Pursuant to the authority conferred by the Public Acts of the State of Michigan, this ordinance has been established for the purpose of:

(1)

Promoting and protecting the public health, safety, and general welfare;

(2)

Protecting the character and the stability of the agricultural, residential, and non-residential areas within Bath Charter Township and promoting the orderly and beneficial development of such areas;

(3)

Providing adequate light, air, privacy and convenience of access to property;

(4)

Regulating the intensity of use of land and lot areas and determining the area of open spaces surrounding buildings and structures necessary to provide adequate light and air and to protect the public health;

(5)

Lessening and avoiding congestion on the public highways and streets;

(6)

Providing for the needs of agriculture, housing, and commerce in future growth;

(7)

Promoting healthful surroundings for family life in residential and rural areas;

(8)

Protecting the public and adjacent uses from fire, explosion, noxious fumes or odors, excessive heat, dust, smoke, glare, noise, vibration, radioactivity, and other health and safety hazards;

(9)

Preventing the overcrowding of land and undue concentration of buildings and structures so far as possible and appropriate in each zoning district by regulating the use and bulk of buildings in relation to the land surrounding them;

(10)

Enhancing social and economic stability in the township;

(11)

Conserving the taxable value of land, buildings and structures in the township;

(12)

Enhancing the aesthetic desirability of the environment throughout the township; and

(13)

Conserving the expenditure of funds for public improvements and services to conform with the most advantageous uses of land.

State Law reference— General purposes of zoning ordinances, MCL 125.273.

By their very nature, zoning cases force a confrontation between landowner and the public interest, or landowners against each other. In this light the primary consideration of this ordinance has been to devise technical solutions which minimize or eliminate conflicts promoted by prior zoning regulations. Ordinances have regularly forced a "winner-take-all" solution to zoning conflicts. Whenever a proposed use encountered objections, the township board had two choices - either permit the use, to the detriment of the objectors, or prohibit it entirely, to the detriment of the landowner who proposed it. If the zoning ordinance permits a use or activity, the surrounding pre-existing landowners usually are unprotected from any of its negative impacts. This ordinance has been designed to protect and accommodate both competing interests. Bath Charter Township has devoted a substantial effort to finding equitable solutions to conflicts. Every effort has been made to make uses a matter of right subject to performance criteria capable of non-discretionary, objective, administrative evaluation, thus reducing the number of times that case by case (ad hoc) decisions need to be made. This greatly increases the potential uses or choices available to individual property owners. The ad hoc decisions which conventional zoning ordinances frequently necessitate appear to reduce the certainty of protection to neighbors and to increase the potential for adverse impacts. This ordinance contains performance criteria to protect the community's general welfare. Zoning districts are few in number, and each has a clearly different purpose. Distinctions between districts are significant and are based on the Bath Charter Township Comprehensive Development Plan and the data presented in the Southern Clinton County Study. The districts are sized to be adequate to handle long-term needs yet must be monitored relative to any necessary changes or updating as time passes. Where performance criteria severely limits the use of properties, the ordinance has gone to considerable extremes to provide the landowners with a range of choices, flexibility, and options for development.

At various points throughout this ordinance subsections prefaced "Commentary" are included and intended as a statement of finding or purpose. Whenever a section or subsection is considered to require explanation, clarification or further elaboration, it is followed by a commentary. It is intended that by using informal vs. legalistic explanatory text such clarification can be accomplished. The commentaries are to be legislatively adopted together with the more formal text of the ordinance. They are intended as a guide to its administration and interpretation and shall be treated in the same manner as other ordinance elements.

No land or premises within Bath Charter Township shall be used for any activity not authorized by the laws of this State. Further, it is not the intent of the ordinance from which this section is derived to provide for or authorize dispensaries and/or compassion clubs as defined by section 3.02 of this ordinance as permitted land uses in Bath Charter Township.

(Ord. No. 62, § II, 3-21-2011)