All words and terms used in this ordinance have their commonly accepted and ordinary meaning unless they are specifically defined in this ordinance or the context in which they are used clearly indicates to the contrary. In the absence of court decisions or board of zoning appeals decisions specifically interpreting the provision in question, specific definitions of terms used in this ordinance shall be based on the following general hierarchy of sources:

1.

For a legal term, definitions in a legal dictionary, or, if not a legal term, definitions in an ordinary dictionary.

2.

Ordinance statements of purpose and intent of particular sections, or background reports and studies adopted or referred to in the ordinance.

3.

Minutes of discussions of legislative or advisory bodies considering adoption of the provision in question.

4.

Definitions of similar terms contained in federal and state statutes and regulations.

5.

Ordinary rules of grammar.

When vagueness or ambiguity is found to exist as to the meaning of any word or term in this ordinance, any appropriate cannon, maxim, principle or other technical rule of interpretations or construction used by the courts of this state may be employed to resolve the vagueness and ambiguity in language.

Any singular number used in this ordinance also includes the plural and the plural the singular, unless the context clearly indicates the contrary. Words used in the present tense include past and future tenses. The word[s] "shall" and "must" are always mandatory. The word "may" is permissive.

The meaning of specific words and terms used in this ordinance are defined below:

Accessory building: A subordinate building, attached to or detached from the main building, the use of which is incidental to that of the main building and not used as a place of habitation or a living room, kitchen, dining room, parlor, bedroom, or library.

Accessory use: A subordinate use which is incidental to and customary in connection with the main building or use and which is located on the same lot as the main building or use.

Administrator: The City of Anderson zoning administrator.

Adult entertainment establishment: Any place which features topless or nude dancers, go-go dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators, or similar entertainers. (See S.C. Code.)

Aggregate area or width: The sum of two or more designated areas or widths to be measured, limited, or determined under these regulations.

Alley: A narrow public thoroughfare which provides only a secondary means of access to abutting properties and is not intended for general traffic circulation.

Apartment: A part of a building containing cooking and housekeeping facilities, consisting of a room or suite of rooms intended, designed, and used as a residence, by an individual or a single family.

Assisted living facility: A residential facility for four or more elderly persons (age 60 and older) within which are provided living and sleeping facilities. Assisted living facilities may provide meal preparation, laundry services, and room cleaning. Such facilities may also provide other services, such as transportation for routine social and medical appointments, and counseling.

Automotive service and repair facilities: Any establishment where fuel, lubricants, parts, or service, [by] self or by others, is rendered directly to a motor vehicle. Such a facility includes without limitation: an automotive service station; an automotive tuning and oil change station; an automotive washing and cleaning facility; a garage for repair of tires, mufflers, engines, transmissions, batteries; a shop for body work and painting; and any establishment with a gasoline pump opened to the public.

Awning sign: Any sign constructed of fabric-like nonrigid material which is part of a fabric or flexible plastic awning and which is framed and attached to a building. A "back-lit" awning is a type of awning sign.

Banner: Any sign, except an awning sign, made of flexible fabric-like material.

Bar: Any premises wherein alcoholic beverages are sold at retail for consumption on the premises and minors are excluded therefrom by law. It shall not mean a premises wherein such beverages are sold in conjunction with the sale of food for consumption on the premises and [when] the sale of said beverages comprises less than 25 percent of the gross receipts.

Basement: That portion of a building between the floor and ceiling which is wholly or partially below grade but, with more than half its height above grade. A basement is counted as a story for the purpose of height regulations.

Bed and breakfast inn: A house, or portion thereof, where short-term lodging rooms and meals are provided. The operator of the inn shall live on the premises or in adjacent premises.

Billboard: Any sign affixed to a permanent structure on which the copy is periodically changed and which is not located on the same premises to which such advertising copy pertains.

Billboard copy: Any temporary message, which is changed periodically and is applied to a permanent sign structure.

Board: The City of Anderson Board of Zoning Appeals.

Boardinghouse: The same as "rooming housing."

Buffer, drainageway: A permanent unit of land of a specified width, running parallel to a drainageway or watercourse, upon which only certain types of uses may occur as allowed herein.

Buffer, water impoundment: A permanent unit of land of a specified width surrounding a water impoundment (lake or reservoir), upon which only certain types of uses may occur as allowed herein.

Bufferyard: A permanent unit of land of specified dimensions, together with plantings, fences, berms, walls, and other screening devices required thereon.

Buildable area: The area of that part of the lot not included within the setbacks, yards, buffers, or open spaces herein required.

Buildable width: The width of a part of a lot not included within the open spaces herein required.

Building: Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls for the housing or enclosure of persons or property of any kind.

Building, completely enclosed: Any building having no outside openings, other than doors, windows, and ventilators.

Building height: The vertical distance to the highest point of the roof for flat roofs; to the deck line of mansard roofs; and to the average height between eaves and the ridge for gable, hip and gambrel roofs, measured from the curb level if the building is not more than ten feet from the front lot line or from the grade in all other cases.

Building line: The line, parallel to the street line, that passes through the point of the principal building nearest the front lot line.

Bulk: A term used in this ordinance to describe the size and shape of a building or structure and its relationship to other buildings, to the lot area for a building, and to open spaces and yards.

Canopy: A detachable, roof-like cover, supported from the ground or from the deck, floor, or walls of a building for protection from sun or weather.

Car wash: An area of land and/or a structure with machine- or hand-operated facilities used principally for the cleaning, washing, polishing, or waxing of motor vehicles.

Cellar: That portion of a building between the floor and the ceiling which has more than one-half its height below grade. A cellar is not counted a story for the purpose of height regulations.

Civic club: Buildings, facilities or premises used or operated by a not-for-profit association for some common purpose, such as, but not limited to, a fraternal, social, educational, or recreational purpose.

Clinic, medical: A building or portion thereof designed for use by two or more physicians, surgeons, dentists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, or practitioners in related specialties, or a combination of persons in these professions, but not including lodging of patients overnight.

Commercial use: An occupation, employment, or enterprise that is carried on for profit by the owner, lessee, or licensee.

Commission: The Planning and Zoning Commission of Anderson.

Comprehensive plan: The officially adopted comprehensive plan of the City of Anderson or any part thereof.

Conditional use: A use that, owing to some special characteristics attendant to its operation or installation (for example, potential danger, smoke, or noise), is permitted in a district subject to approval and subject to special requirements, different from those usual requirements for the district in which the conditional use may be located.

Condominium: An estate in real property consisting of an undivided interest in common with other purchasers in a portion of a parcel of real property, together with a separate interest in space in a residential building, such as an apartment. A condominium may include, in addition, a separate interest in other portions of such real property.

Congregate housing: A residential facility for four or more elderly persons (age 60 or older) within which are provided living and sleeping facilities, meal preparation, laundry services, and room cleaning. Such facilities may also provide other services, such as transportation for routine social and medical appointments, and counseling.

Convalescent home: A building where regular nursing care is provided for more than one person not a member of the family, which resides on the premises.

Culinary or cooking facilities: A space in a dwelling arranged, intended, designed, or used for the preparation of food for a family. Facilities may include a sink, stove, cabinets, and refrigerator or any combination of these arranged in such space. A refrigerator alone shall not constitute culinary or cooking facilities under this definition.

Day care center: A center, home, day nursery, nursery school, kindergarten or other place however styled and whether operated under public auspices or as a private business in which participants are received for temporary custodial care apart from parents or guardians. A day care center will serve six or more children.

Density: The number of dwelling units per acre.

District: Any section of Anderson in which the zoning regulations are uniform.

District, overlay: Any section or sections of Anderson in which additional regulations are imposed in addition to the uniform zoning regulations.

Dormitory: A building intended or used principally for sleeping accommodations where such building is related to an educational or public institution including religious institutions and hospitals.

Drive-in: A term used to describe an establishment designed or operated to serve a patron in an automobile, or have a patron consume a product purchased on the premises, while seated in an automobile parked in an off-street parking space.

Dwelling: A building or portion thereof, designed or used exclusively for residential occupancy, but not including trailers, mobile homes, hotels, motels, motor lodges, boarding and lodging houses, tourist courts, or tourist homes.

Dwelling, attached single-family: A building containing dwelling units, each of which has primary ground floor access to the outside and which are attached to each other by party walls without openings. The term ["attached single-family dwelling"] is intended primarily for such dwelling types as town houses and duplexes.

Dwelling, multi-family: A building designed for or occupied exclusively by three or more families living independently of each other.

Dwelling, single-family: A building designed for or occupied exclusively by one family.

Dwelling, single-family detached: A single-family dwelling surrounded by yards or other open space on the same lot.

Dwelling, two-family: A building designed for or occupied exclusively by two families living independently of each other.

Dwelling unit: A room or group of rooms occupied or intended to be occupied as separate living quarters by a single family or other group of persons living together as a household or by a person living alone.

Emergency shelter/mission: A facility providing temporary housing for one or more individuals who are otherwise homeless.

Family: An individual or two or more persons who are related by blood or marriage living together and occupying a single household unit with single culinary facilities, or of a group [of] not more than four persons living together by joint agreement and occupying a single housekeeping unit with single culinary facilities on a non-profit, cost-sharing basis. Domestic servants, employed and residing on the premises, shall be considered as part of the family.

Family child care home: A private residence where care, protection, and supervision are provided, for a fee, at least twice a week to no more than six children at one time, including children of the adult provider.

Floor area:

a)

Commercial, business, and industrial buildings containing mixed uses: The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of a building measured from the exterior walls or from the center line of walls separating two buildings, but not including: (1) attic space providing headroom of less than seven feet; (2) basement space not used for retailing or storage; (3) uncovered steps or fire escapes; (4) accessory water towers or cooling towers; (5) accessory off-street parking spaces; and (6) accessory off-street loading spaces.

b)

Residential buildings: the sum of the gross horizontal areas of all floors of a dwelling, exclusive of garages, basements, attics, and open porches, measured from the exterior faces of exterior walls.

Floor area ratio: The numerical value obtained by dividing the gross floor area of the building or buildings on any lot by the net lot area.

Frontage:

a)

Street frontage: The distance along a street line from one intersecting street to another or from one intersecting street to the end of a dead-end street.

b)

Lot frontage: The distance for which the front boundary line of the lot and street line are coincident.

Funeral home: A building used for the preparation of the deceased for burial and the display of the deceased and rituals connected therewith before burial or cremation.

Garage, private: A building for the private use of the owner or occupant of a principal building situated on the same lot of the principal building for the storage of motor vehicles with no facilities for mechanical service or repair of a commercial or public nature.

Gas station: Any premises where gasoline and other petroleum products are sold. Gas stations shall not include premises where automobile maintenance activities are conducted.

Grade: Grade elevation shall be determined by averaging the elevations of the finished ground at all the corners and/or other principle points in the perimeter wall of the building.

Ground cover: Plants growing close to the ground, which spread to form a dense, covering over the ground.

Guest house: Living quarters within a detached accessory building, located on the same premises with the main building, for temporary guests of the occupants of the premises, such quarters having no kitchen facilities or separate utility meters, and not rented or otherwise used as a separate dwelling.

Heritage tree: A tree located in an area which is historically or environmentally sensitive. Such tree is special or worthy of recognition because of its age, species, or size. Such a tree may also be individually designated by city council as a heritage tree without being located within a historic district.

Home occupation: An accessory use of a dwelling unit for gainful employment which: a) is clearly incidental and subordinate to the use of the dwelling unit as a residence; b) is carried on solely within the main dwelling and does not alter or change the exterior character or appearances of the dwelling; c) is located in a residential district; and d) is created and operated as a sole proprietorship.

Hospital: An institution providing health services primarily for human inpatient medical or surgical care for the sick or injured and including related facilities such as laboratories, outpatient departments, training facilities, central services facilities, and staff offices that are an integral part of the facilities.

Hotel: A facility offering transient lodging accommodations on a daily rate to the general public and providing additional services, such as restaurants, meeting rooms, and recreational facilities.

Impervious surface: A surface that has been compacted or covered with a layer of material so that it is highly resistant to infiltration by water. It includes surfaces such as compacted sand, limerock, or clay, as well as most conventionally surfaced streets, roofs, sidewalks, parking lots, and other similar structures.

Junk: Old, dilapidated, scrap or abandoned metal, paper, building material and equipment, bottles, glass, appliances, furniture, beds and bedding, rags, rubber, motor vehicles, and parts thereof.

Junkyard: A parcel of land on which waste material or inoperative vehicles and other machinery are collected, stored, salvaged, or sold.

Kennel: An establishment licensed to operate a facility housing dogs, cats, or other household pets and where grooming, breeding, boarding, training, or selling of animals is conducted as a business.

Laundromat: A business that provides, washing, drying, and/ or ironing machines or dry cleaning machines for hire to be used by customers on the premises.

Loading space, off-street: Space logically and conveniently located for pickups and deliveries, scaled to delivery vehicles, expected to be used, and accessible to such vehicles when required off-street parking space are full.

Lodging house: Same as Rooming house.

Lot: A parcel of land occupied or intended for occupation by a use permitted in this ordinance, together with its accessory buildings and the yards areas and parking spaces required by this ordinance, and having its principal frontage upon a street or other officially approved right-of-way.

Lot area: The total horizontal area within the lot lines of the lot.

Lot, corner: A lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection.

Lot, depth of: The average horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.

Lot, interior: A lot other than a corner lot.

Lot line: The boundary line of a lot.

Lot of record: A lot whose existence, location, and dimensions have been legally recorded or registered in a deed or on a plat.

Lot, through (double frontage): A lot having a frontage on two approximately parallel streets.

Lot width: The horizontal distance between the side lot lines measured at the required front line.

Major thoroughfare: A street or highway so designated on the Thoroughfare Plan of Anderson

Manufactured housing: See section 14.15.1.

Mobile home: See Manufactured housing.

Modular home: A dwelling unit which is constructed of components which are assembled off-site and transported to the dwelling site on a truck.

Motel or motor lodge: A building or buildings in which lodging or boarding are provided and offered to the public for compensation; same as hotel, except that ingress and egress to rooms need not be through a lobby or office.

Neighborhood shopping center: A shopping center selling standard convenience goods, usually with a supermarket as its core, and serving an immediately adjacent population.

Nightclub: A commercial establishment dispensing alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises and in which dancing is permitted.

Nonconforming use: A building or land which does not conform with the height, area, or regulations of the district in which it is located.

Nursing home: A facility designed and intended to provide nursing service on a continuing basis to persons, the majority of whom require such services under trained professional nurses or physicians, and for whom medical records are maintained.

Open space: That part of a lot not covered by a building.

Outdoor storage: The keeping, in an unroofed area, of any goods, junk, material, merchandise, or vehicles in the same place for more than 24 hours.

Parking space, off-street: A space within a parking lot or on a single-family dwelling lot expressly provided for purposes of parking an automobile or other vehicle.

Plant nursery: Any land used to raise trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plants for sale or for transplanting.

Premises: A lot, together with all buildings and structures thereon.

Print shop: A retail establishment that provides duplicating services using photocopy, blueprint, and offset printing equipment, including collating of booklets and reports.

Quick print: A portion of community graphic arts featuring facilities and equipment to provide while-you-wait service on camera-ready materials. Quick print shops are retail/service oriented occupying no more than 3,000 square feet of floor space. Such establishments may include, but are not limited to, medium run (over 1,000 copies) customer accounts, same day or overnight service, printing, copying, binding, desktop publishing, and other similar services.

Regulations: The whole body of regulations, text, charts, tables, diagrams, maps, notations, references, and symbols, contained or referred to in this ordinance.

Restaurant: An establishment that serves food and beverages primarily to persons seated within the building. This includes cafes, tea rooms, and outdoor cafes.

Restaurant, fast food: An establishment that offers quick food service, which is accomplished through a limited menu of items already prepared and held for service, or prepared, fried, or griddled quickly, or heated in a device such as a microwave oven. Orders are not generally taken at the customer's table, and food is generally served in disposable wrapping or containers.

Right-of-way: An area or strip of land, either public or private, on which an irrevocable right-of-passage has been recorded for the use of vehicles or pedestrians or both.

Roominghouse: A building where, for compensation and by prearrangement for definite periods, lodging, meals, or lodging and meals are provided for three or more persons, but [roominghouses are limited to being] units containing no more than five guest rooms or rental units.

Self-service storage facility: A building consisting of individual, small, self-contained units that are leased or owned for the storage of business and household goods or contractors supplies.

Setback: The required minimum horizontal distance between the building line and the related front, side, or rear property line.

Shopping center: A grouping of retail business and service uses on a single site with common parking facilities.

Sidewalk cafe: An area adjacent to and directly in front of a street-level eating or drinking establishment located within the sidewalk area of the public right-of-way exclusively for dining and pedestrian circulation.

Sign: Any identification, description, animation, illustration, or device, illuminated or nonilluminated, which is visible from any thoroughfare or road and which directs attention to any realty, product, service, place, activity, person, institution, performance, commodity, firm, business, solicitation, idea or concept, including permanently installed or situated merchandise or any emblem, painting, banner, poster, bulletin board, pennant, placard or temporary sign designed to identify or convey information, with the exception of state, municipal, or national flags.

Site plan: A plan, prepared to scale, showing accurately and with complete dimensioning, the boundaries of a site and location of all buildings, structures, uses, and principal site development features proposed for a specific parcel of land.

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

Story, half: A space under a sloping roof which has the line of intersection of roof decking and wall face not more than three feet above the top floor level, and in which space, not more than two-thirds of the floor is for finished use. A half-story containing independent apartments for living quarters shall be counted as a full story.

Street: A public or private thoroughfare, which affords the principal means of access to abutting property.

Street line: A dividing line separating a lot, tract, or parcel of land and a contiguous street.

Structural alterations: Any change in the supporting numbers of building, such as footings, bearing walls or partitions, columns, beams or girders, or any substantial change in the roof or in the exterior walls, excepting such repair as may be required for the safety of the building.

Structure: Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires more or less permanent location on the ground, or attached to something having a permanent location on the ground, including trailers or mobile homes, signs, swimming pools, fences, backstops for tennis courts, and pergolas.

Swimming pool: Any portable or permanent structure containing a body of water 17 inches or more in depth and 250 square feet or more of water surface area, intended for recreational purposes, including a wadding pool.

Town home, [town house]: See Dwelling, attached-single family.

Trailer: Any vehicles, covered or uncovered, used for living, sleeping, business, or storage purposes, having no foundation other than wheels, blocks, skids, jacks, houses, skirtings, and which is or has been, or reasonably may be equipped with wheels or any other devices for transporting the vehicle from place to place, whether by motor power or other means. The term "trailer" shall include camp car and house car.

Trailer park, trailer court, or mobile home park: An area providing a minimum of three spaces where trailers or mobile homes can be or intended to park.

Variance: A dispensation permitted on individual parcels of property as a method of alleviating unnecessary hardship by allowing a reasonable use of the building, structure, or property, which, because of unusual or unique circumstances, is denied by the terms of the zoning code.

Warehouse: A building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials.

Warehousing and distribution: A use engaged in storage, wholesale, and distribution of manufactured products, supplies, and equipment, but excluding bulk storage of materials that are inflammable or explosive or that create hazardous or commonly recognized offensive conditions.

Watercourse: A drainageway, river, or stream.

Yard: An open space other than a court, on a lot, and unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except otherwise provided in the ordinance.

Yard, front: A yard extending across the front of a lot between the side lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the street line and the main building or any other projections thereof other than the projections or uncovered porches.

Yard, rear: A yard extending across the rear of the lot between the side lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the main building or any other projection other than steps, unenclosed porches, or entranceways.

Yard, side: A yard between the main building and the side line of the lot and extending from the front yard to the rear yard and being the minimum horizontal distance between the side lot line and side of the main buildings or any projections thereof.

(Ord. No. 10-05, 7-26-2010)