Collegeville City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XIX
GC General Commercial District
§ 680-142 Declaration of legislative intent.
It is the specific intent of this article to:
A.
Provide for development of a wide range of commercial uses in the Borough.
B.
Take advantage of access and visibility from the major roadway.
C.
Provide regulations for continued commercial use opportunities in areas of existing commercial development.
D.
Establish standards for the orderly and well-planned development and expansion of commercial facilities.
E.
Relate specific types of uses to appropriate minimum lot sizes to ensure adequate land area relative to use classifications and intensities.
F.
Provide regulations that minimize conflicts between commercial facilities and adjacent residential properties.
G.
Assure suitable design to protect the character and property values of adjacent neighborhoods.
H.
Provide regulations that minimize congestion, hazardous traffic conditions and potential noise, glare and pollution, resulting from commercial development.
I.
To provide incentives to encourage shared access points, public meeting areas, and having buildings built to the edge of the public right-of-way.
§ 680-143 Permitted uses.
A building may be erected, altered, or used and a lot may be used or occupied for any of the following purposes and no other:
A.
Retail store for sale of dry goods, variety merchandise, books and stationery, clothing, food, beverages, flowers and plants, drugs (excluding drive-through windows), furnishings or other household supplies, and/or similar goods.
B.
Retail stores for sales and repair of jewelry, clocks, optical goods, cameras, home appliances, electronic equipment, scientific and professional instruments and/or similar goods.
C.
Personal service shop, including but not limited to barber shops, hairdresser, shoe repair, tailor, dry cleaner (dropoff service only), self-service laundry, and/or similar uses.
D.
Restaurants, retail bakery, confectionery or ice cream shop other places serving food and beverages (excluding drive-through windows and drive-in restaurants).
E.
Business or professional office.
F.
Bank, savings and loan association, financial institution (provided no drive-through window is provided).
G.
Indoor athletic facility.
H.
Dance, exercise, music or art studio/gallery.
I.
Funeral home.
J.
Any use similar to those listed above.
§ 680-144 Conditional uses.
The following may be permitted as a Class One conditional use in the GC District by Borough Council in accordance with § 680-55 of this chapter and § 680-146 of this article.
A.
Automatic or self-service car wash.
B.
Garden supply, nursery.
C.
Building materials and home equipment supplies.
D.
Wholesale sales in conjunction with retail sales.
E.
Indoor theater, bowling alley, pool hall, arcade, or other place of indoor amusement or recreation.
F.
Any permitted or conditional use that is proposing a drive-through window either as a land development under Act 247 or as an addition to an existing building.
G.
Fast food restaurant.
H.
Automobile sales and service, gasoline sales, parts and supply center with automobile service as an ancillary use.
I.
Any use similar to those listed above.
§ 680-145 Dimensional regulations.
[Amended 7-12-2006 by Ord. No. 519]
A.
Minimum lot size: 10,000 square feet.
B.
Minimum lot width: 50 feet.
D.
Maximum building coverage: 45%; however, coverage may be increased provided the regulations of § 680-147 below are met.
E.
Maximum impervious coverage: 60%; however, coverage may be increased provided the regulations of § 680-147 below are met.
F.
Maximum structure height: 35 feet.
§ 680-146 Conditional use standards.
The following standards shall apply, where applicable, to all conditional uses:
A.
All car washes and automobile service, parts, and supply centers shall meet the following:
(1)
No repairs to vehicle shall be performed outside.
(2)
Parking spaces shall be designated for vehicles being serviced.
(3)
No unregistered or unlicensed vehicles shall be permitted on the premises.
(4)
Any bays for services or wash areas shall not be located on a street frontage.
(5)
No gasoline sales.
(6)
No trucks over one-ton payload shall be repaired or serviced.
B.
Drive-through windows shall meet the following:
(1)
A minimum of six automobile waiting spaces are to be provided for all drive-through bank windows, including each bank teller, remote teller window, or drive-in automatic teller machine.
(2)
A minimum of eight automobile waiting spaces are to be provided for all drive-through restaurant windows, including the space at the pickup window.
(3)
These spaces shall not interfere with other parking spaces or the internal circulation of the site.
C.
Borough Council reserves the right to place any reasonable restriction upon any conditional use. In considering any conditional use request, they may consider the potential effect the use could have on any adjacent use or residential neighborhood.
D.
Design standards. All conditional uses in the GC District shall meet the following:
(1)
All principal buildings shall avoid long, monotonous, uninterrupted walls or roof planes. Building wall offsets, such as projections, recesses, and demarcated changes in floor levels shall be used. Roof planes shall be broken up through dormers, gables, cupolas, or other architectural features.
(2)
All walls of the principal buildings that face public streets shall contain windows.
(3)
All principal buildings shall be constructed with traditional materials such as brick, wood, or stucco. If synthetic materials are used, they must be of a quality so that they appear to be constructed with traditional materials.
(4)
Flat roofs are prohibited unless hidden by a decorative parapet and cornice. All parapets and cornices must contain architectural features to avoid a long, monotonous, uninterrupted appearance.
(5)
The scale and massing of all principal buildings shall relate to neighboring properties.
§ 680-147 Bonus provision.
A.
If an applicant provides an irrevocable cross access easement to an adjacent nonresidential property for the purpose of a connected internal vehicular access, the maximum building coverage shall be 50% and impervious coverage shall be 75%.
§ 680-148 Parking.
§ 680-149 Additional regulations.
A.
Outdoor display and storage. All uses except for parking and loading areas shall be completely enclosed within a building. No merchandise, goods, articles, or equipment shall be stored, displayed or offered for sale outside the building except seasonal articles. Any outdoor display areas shall be considered to be sales floor area for the purposes of computing building coverage and for computing parking requirements.
B.
Refuse areas. The design of buildings in the GC General Commercial Retail District shall either include a provision for the storage of refuse outside the building(s) or within an outdoor area enclosed by either walls or opaque fencing. Any refuse area outside the building shall be designed to be architecturally compatible with the building(s) and shall not interfere with nor be visible from circulation within the parking lot, such walls or fencing shall be designed to shield the refuse areas from direct view of any adjacent property and must be at least six feet high. No trash storage area shall be located within 10 feet of an adjacent nonresidential property line nor within 20 feet of a road right-of-way or residential property line.
C.
Off-street loading. Adequate off-street loading and unloading space with property access from a street, highway or common service driveway shall be provided for all commercial properties. All areas for loading and unloading of delivery trucks and other vehicles and for the servicing of establishments or shops by refuse collection, fueled and other service vehicles shall have adequate and unobstructed access from a street or service driveway and shall be so arranged that they may be used without blocking or otherwise interfering with the use of automobile accessways, parking facilities, or pedestrian ways. They shall also be so arranged that they may be used without backing out onto a street. Service areas shall be screened from view from any abutting roadway, customer parking area or residential property line. All off-street loading areas shall be at least 20 feet from any residential zoning district.
D.
Landscaping buffers. Landscape buffers at least 15 feet in depth shall be provided when a commercial property abuts a residential district. The adequacy of this buffer shall be determined by Borough Council, upon the recommendations of the Borough Planning Commission or other Borough agency chosen by Council.
§ 680-150 Public space requirements.
To qualify as a public space as permitted in § 680-147, above, the area must contain 350 square feet, be located along a public street's frontage, and contain at least two of the following: