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Cochise County Unincorporated
City Zoning Code

2.57 EXEMPTIONS

AND NONCONFORMANCES

2.57.010 EXEMPTIONS AND NONCONFORMANCES PURPOSE

  1. To specify statutory exemptions and other types of structures and uses of land which are exempt from all or part of these Zoning Regulations.
  2. To allow any use of land or structure to continue as long as it lawfully existed at the time these Zoning Regulations became effective or were amended, even if the use, structure, lot, or site improvement does not now conform with the regulations for the Zoning District in which it is located; and
  3. To identify and limit the continuing existence of nonconforming uses, lots, and structures.

2.57.020 EXEMPTIONS

  1. Statutory Exemptions.
    1. These Zoning Regulations shall not prevent, restrict, or otherwise regulate the use or occupation of land or improvements for railroad, mining, metallurgical, grazing, or general agricultural purposes if the tract concerned is five or more contiguous commercial acres, as provided by Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S 11-812). To obtain agricultural exemptions, the property owner must demonstrate that the use is exempt under the general agricultural provisions defined in Article 2.03 of these Zoning Regulations. All exemptions shall be determined by the use of the land and are only for that particular use. If the use changes and the new use is not exempt, the new use shall comply with these Zoning Regulations.
    2. Uses determined to be exempt under this Section that requires review by the Health or Highway and Floodplain Department shall be required to file for an Informational Permit pursuant to Article 2.48.
    3. Pursuant to Article 2.48, the placement of any manufactured home or factory-built building on a site shall require an installation permit, regardless of exemption status as required by the Arizona Department of Housing.
    4. Pursuant to Arizona Revised Statutes (Planning and zoning; military airport and ancillary military facility’s operation compatibility): A single-family residential use that is the primary residence for persons engaging in agricultural use and ancillary residential buildings incident to the primary agricultural use, which is located in a high noise or accident potential zone, or in the vicinity of a military airport or ancillary military facility (as defined in Title 28 of Arizona Revised Statutes), are not exempt from the noise reduction levels required for the design and construction of new residential buildings or expansions of residential buildings and other possible prohibitions on construction as set forth in the Arizona Revised Statutes.
  2. Essential Services Exemptions. The following uses are exempt from the Zoning Regulations; however, where indicated below, they are not exempt from the Building Code. In addition, these uses may be subject to other governmental regulations adopted by Cochise County and other governmental agencies such as Health, Highway, and/or Floodplain Departments. The following uses do not require a building/use permit under these Zoning Regulations:
    1. Rights-of-way for streets, alleys, drainage ways, and other public and non-public rights-of-way.
    2. Transmission lines for the distribution of franchised public or private utilities, including meter boxes, pipes, poles, wires, hydrants, or similar installations necessary to distribute utilities such as water, gas, wastewater, electricity, telephone, telegraph, television, and radio. More substantial structures with the potential to impact the surrounding community, such as substations, booster stations, buildings, water tanks, communication equipment, and communication towers, are not exempt and must be located to minimize any adverse impacts generated by that structure. All such structures, however, are exempt from minimum site area requirements of the applicable Zoning District, provided that there is an adequate site area to minimize any adverse impacts of such use. The County Zoning Inspector may waive or modify site development standards for more substantial structures approved as part of a subdivision review process, provided that adverse impacts are minimized.
    3. Essential governmental services of public agencies (local, State, and Federal), including schools and special districts such as drainage, flood control, irrigation, fire, and sanitation, and including facilities, attendant appurtenances, and accessories used by such agencies. Shared uses by public agencies and private parties shall not be exempt unless determined by the County Zoning Inspector that the proposed use by a public agency meets the intent of an essential governmental service. Only public agencies shall be deemed essential government services. The building code does apply to this class of uses.
    4. Pursuant to Article 2.48, the placement of any manufactured home, rehabilitated mobile home or factory-built building on a site shall require an installation permit, regardless of the exemption status.
  3. Height Exceptions. Height regulations established elsewhere in these Zoning Regulations shall not apply to the following in any district: chimneys, flagpoles (but not higher than 10 feet above the height limitation for that Zoning District), parapet walls extending not more than four-feet above the height limit of the building, amateur radio and residential antennas and related structures, private windmills, Wind Energy Power Plants (See Article 2.51 for Wind Energy Systems height limits), anemometers, church spires, belfries, residential satellite dishes, cooling towers, water tanks, substation line-support towers, Solar Energy Systems, and Solar Energy Power Plants.
HISTORY
Amended by Ord. 09-03 (R-09-03) on 10/20/2009
Amended by Ord. 14-10 (R-14-08) on 12/2/2014

2.57.030 NONCONFORMANCES

  1. Nonconforming Lots.
    1. Any lot or parcel of record having less site area than required for the Zoning District in which it is located which lawfully existed either prior to January 1, 1975, or which was rendered nonconforming as a result of subsequent amendments to these regulations may be developed provided the developer complies with all applicable site development standards of these regulations.
    2. Any contiguous nonconforming lots or parcels which come under single ownership are considered combined and subject to all provisions of these Zoning Regulations if:
      1. The combined parcels have been assessed and taxed as a single parcel.
      2. The owner of the lots has combined the lots in any manner for purposes of building or use permit approval; or
      3. There is other evidence showing an intent to combine or use more than one lot as a single parcel.
    3. Any lot or parcel of record having less site area than required for the Zoning District in which it is located and which lawfully existed prior to January 1, 1975, which was subsequently combined with an adjacent lot and, thereby, increased in size but remains smaller than the minimum lot size for the Zoning District in which it is located, shall continue to be deemed a legal, nonconforming lot or parcel. Any action that makes a substandard size lot more conforming to the minimum lot size shall not cause the discontinuance of the legal nonconforming status of the subject lot or lots.
  2. Continuing Existing Uses.
    1. Any use of land, lot, parcel, building, or structure, lawfully existing either prior to January 1, 1975, or rendered nonconforming as a result of subsequent amendments to these Zoning Regulations, may be continued even though such use does not now conform to these Regulations. It is often difficult for owners and the County to find and produce evidence of use prior to January 1, 1975. Accordingly, for purposes of determining use under this subsection, the use prior to January 1, 1975, may be inferred from the best available historical evidence, but in all events, any such evidence must demonstrate or suggest the use at least ten years prior to the date of the determination of nonconforming use.
    2. Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the continued use or reasonable repair or alteration of a non-conforming structure or use for the purpose used at the time such use became nonconforming.
  3. Discontinuance of Nonconforming Uses.
    1. If a nonconforming use of land, building, or structure is changed to a permitted use or is discontinued for a period of 36 consecutive months as a result of conduct within the control of or attributable to the property owner, any future use thereof shall be in conformity with these Zoning Regulations.
    2. In the event that a nonconforming use of land, building, or structure is destroyed by fire, explosion, an act of God, or act of the public enemy, then the future use shall from and after the date of such destruction, be subject to all of these Zoning Regulations or amendments thereto for the Zoning District in which such future use is located. However, property owners whose structures were damaged or destroyed by a catastrophic event that the Board of Supervisors declares to be an emergency and who wish to repair or rebuild structures deemed non-conforming are exempt from this requirement.
  4. Expansion of a Nonconforming Use.
    1. A nonconforming use of land, building, or structure shall not be enlarged, extended, reconstructed, or structurally altered unless such enlargement, extension, reconstruction, or structural alteration conforms with these Zoning Regulations for the Zoning District in which such property is located, except:
      1. That a nonconforming business use may expand with a permit, provided it meets all current site development standards; or
      2. That a nonconforming business use may expand if such expansion does not exceed 100-percent of the area of the original business provided that such expansion remains within the original parcel boundaries; or
      3. That the expansion of a non-conforming residential use may extend walls on the same alignment as the non-conforming structure so long as the overall expansion of the structure does not exceed 75 percent of the original building floor area; or
      4. That apartments, manufactured home parks, mobile home parks, and RV parks are considered residential uses, not commercial uses, as applied to this Article, and therefore not permitted to expand.
    2. If a nonconforming use of land is nonconforming due to driveway location, driveway apron improvement surface, or sight visibility as specified in Article 2.51, no enlargement, extension, reconstruction, or alteration shall occur until there has been provision made to correct the access or sight visibility deficiencies.
  5. Change of Nonconforming Use or Relocation of Structures.
    1. If no structural alterations are made, any nonconforming use of land, building, or structure may be changed to another nonconforming use, provided that the proposed use does not generate any greater impacts on the surrounding property as determined by the County Zoning Inspector.
    2. No nonconforming structure shall be moved any distance on the same parcel or lot unless such relocation reduces the amount of the nonconformance and will not generate any greater impacts on surrounding properties as determined by the County Zoning Inspector.
  6. Setbacks for Structures on Nonconforming Residential Parcels.
    1. For any nonconforming lot or parcel of record in a residential district, the minimum setbacks and distances between buildings may be reduced as follows:
      1. Minimum Front or Street Setback: 15 feet
      2. Minimum Setback All Other Sides: five feet
      3. Minimum Distance Between Principal Buildings: seven and one-half-feet
    2. For any nonconforming lot shown on a tentative plat that was approved by the Planning Commission prior to January 1, 1975, for which effective covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) of record exist; or for any lot on a final plat of record in the County Recorder’s Office for which both the plat and effective CC&R’s were recorded prior to January 1, 1975, the minimum setbacks and distances between principal buildings specified in the CC&R’s may be used in place of the distances otherwise required under these Zoning Regulations, provided that they shall not be reduced below the minimum distances shown in Subsection 6,a above.
  7. Improvements on Nonconforming Lots. For any nonconforming lot or parcel of record, permits may be issued in very narrow circumstances for fences and building code repairs or replacements, such as a re-roof, that do not increase the level of nonconformance.
HISTORY
Amended by Ord. 11-10 (R-11-03) on 9/27/2011
Amended by Ord. 12-04 (R-11-09) on 2/14/2012
Amended by Ord. 16-02 (R-16-01) on 7/26/2016

09-03 (R-09-03)

14-10 (R-14-08)

11-10 (R-11-03)

12-04 (R-11-09)

16-02 (R-16-01)