission tower, existing building or other existing structure, and communications equipment buildings only upon a showing, in addition to any other that may be required under this chapter, that denial of such a special exception would have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless service. Communications towers are not permitted.
The following regulations shall apply in the
Professional and Business Office District:
A.
Lot area. A minimum of 40,000 square feet shall be provided for every principal building erected or used for any use permitted in this district. In addition, a lot width of not less than 150 feet at the right-of-way shall be provided. Conversion of an existing structure to any use permitted according to § 182-98 on a lot smaller than 40,000 square feet may be permitted as a special exception by the Zoning Hearing Board, provided that all required parking can be properly located on the same lot or on an adjacent lot to which access is legally guaranteed, that all additions to principal buildings be located at least 20 feet from all property lines and that all parking be located at least 15 feet from all property lines. The structural appearance of any building to be converted, in terms of roofing, siding, entryways and porches, windows and other exterior features visible from the public way, shall not be altered other than to repair or replace the original material or style of the building. The Zoning Hearing Board may, to encourage conversion of an existing viable building, permit a bonus of not more than 10% impervious coverage above that permitted in Subsection B herein. In allowing any conversion, the Zoning Hearing Board shall attach any reasonable standards it deems appropriate to ensure that said use(s) are developed in a manner consistent with other uses in the district and are compatible with said uses.
B.
Building coverage. Not more than 25% of the area may
be covered by buildings, and total impervious coverage shall not exceed
70%.
C.
Yard requirements.
(1)
Front yard. There shall be a front yard on each lot
which shall be not less than 50 feet in depth from the street line.
(2)
Side yards. On each interior lot there shall be two
side yards having an aggregate width of not less than 60 feet, neither
side yard having a width of less than 20 feet.
(3)
Rear yard. There shall be a rear yard on each lot,
the depth of which shall not be less than 40 feet, except that an
accessory-use structure may be erected within the rear yard not closer
to any property line than 15 feet.
D.
Height. The maximum height of buildings or structures
hereinafter erected or enlarged in a Professional and Business Office
District shall be 35 feet, not to exceed three stories, exclusive
of basements. For any building or structure accessory to a building
used for office and/or residential purposes, the maximum height shall
be 15 feet.
E.
Maximum building dimension. The greatest dimension
of a structure measured parallel to exterior building walls shall
be 125 feet. For circular or partially circular buildings, the diameter
or assumed diameter shall not exceed 150 feet.
In the event of new construction on a vacant
lot or where a dwelling has been removed, the design of the structure
shall be consistent with the predominant character of buildings within
the district.
The number of parking spaces shall be in accordance with Article XXII of this chapter.
A.
For double-parking bays, 15% of the area of each parking
space may be maintained in grass, provided that the grass is separated
from the paved area by a suitable wheel stop or bumper.
B.
For parking areas of more than 20 cars, a minimum of 10% of the parking area shall be devoted to interior parking lot landscaping, exclusive of any other landscaping or buffering requirements and exclusive of the grass area permitted under Subsection A herein. The landscaping required individual landscaped area shall contain less than 200 square feet; the minimum horizontal dimension of any such area shall be 10 feet.
C.
The owners of two or more adjacent lots may elect
to share common parking facilities according to the following requirements:
(1)
An application to do so shall be filed jointly by
all affected lot owners with the Zoning Officer, accompanied by a
plan showing the location of all proposed parking, parking reserve
areas and accessways as well as all buildings which shall use the
common parking area.
(2)
The aggregate number of parking spaces required for
all uses which will share the common parking area may be reduced up
to a maximum of 25% if the applicant can demonstrate to the Zoning
Officer's satisfaction that a greater efficiency is effected by joint
use of a common parking area or that other circumstances warrant such
reduction (i.e., complementary operating hours of the uses which will
be sharing the parking area). Regardless of the number of spaces actually
developed, a parking area to accommodate the aggregate number of parking
spaces normally required shall be fully designed, and the area which
is proposed to be eliminated shall be shown as "Parking Reserve Area."
Such area shall be required to be developed as designed, if and when
the Zoning Officer determines the need. All reserve areas not utilized
for parking shall be landscaped according to an approved plan.
(3)
For purposes of determining the number and location of accessways pursuant to § 182-103 below, the entire area devoted to common parking shall be considered as one parking lot.
(4)
Some portion of the common parking area shall be within
200 feet of an entrance, regularly used by patrons, into each use
served by the common parking area.
(5)
An application to permit shared common parking shall
be contingent upon each lot owner obtaining any necessary access easements
and rights-of-way.
The following regulations shall pertain to access
for all lots to be developed in the PBO District and shall also govern
on lots to be redeveloped in this district to the maximum extent feasible:
B.
The spacing of access drives should be 200 feet apart on center, but if lesser spacing is necessary and adequate justification is made for more than one access point, then compliance with § 154-19A(8) of Chapter 154, Subdivision and Land Development, should be demonstrated.
[Amended 8-1-2011 by Ord. No. 517]
Along a side or rear property line which is adjacent to a residential or institutional district, the owner shall place and maintain a Buffer Type 2 as described in § 154-36D(5) of Chapter 154, Subdivision and Land Development.
