Words used in the present tense include the future tense. Words used in the singular include the plural, and words used in the plural include the singular.

The word "person" includes a firm, partnership, company, corporation or association.

The word "lot" includes the word "plot" or "parcel".

The word "building" includes the word "structure".

The word "shall" is always mandatory, and not merely directory. The word "may" is always construed to be permissive.

The word "used" or "occupied" as applied to any land or building shall be construed to include the words "intended, arranged, or designed to be used or occupied".

A detached, subordinate structure, the use of which is clearly incidental to, customarily associated with, and related to the principal structure or use of the land; and which is located on the same lot as the principal structure or use, including residential swimming pools.

The person, officer, or official and his authorized representative(s), whom the mayor and council has designated as its agent for the administration of this ordinance. (See section 11-1.)

A building dedicated to the lodging or feeding or both of nontransient persons or separate families as defined herein for compensation.

A landscaped open area and/or screened area designed to separate incompatible uses.

Any structure, including mobile homes as defined herein but not including accessory trailers, which has a roof and which is for the shelter, support or enclosure of persons, animals, or property of any kind.

The vertical distance of a building measured from the average elevation of the finished lot grade along the front of the building to the highest point of the building.

An incorporated or unincorporated association for civic, social, cultural, religious, fraternal, literary, political, recreational, or like activities, operated for the benefit of its members and not open to the general public.

An orphanage, rest home, nursing home, convalescent home, or similar use established to render domiciliary care, but not including facilities for the care of mental patients, alcoholics, drug addicts and not including nursery schools.

A building containing four (4) or more individually owned dwelling units and related, jointly owned, common areas as defined by the laws of the State of Georgia.

The providing of ingress and/or egress between property and an abutting public street.

The overall intensity of land use for the total project. When referring to residential areas, density is defined as the number of housing units permitted per acre in the respective zoning district involved in accordance with the terms of this zoning ordinance or as authorized under the development standards of this ordinance.

A detached building used and either designed or constructed for one dwelling unit.

One (1) of a series of two (2) or more single-family dwelling units built on separate lots attached to another dwelling unit on an adjoining lot by a common party wall. (See section 9-2.)

A structure or any portion thereof, including without limitation an industrialized building, a mobile home, or a manufactured home, constructed in accordance with the applicable standards of the State Minimum Standard Codes as amended from time to time for site-built homes, or constructed in accordance with the applicable standards of the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act for manufactured housing with at least one (1) door facing the front lot line, and with a minimum cross-section width of eighteen (18) feet, and with a minimum three (3) feet by three (3) feet stoop and with a minimum 3/12 roof pitch and set up and permanently attached to a foundation so as to become a part of the realty and to lose its status as personal property, or constructed in accordance with the applicable standards of the Georgia Industrialized Building Act for residential industrialized buildings.

(Ord. No. 98-1248, § 4, 10-12-98)

A building either designed, constructed, altered, or used for two (2) adjoining dwelling units that are connected by a fire rated common wall and/or if two (2) stories in height by a fire rated common floor.

A building either designed, constructed, altered, or used for three (3) adjoining dwelling units that are connected by a fire rated common wall or walls, or if more than one (1) story in height, by a fire rated floor or floors.

A building either designed, constructed, altered, or used for more than three (3) adjoining dwelling units, with each dwelling unit having a party wall or party floor connecting it to at least one (1) other dwelling unit in the building. This includes apartments, condominiums, or any other type of multifamily structure.

An enclosure of one (1) or more rooms, including kitchen and bathroom facilities, designed or constructed as a unit for residential occupancy by one (1) family.

One (1) or more persons occupying a premises and living as a single housekeeping unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, lodging house, hotel, or fraternity or sorority house.

A public marketplace, designed to serve area farmers, where provisions are sold at retail and wholesale.

The total number of square feet of floor area in a building determined by horizontal measurements between the exterior faces of walls, excluding basement areas, attic, porches, carports, and garages.

An occupation for gain or support customarily conducted on the premises by a person or family residing therein. (See section 9-1.)

Any institution receiving in-patients, or a public institution receiving out-patients, and authorized under Georgia law to render medical, surgical, and/or obstetrical care. The term "hospital" shall include a sanitarium for the treatment and care of senile psychotics or drug addicts, but shall not include office facilities for the private practice of medicine or dentistry.

Any structure or component thereof which is wholly or in substantial part made, fabricated, formed, or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation on a building site and has been manufactured in such a manner that all parts or processes cannot be inspected at the installation site without disassembly, damage to, or destruction thereof, and falls under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

(Ord. No. 98-1248, § 1, 10-12-98)

Use of property for outdoor storage, keeping, abandonment, sale, or resale of junk including scrap metal, rags, paper or other scrap materials, used lumber, salvaged house wrecking, and structural steel materials and equipment, or for the dismantling, demolition, or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles or machinery or parts thereof.

2-25.1

Storage area: Property and/or buildings used for the permanent or temporary storage of inoperable vehicles, machinery or other equipment or materials awaiting salvage, restoration, or sale, but not including exterior displays of new or used merchandise in operable condition for retail or wholesale distribution.

The housing of four (4) or more dogs.

A lot of record, held in a single ownership by one (1) person, or in common ownership by more than one (1), which has both lot area and lot dimensions equal to or greater than the lot width and lot area requirements established by this ordinance for the zoning district in which such tract of land is located and for the use proposed for the tract of land. (See section 3-21.)

A lot having frontage on two (2) or more public streets at their intersection. (See section 3-11.)

A lot which is part of a subdivision recorded in the office of the clerk of the Superior Court of Ben Hill County (or Irwin County prior to 1907), or a parcel described by metes and bounds, the description of which has been so recorded prior to the adoption of this ordinance.

A lot other than a corner lot, having frontage on more than one (1) street; or a corner lot having frontage on three (3) or more streets.

The distance between the side lot lines, measured along the front yard setback line as established by this ordinance, or if no setback line is established, the horizontal distance between the side lot lines measured along the street right-of-way line.

A structure, transportable in one (1) or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight (8) body feet or more in width or forty (40) body feet or more in length, or, when erected on-site, contains three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling for residential use only, with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein; and any other structure defined by and constructed in accordance with the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 5401 et seq.). Such term also shall include any structure which meets all the requirements of this paragraph except the size requirements with respect to which the manufacturer voluntarily files a certification required by the Secretary of the federal Department of Transportation and complies with the standards established under Title 42 of the United States Code.

(Ord. No. 98-1248, § 2, 10-12-98)

A structure, transportable in one (1) or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is eight (8) body feet or more in width or forty (40) body feet or more in length, or, when erected on-site, is three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling for residential use only, with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities, and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein. The term does not include a structure that meets the definition of a manufactured home.

(Ord. No. 98-1248, § 2, 10-12-98)

An agency, organization, or individual providing daytime care of six (6) or more children not related by blood or marriage or not the legal wards or foster children of the attendant adult.

That required portion of a lot at ground level, unoccupied by enclosed buildings and available to all occupants of the project. This space shall not be devoted to driveways or off-street parking but shall be usable for green space, recreational use and other leisure activities normally carried on outdoors.

A building or group of buildings, a facility or place in which is provided two (2) or more beds and other facilities and services, including room, meals and personal care for nonfamily ambulatory adults for compensation.

2-34.1

Family personal care home means a home for adults in a family-type residence, noninstitutional in character, which offers care to two (2) through six (6) persons.

2-34.2

Group personal care home means a home for adult persons in a residence or other type building(s), noninstitutional in character, which offers care to seven (7) through fifteen (15) persons.

2-34.3

Congregate personal care home means a home for adults which offers care to sixteen (16) or more persons.

As utilized in this ordinance, the planning commission shall mean the Fitzgerald/Ben Hill County Planning Commission as duly appointed by the Fitzgerald Mayor and Council and the Ben Hill County Board of Commissioners.

The building containing or to contain the principal use of a lot.

The principal purpose for which a lot or the main building thereon is designed, arranged, or intended, and for which it is or may be used, occupied, or maintained.

Right-of-way dedicated to the city or owned by the city for public street purposes.

The shortest distance between the centerline of a street and the principal building or structure on a lot.

Two (2) or more commercial establishments planned and managed as a single unit with off-street parking and loading facilities provided on the property.

Any surface, fabric, or device bearing lettered, pictorial, or sculptured matter designed to convey information visually and exposed to public view; or any structure (including billboard or poster panel) designed to carry the above visual information.

2-41.1

Advertising separate use sign: A sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service, or entertainment conducted, sold, or offered only elsewhere than upon the premises where the sign is displayed.

2-41.2

Advertising incidental use sign: A sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service or entertainment conducted, sold, or offered as a minor and incidental activity upon the premises where the sign is displayed.

2-41.3

Bulletin board: A sign used to announce meetings or programs to be held on the premises of a church, community recreation center, school, auditorium, library, museum, or similar noncommercial places of public assembly.

2-41.4

Identification sign: A sign used to identify only the name of the individual, family, organization, or enterprise occupying the premises.

2-41.5

Point of business sign: A sign which directs attention to a business, profession, or industry located upon the premises where the sign is displayed, to type of products sold, manufactured, or assembled, and/or to service or entertainment offered on said premises, but not a sign pertaining to the preceding if such activity is only minor and incidental to the principal use of the premises.

2-41.6

Portable display sign: Any sign not permanently affixed to the ground or any sign which is mounted or designed to be mounted on a portable wooden or metal trailer-type frame or any other such sign intended by either the sign owner or property owner to be a temporary sign.

A special exception is a use which within certain districts specified by this ordinance is not permitted as a matter of right but may be permitted within these districts by the board of appeals after said board has: (1) reviewed the proposed site plans for the use, its location within the city, its arrangement and design, its relationship to neighboring property and other conditions peculiar to the particular proposal which would determine its desirability or undesirability; (2) has found the proposal not to be contrary to the intent of this ordinance; and (3) has approved the use as specified. (See sections 5 and 12-6.2.)

Anything constructed or erected with a fixed location on or in the ground, or attached to something having a fixed location on the ground. Among other things, structures include buildings, mobile homes, signs, swimming pools, and fall-out shelters but does not include walls or fences.

A single-family home having square footage of no more than six hundred (600) square feet which shall be permanently affixed to the real property upon which the same is located. Said structure shall be stick-built and shall not be originally fabricated for use as a shed, utility building, or like accessory building.

(Ord. No. 23-1609, § 1, 10-9-23)

A dwelling in which sleeping accommodations are provided for transient visitors for compensation.

A vehicular portable structure designed as a temporary dwelling for travel, recreation, and vacation uses, which is identified on the unit by the manufacturer as a "camper" or "travel" trailer.

A variance is a relaxation of the terms of the zoning ordinance that will not be contrary to the public interest and where, owing to conditions peculiar to the property and not the result of the intentional actions of the applicant, a literal enforcement of the ordinance would result in unnecessary and undue hardship. (See section 12-6.3.)

That area of a lot lying between the abutting street right-of-way line and the principal building of the lot and extending across the front of a lot from side lot line to side lot line. (See illustration [at the end of this section 2.])

That area of a lot extending across the rear of a lot from side lot line to side lot line and lying between the rear lot line and the principal building on the lot. (See illustration [at the end of this section 2.])

That area of a lot between the side lot line and the principal building on the lot extending from the front yard to the rear yard. (See illustration [below])

Front, Rear, and Side Yards on a Lot