A use, a building or structure, part of a building or other structure, which is subordinate to and the use of which is incidental to that of the main building, structure or use on the same lot, including a private garage. If an accessory building is attached to the main building by a common wall or roof, such accessory building shall be considered a part of the main building.

A passage or way, open to public travel and dedicated to public use, affording generally a secondary means of vehicular access to abutting lots and not intended for general traffic circulation.

A change or rearrangement of the structural parts of existing facilities or an enlargement by extending the sides or increasing the height or depth or the moving from one location to another. In buildings for business, commercial, industrial or similar uses, the installation or rearrangement or partitions affecting more than 1/3 of a single floor area shall be considered an "alteration."

A room or a suite of two or more rooms in a multiple dwelling or in any other building not a single-family dwelling or a two-family dwelling, occupied or suitable for occupancy as a dwelling unit for one family.

A building or a portion of a building, designed for occupancy by three or more families living separately from each other and containing three or more dwelling units.[1]

A landowner or developer who has filed an application for development, including his heirs, successors or assigns, or who has filed an appeal or request with the Borough Council or the Zoning Hearing Board.

Any sign (see also the definition of "sign" below) for general advertising purposes, including any display by painting, posting or affixing on any surface a picture, emblem, words, figures, numbers or lettering, which is 300 square feet or more in area and which is either erected on the ground or attached to or supported by a building or structure.

The Zoning Hearing Board of the Borough.

Any structure having a roof, but excluding all forms of vehicles even though immobilized. When a use is required to be within a building or where special authority granted pursuant to this chapter requires that a use shall be within an entirely enclosed building, then the term "building" means one so designed and constructed that all exterior walls of the structure shall be solid from the ground to the roofline and shall contain no openings except for windows and doors which are designed so that they may be closed.

The vertical distance measured from the average elevation of the finished grade around the building to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof or to the deckline of a mansard roof or to the average height of the highest gable of a pitch or hip roof. Chimneys, spires, towers, elevator penthouses, tanks and similar projections, other than signs, shall not be included in calculating the height.

A structure to house or protect motor vehicles which is open to the weather for at least 40% of the total area of its sides.

A building designed and used for the medical, dental and surgical diagnosis and treatment of patients under the care of doctors and nurses, but patients are not provided with board or room or kept overnight on the premises.

That percentage of the lot area covered by the building area.

Any landowner, agent of such landowner or tenant with the permission of such landowner who makes or causes to be made a subdivision of land or a land development.

An area accurately defined as to boundaries and location on an official zoning map and within which area only certain types of land uses are permitted and within which other types of land uses are excluded, as set forth in this chapter.

A building designed exclusively for residential purposes, including one-family, two-family and multiple dwellings, but not including hotels or motel units.

One or more rooms designed for or occupied by one family for living or sleeping purposes and containing kitchen facilities for use solely by one family.

An individual or two or more persons related by blood, marriage or adoption or a group of not more than five persons who are not related by blood, marriage or adoption, excluding servants, living together in a dwelling unit.

An accessory building or an accessory portion of the main building enclosed on not fewer than three sides and designed or used only for the shelter or storage of vehicles owned or operated only by the occupants of the main building or buildings.

A building other than a private garage used for the care, repair or storage of automobiles or where such vehicles are kept for remuneration, hire or sale, but a "public garage" shall not be used for the storage of dismantled or wrecked motor vehicles, parts or junk.

An accessory use of a service character, customarily conducted within a dwelling by the residents, which is clearly secondary to the use of the dwelling for living purposes and does not change the character thereof or have any exterior evidence of such secondary use other than a small nameplate, and in connection therewith, there is not involved the keeping of stock in trade. The office of a professional person, i.e., physician, dentist, music or dance instructor (limited to a single student per session) or other persons who offer skilled services to clients such as barbers, beauticians or real estate brokers, all of whom have not more than two paid assistants, shall be deemed to be a "home occupation."

A building or premises for the medical or surgical treatment of animals or pets including dog, cat and veterinary hospitals, including the boarding of hospitalized animals and the boarding of animals not subjected to medical or surgical treatment.[2]

Improvement of one or several adjacent lots for any purposes involving two or more residential buildings or one or more nonresidential buildings or a subdivision of land.

The legal or beneficial owner or owners of land, including the holder of an option or contract to purchase, a lessee, if he is authorized under the lease to exercise the rights of the landowner, or others having a proprietary interest in the land.

A single tract of land, no matter how legally described, whether by metes and bounds and/or by lot or lots and block designation as in a recorded plat, which at the time of applying for a building permit is designated by its owner or developer as the tract to be used, developed or built upon as a unit of land under single ownership or control and assigned to the particular use for which the building permit is being secured and having frontage on or access to a public street or over an easement approved by the Council.

That portion of the lot nearest the street. For the purpose of determining yard requirements on corner lots and through lots, all sides of the lot adjacent to the street shall be considered "frontage," and yards shall be provided as indicated under § 195-44, Yard requirements.

The following diagram illustrates terminology used in this chapter with reference to corner lots, interior lots, reversed frontage lots and through lots:

A transportable single-family dwelling on its own chassis and axle, intended for permanent occupancy, contained in one unit or in two or more units designed to be joined into one integral unit capable of again being separated for towing, which arrives at a site complete and ready for occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operations.

A leased parcel of land in a mobile home park, improved with the necessary utility connections and other appurtenances necessary for the placement thereon of a single mobile home.

A parcel or several contiguous parcels of land which have been laid out and improved so that it contains two or more mobile home lots.

A group of attached or detached buildings containing individual sleeping units where a majority of such units open individually and directly to the outside and where a garage is attached to or a parking space is conveniently located to each unit, all for the temporary use by automobile tourists or transients, and "motel" includes tourist courts, motor courts, automobile courts, automobile camps and motor lodges.

A building designed exclusively for occupancy by three or more families living independently of each other and containing three or more dwelling units.

A professional engineer licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, duly appointed as the Borough Engineer by the Borough Council.

A lot the area or dimension of which was lawful prior to the adoption or amendment of this chapter but which fails to conform to the requirements of the zoning district in which it is located because of such adoption or amendment.

A structure or part of a structure manifestly not designed to comply with the applicable use provisions of this chapter or amendment heretofore or hereafter enacted, where such structure lawfully existed prior to the enactment of this chapter or amendment or prior to the application of this chapter or amendment to its location by reason of annexation. Such "nonconforming structures" include but are not limited to nonconforming signs.

A use, whether of land or of a structure, which does not comply with the applicable use provisions in this chapter or amendment heretofore or hereafter enacted, where such use was lawfully in existence prior to the enactment of this chapter or amendment or prior to the application of this chapter or amendment to its location by reason of annexation.

A detached building designed exclusively for occupancy by one family and containing one dwelling unit.

Any card, cloth, paper, metal or painted sign, or wooden, plaster, stone or other sign of any kind or character whatsoever placed for outdoor advertising purposes on the ground or on any tree, wall, bush, rock, post, fence, building, structure or thing whatsoever. The term "placed," as used in the definition of "outdoor advertising sign" and in "outdoor advertising structure," includes erecting, constructing, posting, painting, printing, tacking, nailing, gluing, sticking, carving or otherwise fastening or fixing or making visible in any manner whatsoever.

The Planning Commission of the Borough.

The primary or predominant use to which the property is or may be devoted and to which all other uses on the premises are accessory.

A formal meeting held pursuant to public notice by the Borough Council, the Planning Commission or the Zoning Hearing Board, which is intended to inform the public and to obtain public comment prior to taking action in accordance with this chapter.

A notice published once each week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the Borough. Such "notice" shall state the time, date and place of the hearing, the particular nature of the matter to be considered at the hearing and reference to when and where materials relevant to the matter may be examined by the public prior to the hearing. The first publication shall be not more than 30 days before the hearing, and the second publication shall be not less than seven days before the hearing.

A private business organization performing some public service and subject to special governmental regulations or a governmental agency performing similar public services, the services by either of which are paid for directly by the recipient thereof. Such services shall include but are not limited to water supply, electric power, gas and transportation for persons and freight.

A home operated similarly to a boardinghouse, but not restricted to any number of guests or guest rooms, and the operator of which is licensed by the state or county to give special care and supervision to his or her charges and in which nursing, dietary and other personal services are furnished to convalescents, invalids and aged persons, but in which homes are kept no persons suffering from a mental sickness, mental disease, disorder or ailment or from a contagious or communicable disease and in which homes are performed no surgery, maternity or other primary treatments such as are customarily provided in sanitariums or hospitals and in which no persons are kept or served who normally would be admittable to a mental hospital.

A place of residence for several families or individuals in apartment-like quarters, rented or condominium, which may feature services to retired persons such as limited nursing facilities, minimum maintenance living accommodations and recreation programs and facilities.

A building that has three or more one-family housekeeping units erected in a row as a single building on adjoining lots, each being separated from the adjoining unit or units by an approved fire wall or walls extending from the basement or cellar floor to above the roof along the dividing lot line, and each such building being separated from any other building by space on all sides.

An institution of learning which offers instruction in the several branches of learning required by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

An occupancy which provides for:

Any device for visual communication that is used for the purpose of bringing the subject thereof to the attention of the public; provided, however, that the following shall not be included in the application of the regulations herein:

A use permitted in one or more districts as established by this chapter but which, because of characteristics peculiar to it or because of size, technological processes or equipment or because of the exact location with reference to surroundings, streets and existing improvements or demands upon public facilities, requires a special degree of control to make such use consistent with and compatible to other existing or permissible uses in the same district and to assure that such use shall not be inimical to the public interest.

A public or recorded private thoroughfare which affords primary means of access to abutting property, but not including alleys.

Any man-made object having an ascertainable stationary location on or in land or water, whether or not permanently affixed thereto.

A building so designed, used or constructed as to be used or utilized for a period of six months or less. Use of a "temporary structure" shall be authorized by the issuance of a special exception by the Zoning Hearing Board.

The division or redivision of a lot, tract or parcel of land into two or more lots, tracts or parcels, including changes in existing lot lines, for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of lease, partition by the court for distribution to heirs or devisees, transfer of ownership or building or lot development.[3]

A building designed exclusively for occupancy by two families living independently of each other and containing two dwelling units.

An adjustment in the application of the specific regulations of this chapter to a particular piece of property, which property, because of special circumstances applicable to it, is deprived of privileges commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same vicinity and district and which adjustment remedies disparity in privileges.

An open space other than a court on a lot, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward unless specifically otherwise permitted in this chapter.

A yard extending between side lot lines across the front of a lot and which is unoccupied other than by steps, walks, terraces, driveways, lampposts and similar structures or improvements.

A yard extending across the rear of the lot between inner side yard lines.

A yard extending from the rear line of the required front yard to the rear lot line.[8]