The following shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this ordinance, to-wit:

(1)

Words used in the present tense, including the future; words in the singular number, including the plural number; the words in the plural number, include the singular number; the word "building," includes the word "structure"; the word "lot," includes the word "plot"; the word "shall" is mandatory and not discretionary.

(2)

Accessory building. A subordinate use or building customarily incident to and located on the lot occupied by the main use or building.

(3)

Alley. A way which extends only secondary means of access to abutting property.

(4)

Apartment. A room, or suite of rooms, in an apartment house or tenement arranged, designed or occupied as the residence of a single family, individual or group of individuals.

(5)

Apartment house. A building, or portion thereof, arranged, designed or occupied by three or more families living independently of each other.

(6)

Area of lot. The area of the lot shall be net area of the lot and shall not include portions of streets or alleys.

(7)

Basement. A story partly underground and having at least one-half of its height above the average level of the adjoining ground. A basement shall be counted as a story if subdivided and used for dwelling or business purposes.

(8)

Block. An area within the city enclosed by streets and occupied by or intended for building; or, if said word is used as a term of measurement, it shall mean the distance along a side of a street between the nearest two streets which intersect said street on said side.

(9)

Boarding house. A building, other than a hotel, where lodging and meals for five or more persons are served for compensation.

(10)

Building. Any line parallel to the street line beyond which buildings may not be erected.

(11)

Building, height of. The vertical distance measured from the curb level to the highest point of the roof surface, if a flat roof, to the deck line of a mansard roof, and to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for a gable, hip or gambrel roof; provided, however, that where buildings are set back from the street line, the height of the building may be measured from the average elevation of the finished grade along the front of the building.

(12)

Business. Includes the neighborhood shopping, commercial, light industrial and heavy industrial uses and districts, as herein defined.

(13)

Cellar. A story having more than one-half of its height below the average level of the adjoining ground. A cellar shall not be counted as a story for purposes of height measurement.

(14)

Clinic. An institution, or station, for the examination and treatment of ill and afflicted out-patients.

(15)

Convalescent home. Any structure used for or occupied by persons recovering from illness or suffering from the infirmities of old age.

(16)

Court. An open, unoccupied space, bounded on two or more sides by the walls of the building. An inner court is a court entirely surrounded by the exterior walls of a building, or by walls of a building and an adjoining, inside lot line. An outer court is a court having one side open to a street, alley, yard or other permanently open space.

(17)

Courts, tourist. A building or group of buildings, designed, arranged or used for temporary occupancy having accommodations for housing the parking automobiles in close proximity to the quarters occupied by the owner of such automobile and providing for three or more of such quarters.

(18)

Courts, trailer. An area designed and used for the temporary occupation by automobile trailer or tent quarters and providing for one or more of such quarters.

(19)

Curb level. The level of the established curb in front of the building measured at the center of such front. Where no curb has been established, the city engineer shall authorize and approve the establishment of such curb, or its equivalent, for the purpose of this ordinance.

(20)

Day nursery. A place where children are left for care between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.

(21)

Depth of rear yard. The mean horizontal distance between the rear line of a building, other than an accessory building, and the center line of the alley where an alley exists, otherwise, the rear lot line.

(22)

Depth of lot. The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.

(23)

District. A section of the city for which the regulations governing the area, height and use of buildings are uniform.

(24)

Dwelling unit. A building, or portion of a building, which is arranged, occupied or intended to be occupied as living quarters.

(25)

Dwelling, multiple. A building used or designed as a residence for three or more families or households living independently of each other.

(26)

Dwelling, group houses. Detached, or semi-detached dwellings, built on one lot, usually in opposing rows separated by a wallway [walkway] or court.

(27)

Dwelling, one-family. A detached building having accommodations for and occupied by only one family.

(28)

Dwelling, two-family. A detached building for separate accommodations for and occupied as, or to be occupied as a dwelling for only two families.

(29)

Efficiency apartment. An apartment having combination living and bedroom (no separate bedroom).

(30)

Family. A family is any number of individuals living together as a single housekeeping unit; as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, a lodging house, or both, or hotel, as herein defined.

(31)

Frontage. All the property abutting on one side of a street between two intersecting streets, measured along the street line.

(32)

Front yard. An open, unoccupied space on the same lot with a building, between the building and the street, extending across the front of the lot.

(33)

Garage, private. A garage with a capacity for not more than two motor-driven vehicles for storage only, and for private use.

(34)

Gross floor area. The gross floor area of any apartment house shall be measured by taking outside dimensions of the apartment building at each floor excluding, however, the floor area of basements or attics, when not occupied as living quarters.

(35)

Garage, public. Any premises, not a private garage, as defined above, used for housing of more than three motor vehicles or where any such vehicles are repaired for operation, or kept for remuneration, hire or sale.

(36)

Garage storage. Any premises, except those defined as a private or public garage, used exclusively for the storage of automobiles.

(37)

Group houses. A group of detached or semi-detached dwellings facing upon a place, as herein defined.

(38)

Height. The height of a building, or portion of a building, shall be measured from the average established grade at the street lot line or from the average, natural ground level, if higher; or if no street grade has been established, to the highest point of the roof's surface, if a flat surface; to the deck line of mansard roofs; and to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for hip or gable roofs. In measuring the height of a building, the following structures shall be excluded: chimneys, cooling towers, radio or television towers, ornamental cupolas, domes, or spires, elevator bulkheads, penthouses, tanks, water towers and parapet walls, not exceeding four feet in height.

(39)

Home occupations. Any occupation that is customarily performed at home, that does not involve a structural change in the building, that does not require the employment of help, the installation of equipment or the display of a sign, and shall not include beauty culture schools, beauty parlors, doctors' offices for treatment of patients.

(40)

Customary home occupations. Occupations ordinarily carried on in a home that are not detrimental or injurious to adjoining property. These may include serving meals or renting rooms to not more than five persons not members of the household, dressmaking, millinery, washing and ironing. Customary home occupations shall not include barbershops, flower shops, carpenter shops, electricians' shops, plumbers' shops, radio shops, tinner shops, transfer or moving van offices, auto repairing or sign painting.

(41)

Hotel. A building occupied as the, more or less, temporary abiding place of individuals who are lodged with or without meals, in which, as a rule, the rooms are occupied singly for hire; provisions not made for cooking in any individual apartment, and in which, there are more than 12 sleeping rooms, a public dining room for the accommodation of more than 12 guests, and a general kitchen.

(42)

Institution. A building occupied by a nonprofit corporation or nonprofit establishment for public use.

(43)

Hospital. An institution, or place where sick or injured in-patients, are given medical or surgical care either at public (charity) or private expense.

(44)

House trailer. A non self-propelled vehicle containing living or sleeping accommodations, which is designed or used for highway travel.

(45)

Lodging house. A building, other than a hotel, where lodging for five or more persons is provided for compensation.

(46)

Lot. Land occupied, or to be occupied, by a building and its accessory building, and including such open spaces as are required under this ordinance, and having its principal frontage upon a public street or officially approved place.

(a)

Interior. Is a lot other than a corner lot.

(b)

Through A lot having frontage on two parallel or approximately parallel streets.

(c)

Fractional. A portion of a lot that has been cut off of a corner lot, having the side line of the corner lot as a side line.

(d)

Front line. The line of an interior lot, which is adjacent to the street. On corner lots, it is the prolongation of the front lot line of adjacent interior lots, as originally platted.

(47)

Lot lines. The lines bounding a lot, as defined herein.

(48)

Lot, corner. A lot situated at the junction of two or more streets and having a width not greater than 100 feet.

(49)

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

(50)

Nonconforming uses. A building or premises occupied by a use that does not conform to the regulations of the use in the district in which it is situated.

(51)

Open space. Area included in any side, rear or front yard, or any unoccupied space on a lot that is open and unobstructed to the sky, except for the ordinary projection of cornices, eaves or porches.

(52)

Parking area, semi-public. An open area, other than a street, alley or place, used for temporary parking of more than five self-propelled vehicles as an accessory use to semi-public institutions, schools, churches, hospitals and noncommercial clubs.

(53)

Parking area, public. An open area, other than a street, alley or place, used for the temporary parking of more than five self-propelled vehicles and available for public use, whether free, for compensation, or as an accommodation for clients or customers.

(54)

Persons. The word "person," when used in this ordinance, shall, for the purpose of this ordinance, mean every person, firm, co-partnership, association, partnership, corporation or society; and the term "person" shall include both singular and plural, and the masculine shall embrace the feminine gender.

(55)

Place. An open, unoccupied space reserved for purposes of access to abutting property.

(56)

Rear yard. A space unoccupied, except by buildings of accessory use as hereinafter permitted, extending for the full width of the lot between a building, other than a building of accessory use, and the rear lot line.

(57)

Reversed frontage. A portion of a corner lot fronting the street which was originally platted as a side street.

(58)

Schools. The term "schools," as used in this ordinance, is defined as such institutions of learning, not operated for profit, which offer and maintain a course or courses of instruction leading to degrees or certificates of graduation recognized by the University of Texas.

(59)

Servants' quarters. An accessory building located on the same lot or grounds with the main building, and used as living quarters for servants employed on the premises and not rented or otherwise used as a separate domicile.

(60)

Story. That portion of a building between the surface of any 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.

(61)

Street. Any public thoroughfare dedicated to the public and not designated as an alley.

(62)

Story, half. A story under a gable, hip or gambrel roof, the wall plates of which at least two exterior walls are not more than two feet above the floor of such story.

(63)

Structure. Anything constructed, or erected, the use of which requires location on the ground or that it be attached to something having a location on the ground.

(64)

Structural alterations. Any change in the supporting member of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.

(65)

Yard. An open space, other than a court, on the same lot with a building, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided herein.

(66)

Front yard. An open, unoccupied space on a lot facing a street, between a building and a street line. If no building exists, a front yard is an open, unoccupied space facing a street and adjacent thereto.

(67)

Rear yard. A yard extending across the full width of the lot and measured between the farthest rear line of the main building and the center of an alley, if there is an alley, otherwise, the rear lot line.

(68)

Side yard. The mean horizontal distance between a side wall of a building and the side line of the lot.