Georgetown City Zoning Code

DEFINITIONS: For the purposes of this ordinance, certain words, and terms are herewith defined. Words in the present tense include the future; words in the singular number include the plural and plural the singular:

1. Agriculture: the tilling of the soil, the raising of crops, gardening, livestock farming, and dairying, but not including any agricultural industry or business such as packing plants, fur farms, commercial feed yards, animal hospitals or similar uses.

2. Alley: a passage or way open to public travel, affording generally a secondary means of vehicular access to abutting lots, not intended for general traffic circulation and not less than twenty-six (26) feet in width.

3. Apartment: A room, or suite of two or more rooms, which is designed for, intended for or occupied by one family doing its cooking therein.

4. Apartment House: A building or portion thereof used or intended to be used as the home of three or more families or householders living independently of each other.

5. Automobile Court: A group of two or more detached or semi-detached buildings containing guest rooms or apartments with automobile storage space serving such rooms or apartments provided in connection therewith, which group is designed, intended or used primarily for the accommodation of automobile travelers; including groups designated as auto cabins, motor lodges, motels and by similar designations.

6. Automobile Wrecking: see Junk Yard

7. Boarding House: A building, other than a hotel or restaurant, where meals for five (5) or more regular patrons are served for compensation.

8. Building: Any structure having a roof supported by columns or by walls and intended for the shelter, housing or enclosure of any person, animal or chattel. When any portion thereof is completely separated from every other portion thereof by a masonry division or fire-wall without any window, door or other opening therein, which wall extends from the ground to the upper surface of the roof at every point, then each such portion shall be deemed to be a separate building.

9. Building Accessory: A subordinate building, the sure of which is incidental to that of a main building on the same lot.

10. Building, Height of: The vertical distance from the grade to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, or to the mean height level between ridge and eaves of hip or gambrel roof.

11. Business: The word “business” or the word “commerce” means the engaging in the purchase, sale, barter, or exchange of goods, wares or merchandise; the maintenance or operation of offices or recreational or amusement enterprises.

12. Court: An open, unoccupied space, other than a yard, on the same lot with a building or group of buildings and which is bounded on two or more sides by such building or buildings.

13. Dwelling: Any building, or portion thereof, which is used for residential purposes, except hotels, boarding houses, lodging houses or motels.

14. Dwelling, one-family: A detached building designed for, or occupied exclusively by, one family.

15. Dwelling, two-family: A detached building designed for or occupied exclusively by two families living independently of each other.

16. Dwelling, multiple: A building or portion thereof used or designed as a residence for three or more families living independently of each other and doing their own cooking in said building including apartment houses, and flats, but not including auto courts.

17. Dwelling, group: A group of two or more detached or semi-detached one-family, two family, or multiple dwellings occupying a parcel of land in one ownership and having any yard or court in common, but not including auto courts.

18. Established Grade: A curb line grade at the front lot line as established by the village board.

19. Family: One or more persons occupying a premises and living as a single, non-profit housekeeping unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a hotel, club, or boarding house.

20. Frontage: The butting of any property or portion thereof upon land dedicated to the public use, railroad and similar rights-of-ways or meandered water courses.

21. Garage, private: an accessory building only for the storage of self-propelled vehicles when t he storage space does not exceed that necessary for:

A. In any R-1 district, three vehicles for each lot

B. In an R-2 district, three vehicles for each lot or one vehicle for each family housed on the lot.

22. Garage, public: any premises, except those herein defined as a private or storage garage, used for the storage or care of self-propelled vehicles or where any such vehicles are equipped for operation or repair or kept for remuneration, hire or sale.

23. Garage, storage: Any premises, except those herein defined as a private garage, used exclusively for the storage of self-propelled vehicles.

24. Guest room: a room which is intended arranged or designed to be occupied or which is occupied by one or more guests, but in which no provision is made for cooking, and not including dormitories for sleeping purposes.

25. Home occupation: any use customarily conducted entirely within a dwelling and carried on by the inhabitants thereof, which use is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling for dwelling purpose and does not change the character thereof. Clinics, hospitals, barber shops, beauty parlors, tea rooms, tourists homes and animal hospitals shall not be deemed to be home occupations.

26. Hospitals: unless otherwise specified, the terms “hospital”, “sanitarium”, sanatorium, preventorium, clinic, rest homes, and other care of ailments shall be deemed to be limited to places for the treatment or other care of human ailments.

27. Hotel: any building or portion thereof containing six (6) or more guest rooms which is used, designed or intended to be used as the more or less temporary abiding place of individuals who are lodged with or without meals and no provision is made for cooking in an individual room or apartment.

28. House, lodging: a building or portion thereof containing less than six (6) guest rooms which is used, designed or intended to be used to furnish lodging to persons for compensation.

29. Junk Yard: any area used for the storage, keeping or abandonment of junk, including scarp metals or other scrap material, or for the dismantling demolition or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles or machinery or parts thereof. Provided, however, that this definition shall be not deemed it include any agricultural use in an R district, not to include a temporary piling of waste material in an area of less than two hundred (200) square feet in the rear part of an interior lot or the inside rear part of a corner lot in any district.

30. Lot: land occupied or to be occupied by a building and its accessory buildings, or by a dwelling group and its accessory buildings, together with such open spaces as are required under the provisions of this ordinance, having not less than the minimum area required by this ordinance for a lot in the district in which such lot is situated, and having its principal frontage on a street.

31. Lot, corner: a lot of which at least two adjacent sides abut for their full length upon a street.

32. Lot, interior: a lot other than a corner lot.

33. Non-conforming use: Use of a building or of land that does not conform to the regulations for the district in which it is situated.

34. Sign: As used in the regulations contained in this ordinance, the term “sign” shall mean any outdoor advertising sign or outdoor advertising structure.

35. Set-Back: the minimum horizontal distance between the street line and the front line of the building or any projection thereof.

36. Story: that portion of a building included between he surface of any floor and the surface of the next floor above it, or if there is no floor above it, then the space between eh floor and the ceiling next above it. A mezzanine floor shall be counted as a story if it covers over one-third (1/3) of the area of the floor next below it, or if the vertical distance from the floor next below it to the floor next above it is twenty-four (24) feet or more.

37. Story-Half: a story with a least two opposite exterior sides meeting a sloping roof and does not exceed two-thirds (2/3) of the floor area of the story immediately below it.

38. Street: a public or private thoroughfare which afford the principal means of access to abutting property, including avenue, place, way, drive, lane, boulevard, highway,. Road and any other thorough fare except an alley.

39. Structural Alterations: any change in the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams and girders.

40. Trailer: a vehicle with or without motive power, used for human habitation.

41. Trailer Court: Any area or tract of land used or designed to accommodate two (2) or more trailers.

42. Use, accessory: a use incidental and accessory to the principal use of a lot or a building located on the same lot as an accessory use.

43. Yard: an open space on a lot, other than a court, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward.

44. Yard, front: a yard extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the front line of the lot and the nearest line of the building.

45. Yard, side: a yard between the side line of the lot and the nearest line of the building and extending from the front yard to the rear yard, or in the absence of either of such yard to the front or rear lot line, as may be.

46. Yard, rear: a yard extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the rear line of the lot and the nearest line of the building.