The regulations of this title shall be for the purpose of promoting the health, safety, morals, convenience, order, prosperity and welfare of the present and future inhabitants of Akron, Colorado, by: the lessening of congestions in the streets and roads or reducing the waste of excessive amounts of roads; securing safety from fire and other dangers; providing adequate light and air; classification of land uses and the distribution of land development and utilization; protection of tax base; securing economy in governmental expenditures; and the protection of urban and nonurban development. (1997 Code §17.04.010)

This title is authorized by Colorado Revised Statutes title 31, article 23, as amended, and is declared to be in accordance with all provisions of these statutes. (1997 Code §17.04.020)

Words used in the present tense include the future; words in the singular number include the plural and words in the plural include the singular; the word "building" includes the word "structure"; the word "shall" is mandatory.

The following words and terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section:

ACCESSORY BUILDING: A subordinate building or portion of main building, the use of which is incidental to that of the main building or dwelling.

ALLEY: A minor public thoroughfare upon which the rear of building lots generally abuts and which is generally used for service purposes only.

APARTMENT HOTEL: A building or portion thereof designated for or containing both dwelling units and six (6) or more guestrooms or suites of rooms.

AUTO COURT OR COTTAGE CAMP OR MOTEL: A group of dwellings of not less than two hundred (200) square feet floor space per unit, facing a common court, place or street, and designed for or used temporarily for automobile tourists or transients, with adequate off street parking space for each unit.

AUTOMOBILE SALES AREA: An open area other than a street used for the display or rental of new or used automobiles to be displayed, sold or rented on the premises.

AUTOMOBILE WRECKING: The dismantling or wrecking of used motor vehicles or trailers, or the storage, sale or dumping of dismantled, obsolete or wrecked vehicles or their parts, but not including the incidental storage of damaged vehicles in connection with the operation of a repair garage.

BASEMENT HOUSE: A dwelling or structure constructed partly or wholly below the grade level of any property.

BOARDING, ROOMING OR LODGING HOUSE: A building other than a motel where lodging and/or meals for five (5) or more persons are provided for compensation.

CORNER LOT: A lot situated at the junction of a front street and a side street.

CURB CUTS: A cut in the curb line for passage of vehicles, not to exceed twelve feet (12') in width for single drive and thirty feet (30') for double drive.

DRIVE-IN BUSINESS: A place of business where persons are served in automobiles from a refreshment stand, restaurant, food store and the like.

DWELLING: A structure used as a residence containing not less than a living room, bedroom, kitchen and a completely equipped bathroom containing a toilet and a bathtub or shower, lavatory, all connected to the sewer and supplied with town water and shall also include a "modular unit" or "sectional home" as defined in this section.

ERECT: Means and includes moving of existing buildings.

FRONT STREET: A street on which the lots of a town block, or subdivision thereof, generally front.

HOTEL: A building occupied as a more or less temporary abiding place of individuals who are lodgers with or without meals for compensation, and in which there are more than ten (10) sleeping rooms, usually occupied singly, and in which no provision is made for cooking in any individual apartment or room.

JUNKYARD: The use of more than two hundred (200) square feet of area of any lot or site for the storage, keeping or abandonment of junk, including scrap metals or other scrap materials or for the dismantling, demolition or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles or machinery or parts thereof.

LOT: Land occupied or to be occupied by a building and its accessory building together with such open spaces as are required under this title and having its principal frontage on a street or officially approved place.

MANUFACTURED HOME: A preconstructed building unit, or combination of preconstructed building units, without motive power, designed and commonly used for residential occupancy by persons in either temporary or permanent location, which unit or units are manufactured in a factory or at a location other than the residential site of the completed home. After December 31, 2024, no manufactured homes built prior to 2006 may be brought into the Town of Akron. Manufactured homes permanently placed within the Town of Akron after December 31, 2024 shall have perimeter skirting between the ground and the manufactured home floor within thrity (30) days of their placement in the Town.

MODULAR UNIT: A manufactured home, built prior to June 1, 1976, which is constructed off-site with a permanent chassis designed for over the road transportation and delivered to the home site in one (1) or more sections. Mobile homes are not allowed anywhere in the Town of Akron unless already located in the Town of Akron prior to January 1, 2025.

NONCONFORMING USE: A building or land lawfully occupied by a use that does not conform with the regulations of the district in which it is situated.

PORCH: A roofed or unroofed open structure projecting from the front, side or rear wall of a building. For the purpose of this title, a porch is considered a part of the principal building and is not permitted to extend into any required yards.

REAR YARD: A yard unoccupied except by an accessory building as hereinafter permitted, extending across the full width of the lot between the rear line of the building and the rear line of the lot.

SECTIONAL HOME: A dwelling made of two (2) modular units, factory fabricated and transported to the homesite where they are put on a foundation and joined to make a single house.

SELF-STORAGE FACILITY: A place of business operated for the purpose of renting or leasing individual storage space to occupants who are given access to a self-storage space for the sole purpose of storage and removing personal property. Self-storage facilities may be operated as a use by right in areas zoned industrial.

SETBACK: The minimum horizontal distance between the property line and front line of the building or any projection thereof, excluding steps.

SIDE YARD: A yard between the building and the side line of the lot and extending from the street line to the rear of the lot.

SIGN: Any advertisement, announcement, direction or communication produced in whole or in part by the construction, erection, affixing or placing of a structure on any land or on any other structure, or produced by painting on or pasting or placing any printed, lettered, pictured, figured or colored materials on any building, structure or surface; provided, however, that signs placed or erected by the town or the state for the purpose of showing street names or traffic directions or regulations or for other municipal or government purposes shall not be included herein nor shall this include signs which are part of the architectural design of the building.

STORY: That portion of a building included between the surface of a floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between such floor and the ceiling next above it.

STORY, HALF: A story under a gable, hip or gambrel roof, the wall plates of which on at least two (2) opposite, exterior walls, are not more than two feet (2') above the floor of such story.

STREET: A public thoroughfare fifty feet (50') or more in width and not less than forty feet (40') between curbs.

STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS: Any change in the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.

STRUCTURE: Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires substantially permanent location on the soil, but not including utility poles or garbage or trash disposal units. A manufactured home that is transported to its site and permanently affixed to the ground, attached to a permanent concrete foundation around the perimeter, so that it is no longer capable of being drawn over the public highways, and which has become real property as described in Colorado Revised Statutes section 38-29-114(2), and which manufactured home is of substantially equal value to other improvements in the immediate neighborhood, shall be considered as a structure.

TEMPORARY: Less than twelve (12) months.

YARD: An open space unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, which is on the same lot with a building, except as otherwise provided herein.

(1997 Code § 17.04.030; amd. Ord. 598, 11-15-2024; Ord. 599, 11-15-2024)