For the purpose of this ordinance certain words and terms are hereby defined. Words used in the present tense shall include the future; the singular number shall include the plural and the plural the singular; the word "building" shall include the word "structure" and the word "shall" is mandatory and not directory.

Accessory buildings and uses: A subordinate building or a portion of the main building, the use of which is incidental to that of the main building or land and not used for a place of habitation or a living room, kitchen, dining room, parlor, bedroom or library. An accessory use is one which is incidental to and subordinate to the main use on the lot.

Alley: A public thoroughfare which affords only a secondary means of access to property abutting thereon and which is not intended for general traffic circulation.

Apartment: A room or suite of rooms with culinary facilities designed for or used as living quarters for a single family.

Apartment hotel: A building designed for or containing both apartments and individual guest rooms or suites of rooms and apartments, wherein is maintained an inner lobby through which all tenants must pass to gain access to the apartments, and catering to permanent and not transient tenants, and which may furnish services ordinarily furnished by hotels, such as drug store, barber shop, cigar and news stands, dining rooms, when such uses are located entirely within the building with no entrance from the street, nor visible from any sidewalk, and having no sign display visible from the outside of the building indicating the existence of such use.

Apartment house: See Dwelling, multiple-family.

Basement: See Cellar.

Billboard: See Signs, advertising.

Boarding house: A dwelling other than a hotel where, for compensation and by prearrangement for a definite period, meals or lodging and meals are provided for four (4) or more persons but not exceeding twenty (20) persons and excluding transient guests or any patron not regularly residing on the property and paying a weekly or monthly rate therefor.

Buildable area: The area of that portion of the lot not required to be allocated to yards or open spaces as herein required.

Building: Any structure designed or built for the support, enclosure, shelter, or protection of persons, animals, chattels, or property of any kind.

Building, height of: The vertical distance measured from the average elevation of the grade at the front of the building to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof or to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for gable, hip, shed, and gambrel roofs and to the deck line of a mansard roof.

Bulletin board: See Sign, advertising.

Cafeteria: A restaurant at which patrons serve themselves at a counter and take the food to the tables to eat.

Carport: A canopy or shed, attached to the main building, open on two (2) or more sides, for the purpose of providing shelter for one (1) or more vehicles.

Cellar: An area below the first story having one-half (½) or more of its height below grade and used for utilities, storage, garages for occupants of the building, or janitor or watchman quarters. A cellar shall not be considered a story.

Clinic: A building or portion thereof designed for, constructed, or under construction, or alteration for use by two (2) or more physicians, surgeons, dentists, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, or practitioners in related specialties or a combination of persons in these professions where patients who are not lodged overnight are admitted for examination and treatment.

Clubs:

Type A club: A club or lodge including buildings and facilities established by or for the residents of a particular district, limiting membership to dues-paying residents of only that particular district for social, recreational, educational or cultural purposes, but not for profit or to render a service normally carried out as a business.

Type B club: A club or lodge including buildings and facilities established by or for membership organizations whose membership is not restricted (as Type A clubs) for the benefit of their membership and not for profit or to render a service normally carried on as a business.

Country club: A privately managed recreational facility located on not less than twenty (20) acres of land and having such recreational features as a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pools, bridle trails, boating facilities, and the like.

Court: An open space which may or may not have access and around which is arranged a single building or a group of related buildings.

District: Any section of the City of Donaldsonville in which these zoning regulations are uniform.

Dwelling, mobile home: A detached residential dwelling unit designed for transportation after fabrication on streets or highways on its own wheels or on flatbed or other trailers and arriving at the site where it is to be occupied as a dwelling complete and ready for occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operations, location on jacks or other temporary or permanent foundations, connections to utilities, etc. A travel trailer is not to be considered as a mobile home.

Dwelling, multiple-family: A dwelling designed for, constructed or under construction or alteration for, or occupied by three (3) or more families, with the number of families not exceeding the number of dwelling units provided.

Dwelling, single-family: A detached residential building containing one (1) dwelling unit designed for, constructed or under construction or alteration for, or occupied exclusively by not more than one (1) family.

Dwelling, two-family: A detached residential building containing two (2) dwelling units designed for, constructed or under construction or alteration for, or occupied by two (2) families.

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.

Extraction: The removal from the premises of sand, gravel, shells, top-soil, minerals, or other natural resources from a lot or a part thereof.

Family: A group comprising immediate kindred, living together and occupying a single housekeeping unit with single culinary facilities, or a group of not more than four (4) persons living together by mutual agreement and occupying a single house-keeping unit with single culinary facilities on a nonprofit cost sharing basis. The usual domestic servants on the premises shall not be considered a separate family for the purposes of this ordinance.

Farm: Any parcel of land which is used in the raising of agricultural products, livestock, poultry, and dairy products. It includes necessary farm structures within the prescribed limits and the storage of equipment used. It excludes the raising of fur-bearing animals, riding academies, livery or boarding stables, and dog kennels.

Frontage: All the property on one side of a street between two (2) intersecting streets (crossing or terminating) or if the street is dead-ended, all of the property abutting on one side between an intersecting street and the dead end of the street.

Garage, parking: A building, land or portion thereof designed or used for the temporary storage of motor-driven vehicles, with or without the retail dispensing, sale, or offering for sale of motor fuels, lubricants, and tires, or indoor car washing, minor motor adjustment, and flat tire repair when such operations are incidental to the storage of motor-driven vehicles.

Garage, private: An enclosed space for the storage of not more than three (3) motor vehicles, provided that no business, occupation, or service is conducted for profit therein nor space therein for more than one (1) motor vehicle is leased to a nonresident of the premises and provided further that not more than one (1) of the vehicles stored shall be a commercial vehicle and that it shall not have a load capacity of more than two (2) tons.

Garage, public: A building, land or portion thereof other than a private or parking garage designed or used for equipping, servicing, repairing, hiring, selling, or storing motor-driven vehicles.

Garage, storage: An enclosed space for the storage of three (3) or more motor vehicles pursuant to previous arrangement, and not to transients, and at which automobile fuels and oils are not sold and motor vehicles are not equipped, repaired, hired, or sold.

Grade: The elevation of the ground at a building or building site as established by the city engineer.

Hardship: An unusual situation or condition involving a particular property and which makes it impossible for the owner to use the property in the manner prescribed for the district by the zoning ordinance. A hardship exists only where the unusual situation or condition is not created by the owner of the property. A hardship as related to zoning is not to be confused with an economic hardship.

Home occupation: An occupation conducted in a dwelling unit, provided that:

A.

No person other than members of the family residing on the premises shall be engaged in such occupation.

B.

The use of the dwelling unit for the home occupation shall be clearly incidental and subordinate to its use for residential purposes by its occupants, and not more than twenty-five percent (25%) of the floor area of the dwelling unit shall be used in the conduct of the home occupation.

C.

There shall be no change in the outside appearance of the building or premises, or other visible evidence of the conduct of such home occupation other than one (1) sign not exceeding one (1) square foot in area, non-illuminated and mounted flat against the wall of the principal building.

D.

No home occupation shall be conducted in any accessory building.

E.

There shall be no sales in connection with such home occupation.

F.

No traffic shall be generated by such home occupation in greater volumes than would normally be expected in a residential neighborhood, and any need for parking generated by the conduct of such home occupation shall be met off the street and other than in a required front yard.

G.

No equipment or process shall be used in such home occupation which creates noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors, or electrical interference detectable to the normal senses off the lot, if the occupation is conducted in a single-family residence, or outside the dwelling unit if conducted in other than a single-family residence. In the case of electrical interference, no equipment or process shall be used which creates visual or audible interference in any radio or television receivers off the premises, or causes fluctuations in line voltage off the premises.

Hospital: A building or portion thereof designed or used for the diagnosis, therapeutic treatment, or other care of ailments, and having facilities for bed patients who are physically or mentally ill.

Hotel: A building used as an abiding place of more than twenty (20) persons who, for compensation, are lodged and offered the customary accessory services normally associated with hotels, including the serving of meals and alcoholic beverages. No provision is made for cooking in individual rooms or suites and ingress and egress to and from all rooms is through an inside lobby or office supervised by a person in charge at all hours. As such it is open to the public in contradistinction to a boarding house or an apartment hotel which are herein separately defined.

Hotel, apartment: See Apartment hotel.

Institution: A building or group of buildings designed or used for the nonprofit, charitable, or public service purposes of providing board, lodging, health care for persons aged, indigent, or infirm, or for the purpose of performing educational or religious services and offering board and lodging to persons in residence.

Junk yard: The use of more than two hundred (200) square feet of the area of any lot, whether inside or outside a building, or the use of any portion of that half of any lot that joins any street, for the storage, keeping or abandonment of junk, including scrap metals or other scrap materials, or the dismantling, demolition, or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles or machinery or parts thereof.

Laundromat: Business premises equipped with individual clothes washing and drying machines for hire to be used by customers on the premises.

Line, street: The dividing line between the street and the lot.

Loading space: A space within the main building or on the same lot providing for the standing, loading, or unloading of trucks.

Lodging house: A building other than a hotel or apartment hotel where lodging for four (4), but not more than twenty (20), persons is provided for definite periods for compensation pursuant to previous arrangement.

Lot: A lot is a parcel of land, whether legally described or subdivided as one (1) or more lots or parts of lots, located within a single block and which is occupied by or intended for occupancy by one (1) principal building or principal use together with any accessory buildings and such open spaces as required by this ordinance and having its principal frontage upon a street or other approved place.

Lot, corner: A lot fronting upon two (2) or more streets at their intersection.

Lot coverage: That area of the lot occupied by the ground floor of all buildings, main and accessory, measured from the exterior faces of exterior walls, or exterior supporting columns or from the center lines of walls separating two (2) buildings.

Lot, depth of: A mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines, measured in the general direction of its side lot lines.

Lot, interior: A lot that is neither a corner lot nor a through lot.

Lot lines: The lines delineating the boundaries of a lot.

Lot of record: A lot which is either part of a subdivision the map of which has been recorded in the office of the clerk of the district court of the City of Donaldsonville prior to _______, or a parcel of land which became legally established and defined by deed or act of sale prior to _______.

Lot, through: A lot that is not located at the intersection of two (2) or more streets, but which has a frontage upon two (2) approximately parallel streets. Also termed a lot of double frontage.

Lot, width of: The average horizontal distance between side lines of a lot.

Main building: The principal building or buildings (where permitted) on a lot or tract which are used for or within which is conducted the principal use of the land.

Major street: A street or highway shown as a major street upon the street plan of the City of Donaldsonville.

Minor street: A street or highway not shown as a major street upon the street plan of the City of Donaldsonville.

Mobile home park: A parcel of land under single ownership which has been planned and improved for the placement of mobile homes for nontransient use.

Motel: See Tourist court.

Nonconforming use: A structure or land lawfully occupied by a use that does not conform to the regulations of the district in which it is situated.

Nursing or convalescent home: A building designed or used in whole or in part to provide for compensation, for the care of the ill, senile, or otherwise infirm persons who are resident on the premises.

Outdoor advertising signs: An attached or free standing structure constructed and maintained for the purpose of conveying to the public, information, knowledge or ideas. Such structure may be double-faced or V-type but shall contain no more than four (4) signs in any one (1) unit and not more than two (2) signs side by side. The structure shall have a total length of not more than sixty (60) feet.

Parking lot: An open area which is used for the temporary parking of motor vehicles, but is not a required off-street parking facility.

Parking space: An impervious hard surfaced area, enclosed in the main building or in an accessory building or unenclosed, having a rectangular area of not less than one hundred and sixty (160) square feet, with a minimum width of eight (8) feet when unenclosed, or one hundred and eighty (180) square feet with a minimum width of nine (9) feet when individually enclosed on two (2) or more sides, exclusive of driveways, permanently reserved for the storage of one (1) automobile and connected with a street or alley by an impervious hard surface driveway at least eight (8) feet in width providing unobstructed ingress and egress for motor vehicles.

Restaurant: A retail establishment offering food and beverages for consumption on the premises.

Rooming house: See Lodging house.

School, business: A privately owned school offering instruction in accounting, secretarial work, business administration, the fine or illustrative arts, dancing, music, and similar subjects.

School, private: A privately owned school having a curriculum essentially the same as ordinarily given in a public elementary or high school. The term includes day nurseries and kindergartens.

School, trade, or industrial: An establishment, public or private, offering training to students in skills required either for the practice of trades or work in industry.

Service station (filling station): A building, structure or land used for dispensing, sale or offering for sale at retail any automobile fuels, lubricants, or accessories and in connection with which is performed general automotive servicing as distinguished from automotive repairs.

Shopping center: A group of retail stores and/or non-retail business establishments planned and designed for the site upon which they are built.

Sign: A name, identification, description, display, illustration or device which is affixed to or represented directly or indirectly upon a building, structure, or land and which directs or is intended to direct attention to a product, place, person, institution, or business.

Sign, advertising: A sign or structure which directs attention to a business, commodity, service, activity or entertainment not necessarily conducted, sold, or offered upon the premises upon which such sign is located.

Sign, business: A sign which directs attention to a business or profession or to a commodity, service or entertainment sold or offered upon the premises upon which such sign is located.

Sign, flashing: A sign on which the illumination is intermittent or not maintained in intensity and color.

Sign, name plate: A sign which states the name or address or both of the profession or business on the lot where the sign is located.

Sign, surface area of: The entire area within a single continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of the actual sign surface. It does not include any structural elements outside the limits of such sign and not forming an integral part of the display. Only one (1) side of a double-face or V-type sign structure shall be used in computing total surface area.

Stable: A building for the housing of horses or mules which is operated for remuneration, hire, sale, or stabling.

Story: That portion of a building other than a cellar, included 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 the floor and the ceiling next above it.

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

Street line: The line dividing a lot, tract, or parcel of land and a contiguous street. Also, street right-of-way line.

Structural alteration: Any change or rearrangement in the bearing walls, partitions, columns, beams, girders, exit facilities, exterior walls, or roof of a building excepting such repair as may be required for the safety of the building, or an enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height, or movement of the building from one location or position to another.

Structure: Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a location on the ground, or attached to something having a location on the ground, including but without the generality of the foregoing, advertising signs, billboards, back stops for tennis courts, fences and pergolas.

Tenant dwelling: A residential structure located on a bona fide farm and occupied by a nontransient farm worker employed by the farm owner for work on the farm.

Theater, drive-in: An open lot, or part thereof, with its appurtenant facilities, devoted primarily to the showing of moving pictures or theatrical productions, on a paid admission basis, to patrons seated in automobiles or on outdoor seats.

Tourist court: A group of attached or detached buildings designed, constructed or under construction or alteration for guest rooms or dwelling units intended primarily for automobile transients, each unit having a separate entrance opening out-of-doors or into a foyer, with parking space appropriately located on the lot for use by guests of the court, operation of such court to be supervised by a person in charge at all hours. Tourist courts include auto courts, motels, motor courts, motor hotels and motor inns.

Tourist home: A dwelling in which overnight accommodations are provided or offered for transient guests for compensation.

Trailer: A vehicular, portable structure built on a chassis, designed to be used as a temporary dwelling for travel and recreational purposes, having a body width not exceeding eight (8) feet. (The term trailer shall include travel trailer, camp car, and house car.)

Trailer park: An area providing spaces where one (1) or more travel trailers can be or are intended to be parked, with flush toilet and bathing facilities provided on the site. Also "trailer camp."

Yard: A required open space, other than a court, unoccupied and unobstructed by any structure or portion of a structure from thirty (30) inches above the general ground level of the graded lot upward, provided however that fences, walls, poles, posts, and other customary yard accessories, ornaments, and furniture may be permitted in any yard subject to height limitations and requirements limiting obstruction of visibility.

Yard, front: A yard extending between side lot lines across the front of a lot adjoining a public street.

In any required front yard, no fence or wall shall be permitted which materially impedes vision across such yard above the height of thirty (30) inches and no hedge or other vegetation shall be permitted which materially impedes vision across such yard between the heights of thirty (30) inches and ten (10) feet.

In the case of through lots, unless the prevailing front yard pattern on adjoining lots indicates otherwise, front yards shall be provided on all frontages. Where one of the front yards that would normally be required on a through lot is not in keeping with the prevailing yard pattern, the zoning administrator may waive the requirement for the normal front yard and substitute therefor a special yard requirement which shall not exceed the average of the yards provided on adjacent lots.

In the case of corner lots which do not have reversed frontages, a front yard of the required depth shall be provided in accordance with the prevailing yard pattern and a second front yard of half the depth required generally for front yards in the district shall be provided on the other frontage.

In the case of reversed frontage corner lots, a front yard of the required depth shall be provided on either frontage and a second front yard of half the depth required generally for front yards in the district shall be provided on the other frontage.

In the case of corner lots with more than two (2) frontages, the administrative official shall determine the front yard requirements, subject to the following limitations: (1) at least one (1) front yard shall be provided having the full depth required generally in the district; (2) no other front yard on such lot shall have less than half the full depth required generally.

Depth of required front yards shall be measured at right angles to a straight line joining the foremost points of the side lot lines. The foremost point of the side line, in case of rounded property corners at street intersections, shall be assumed to be the point at which the side and front lot lines would have met without such rounding. Front and rear yard lines shall be parallel.

Yard, rear: A yard extending across the rear of the lot between inner side yard lines. In the case of through lots and corner lots there will be no rear yards, but only front and side yards.

Depth of a required rear yard shall be measured in such a manner that the yard established is a strip of the minimum width required by district regulations with its inner edge parallel with the rear lot line.

Yard, side: A yard extending from the rear line of the required front yard to the rear lot line, or in the absence of any clearly defined rear lot line to the point of the lot farthest from the intersection of the lot line involved with the public street. In the case of through lots, side yard shall extend from the rear lines of front yards required. In the case of corner lots, yards remaining after full-depth and half-depth front yards have been established shall be considered side yards. Width of a required side yard shall be measured in such a manner that the yard established is a strip of the minimum width required by district regulations with its inner edge parallel with the side lot line.