Florence Township City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XXXIII
NC Neighborhood Commercial District
§ 91-226 Purpose.
The purpose of the Neighborhood Commercial District is to allow for small areas throughout the Township where retail and service businesses may be located primarily for the convenience of the residents of the immediate neighborhood. Each designated zone is large enough to permit expansion of these convenience centers in anticipation of continued population growth and increased demand for the goods and services. It is intended that development in these areas be designed to enhance and improve the centers by ensuring that an adequate traffic circulation plan evolves so that each building does not have its own access point(s) to the highway(s), that the building appearances and signs are compatible and that parking facilities are interrelated and capable of common usage where advisable.
§ 91-227 Permitted principal uses.
Permitted principal uses on the land and in the buildings shall be as follows:
A.
All uses permitted in the RA District, subject to all bulk requirements as found for said district.
B.
Local retail activities, including grocery stores, meat markets, seafood markets, supermarkets, delicatessens, bakeries, drugstores, furniture stores, sporting goods shops, gift shops, hobby shops, bookstores, clothing stores, shoe stores, hardware stores, packaged liquor stores, pet shops, stationery stores, fabric stores and florists.
C.
Local service activities, including barber- and beauty shops, tailors, dry-cleaning and laundering operations, appliance repair shops and upholsterers.
D.
Restaurants, bars and package stores.
E.
Banks, including drive-in facilities.
F.
Professional offices.
G.
Service stations as conditional uses.
H.
Dwelling quarters in the same building as the commercial use, which quarters must contain not less than 850 square feet of living space.
§ 91-228 Permitted accessory uses.
Permitted accessory uses in the NC District shall be as follows:
A.
Off-street parking.
B.
Fences and walls.
C.
Garages to house delivery trucks or other commercial vehicles.
D.
Temporary construction trailers and one sign not exceeding 50 square feet advertising the prime contractor, subcontractor(s), architect, financing institution and similar data for the period of construction, beginning with the issuance of a building permit or one year, whichever is less, provided that said trailer and sign are on the site where construction is taking place and set back at least 15 feet from the street to the lot lines.
§ 91-229 Maximum building height, commercial use.
No building shall exceed 25 feet in height or two stories.
§ 91-230 Area and bulk requirements, commercial use.
A.
Principal building. Minimum requirements shall be as follows:
(1)
Lot area: 20,000 square feet.
(2)
Lot frontage: 125 feet.
(3)
Lot width: 125 feet.
(4)
Lot depth: 150 feet.
(5)
Front yard: 60 feet.
(6)
Rear yard: 25 feet.
(7)
Side yard.
(a)
In order to encourage an end product which provides parking, access and architectural continuity even where development occurs piecemeal and with diverse ownership, buildings may be attached and may be built to the interior side line(s) in order to be attached.
(b)
Attached buildings may include two walls, which must be keyed to each other. Where buildings are built to both side lot lines, the site plan shall be accompanied by appropriate legal documents and plans showing properly located loading spaces and trash receptacles, with permitted access across adjacent properties. If structures are not attached, the side yard(s) shall be 20 feet each.
§ 91-231 Minimum floor area.
Each building shall have a minimum gross floor area of 400 square feet, with a width of each store no less than 20 feet.
§ 91-232 General requirements for commercial uses.
A.
One building may contain more than one use, provided that the total building coverage of the combined uses does not exceed the maximum building coverage specified for this district, and further that each use occupies a minimum gross floor area of 400 square feet.
B.
At least the first 20 feet adjacent to any street line shall not be used for parking and shall be planted and maintained in the lawn area or ground cover or landscaped with evergreen shrubbery and separated from the parking area by poured concrete, Belgian block curbing or concrete bumper blocks.
C.
No merchandise, products, waste, equipment or similar material or objects shall be displayed or stored outside.
D.
All buildings shall be compatibly designed, whether constructed all at one time or in stages over a period of time. All building walls facing any street or residential district line shall be suitably finished for aesthetic purposes, which shall not include unpainted or painted cinder block or concrete block walls.
E.
All areas not utilized for buildings, parking, loading, access aisles and driveways or pedestrian walkways shall be suitably landscaped with shrubs, ground cover, seedlings or similar plantings and maintained in good condition.
F.
A minimum buffer area of 25 feet in width shall be provided along any common property line with a residential district or residential use.
§ 91-233 Off-street parking.
A.
Minimum off-street parking shall be provided as follows:
(1)
Grocery stores, meat markets, seafood markets, supermarkets, delicatessens and bakeries: 5.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof.
(2)
Drugstores, furniture stores, sporting goods shops, gift shops, hobby shops, bookstores, clothing stores, shoe stores, hardware stores, package liquor stores, pet shops, stationery stores, fabric stores, florists, tailors, dry-cleaning and laundering operations, appliance repair shops, shoe repair shops and upholsterers: five spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof.
(3)
Barber- and beauty shops: two spaces per chair, with a minimum of three spaces.
(4)
Restaurants, bars and taverns: one space for every two seats.
(5)
Banks and professional offices: six spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof.
(6)
Service stations shall provide at least six spaces for the first lift, wheel alignment pit or similar work area, five additional spaces for a second work area and an additional three spaces for each additional work area. Such spaces shall be separated from the driveway and general apron areas which give access to the gasoline and air pumps and service areas. No designated parking space shall obstruct access to such facilities.
B.
Parking areas for individual uses shall be designed to be interconnected with adjacent properties and shall utilize access points to the street.
C.
Where more than one use occupies one building or where there is an attached group of buildings, the total parking spaces shall be an accumulation of the various standards appropriate to the uses noted above, except that where more than five separate uses are grouped into one area using common parking facilities and controlled access points to the parking area(s), the total parking need may be computed on the basis of providing at least 5.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof to serve the total complex.
§ 91-234 Off-street loading.
Minimum off-street loading shall be provided as follows:
A.
Each activity shall provide for off-street loading and unloading with adequate ingress and egress from streets and shall provide such area(s) at the side or rear of the building. Each space shall be at least 15 feet by 30 feet, and one space shall be provided for every 4,000 square feet of gross floor area or fraction thereof in each building. There shall be no loading or unloading from the street.
B.
There shall be at least one trash and garbage pickup location provided by each building, which shall be separated from the parking spaces by either a location within the building or in a pickup location outside of the building, which shall be a steel-like, totally enclosed container located in a manner to be obscured from view from parking areas, streets and adjacent residential uses or zoning districts by a fence, wall, planting or combination of the three. If located within the building, the doorway may serve both the loading and trash/garbage functions, and if located outside of the building, it may be located adjacent to or within the general loading area(s), provided that the container in no way interferes with or restricts loading and unloading functions.
C.
All off-street loading areas shall be lighted.
§ 91-235 Signs.
A.
Local retail service activities, banks and professional offices may have one lighted or unlighted sign displaying the name of the use, attached flat against the front of the building and not exceeding an area equivalent to 5% of the front of the building or 50 square feet, whichever is smaller. Where the building(s) is(are) designed for rear or side entrances, one unlighted sign may be attached flat against the building at the rear and side entrances, such sign not to exceed an area equivalent to one-half ( 1/2) that of the sign on the front of the building.
B.
A shopping center consisting of more than five separate uses grouped together may have one lighted freestanding, but nonmoving, sign along each arterial or collector road which the tract in question abuts, provided that there exists at least 200 feet of unbroken frontage. Such sign shall not exceed 20 feet in height, shall be set back from any property line a minimum of 50 feet and shall not exceed an area of 100 square feet.
(1)
Where uses share a common walkway, each use served by the walkway may have one additional sign identifying the use, suspended in perpendicular fashion from the roof over the walkway. Suspended signs shall be no closer than eight feet at their lowest point to the finished grade level below them. No such signs shall exceed eight square feet in area.
(2)
All signs in a shopping center shall conform in character with all other signs in the complex and shall blend with the overall architectural scheme of the shopping center.
C.
Service stations may be permitted one freestanding sign, lighted but nonmoving, and one sign attached flat against the building. The freestanding sign shall not exceed the building height, shall be set back at least one foot from the street right-of-way and shall not exceed 30 square feet in area. The attached sign shall not exceed 20 square feet in area nor exceed the height of the roofline.