In this Ordinance the following terms, unless a contrary meaning is required by the content or is specifically prescribed, shall have the following meanings. Words used in the present tense include the future, and the plural includes the singular; the word "lot" includes the word "plot"; the word "building" includes the word "structure"; the word "shall" is intended to be mandatory; "occupied" or "used" shall be considered as though followed by the words "or intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied." The word "person" includes a corporation as well as an individual.

Accessory Building or Use: A building or use customarily incidental to and located on the same lot with the principal building or use, except that if more than 30% of the floor area or 50% of the lot area is occupied by such use, it shall no longer be considered accessory.

Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU): A separate dwelling unit with provisions for living, eating, cooking, sleeping, and sanitation located inside a Detached Single-Family Dwelling (an "Attached ADU") or in a detached building located on the same lot as a Detached Single-Family Dwelling (a "detached ADU"), as an accessory and subordinate use to the principal dwelling and held in the same ownership as the principal dwelling.

Animal Feedlot: A plot of land on which 25 livestock or more per acre are kept for the purposes of feeding.

Animal Kennel or Hospital: A structure used for the harboring and/or care of more than three dogs that are more than six months old, whether commercially operated or not.

Arterial Street: All state-numbered highways (Routes 127, 127A, 128, 133), Atlantic Road north of Moorland Road, Bass Avenue west of Thatcher Road, East Main Street, Eastern Point Road, Rogers Street, and Sayward Street, plus any streets subsequently laid out with right-of-way width of eighty (80) feet or more.

Aquifer: A confined geologic formation composed of rock or unconsolidated material, from which significant quantities of potable water may be obtained.

Assisted Living: See Section 5.14

Automatic Amusement Devices: Devices as defined at and in compliance with Code of Ordinances, Part II, Chapter 3, Article III, as said article may be amended from time to time.

Bedroom: Any inhabitable room in a dwelling, other than a living room, dining room, kitchen, utility room, or bath if such room exceeds seventy (70) square feet.

Billboard: A structure or part of a structure, of any size, either free-standing or affixed to a building, the surface of which is for hire for advertising purposes.

Boarding, Lodging, or Rooming House: A building which contains rooms offered for lodging and in which meals also may be served to lodgers only, provided that the house is licensed by the Licensing Board and appropriate agencies, and the total number of lodgers in any boarding house may not exceed twenty (20) persons.

Building: A structure enclosed within exterior walls or firewalls, built, erected and framed of a combination of any materials, whether portable or fixed, having a roof, to form a structure for the shelter of persons, animals or property.

Building Height: See Section 3.1.8.

Bulk Storage (Outdoor): Exposed outdoor storage of sand, lumber, coal, or other bulk materials, bulk storage of liquids in tanks, excluding underground tanks that are accessory to a principal use.

Camper: A portable dwelling, eligible to be registered and insured for highway use, designed to be used for travel, recreational and vacation uses, but not for permanent residence. Includes equipment commonly called travel trailers, pick-up coaches or campers, motorized campers, and tent trailers, but not mobile homes.

Camp Ground: Premises used for travel trailers, campers, tenting, or for temporary overnight facilities of any kind where a fee is charged.

Camping, Supervised: Facilities operated on a seasonal basis for a continuing supervised recreational, health, educational, religious, and/or athletic program, with persons enrolled for periods of not less than one week.

Casino Ship: "Casino Ship" includes all boats landing or mooring in Gloucester where its customers do not lodge on board overnight, where it has only one port of docking and destination and where gaming is its main activity.

Club or Lodge: Premises or buildings of a non-profit organization exclusively servicing members and their guests for recreational, athletic, or civic purposes, but not including any vending stands, merchandising, or commercial activities except as required generally for the membership and purposes of such club. Does not include golf clubs as elsewhere defined, or clubs or organizations whose chief activity is a service customarily carried out as a business.

Collector Street: Any street, other than an arterial street, which serves non-residential property fronting thereon, or subsequently laid out having a right-of-way of at least sixty (60) feet wide, plus the following named streets: Atlantic Road, south of Moorland; Atlantic Street south of Massachusetts Avenue; Concord Street south of Bray Street; Farrington Avenue; Haskell Street; Hesperus Avenue east of Norman Avenue; Magnolia Avenue; Maplewood Avenue; Moorland Road; Mt. Pleasant Avenue; Norman Avenue; Pleasant Street; Poplar Street; Prospect Street; Railroad Avenue; Reynard Street; and Wheeler Street south of Shore Hills Rd.

Condominiums: Land and building or buildings thereon, containing office or dwelling units and common areas and facilities which are regulated and managed by an organization of unit owners, under a master deed according to the provisions of Ch. 183A., M.G.L.

Consumer Service Use: An establishment in which the principal activity is the performance of a service. Consumer service establishments include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following: appliance repair, barber shop, beauty salon, catering, locksmith, photographer's studio, printing establishment, radio/TV repair, shoe repair, sign painting, tailor, watch and jewelry repair.

Contractor's Yard: Premises used by a building contractor or subcontractor for storage of equipment and supplies, fabrication of sub-assemblies, and parking of wheeled equipment.

Corner Lot: See Section 3.1.8.

Cruise Ship: "Cruise ship" includes all boats landing or mooring in Gloucester Harbor whose main purpose is to travel to more than one port, where all its passengers lodge on board overnight and where gaming is incidental to the main purpose of visiting more than one port on each voyage.

Discharge: The disposal, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, incineration, or placing of any hazardous material into or on any land or water so that such hazardous material or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters.

Drive-Through Facility: A commercial facility which provides a service directly to a motor vehicle or where the customer drives a motor vehicle onto the premise and to a window or mechanical device through or by which the customer is serviced without exiting the vehicle, although this shall not include the selling of fuel at a gasoline filling station or the accessory functions of a car wash facility such as a vacuum cleaning stations. See Section 5.17, Drive-Through Facilities, for permitting requirements.

Dwelling: A building or part of a building used exclusively as the living quarters for one or more families.

Dwelling Unit: Living quarters for a single family with cooking, living, sanitary, and sleeping facilities for each unit.

Dwelling, Multi-Family or Apartment: A structure containing three (3) or more dwelling units, whether for rental, condominium ownership, or other form of tenancy, including row or town house structures; or a structure containing one or more permitted non-residential uses on the ground floor or on the ground and other floors, and also containing more than one dwelling unit above the ground floor.

Dwelling, Single-Family Detached: A building containing a single dwelling unit, and having no common or party walls.

Dwelling, Two-Family: A building containing two (2) dwelling units that are in immediate proximity to each other and share either a common vertical exterior wall or a floor/ceiling separation. The length of any connecting corridor, hallway or passageway may not exceed three (3) times the width of corridor, hallway or passageway.

Family: One or more persons, including domestic employees, occupying a dwelling unit and living as a single, non-profit housekeeping unit; provided that a group of six (6) or more persons who are not within the second degree kinship to each other, as defined by civil law, shall not be deemed to constitute a family.

Fast Food Restaurant: Any restaurant serving the majority of its food in disposable containers, packages, or other similar wrapping, for consumption on or off the premises.

Fish: Means fin fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and all other forms of marine animals and plant life, except marine mammals and birds.

Fishing Vessel: Means a vessel that commercially engages in the catching, taking or harvesting of fish or an activity that can be reasonably expected to result in the catching, taking or harvesting of fish (as defined in the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Act, P.L. 98-364, 46 U.S.C. Sec. 2101-2114 as amended).

Floor Area: The sum of the gross horizontal area of the several floors of a building and its accessory buildings on the same lot, including the area of basements not more than fifty (50) percent below grade, roofed porches and roofed terraces, excluding areas with less than six (6) feet floor to ceiling height. All dimensions shall be measured between exterior faces of walls.

Gross Floor Area: The sum of the areas of the several floors of a building, including areas used for human occupancy in basements, attics, and penthouses, as measured from the exterior faces of the walls. It does not include cellars, unenclosed porches, or attics not used for human occupancy, or any floor space in accessory buildings or in the main building intended and designed for the parking of motor vehicles in order to meet the parking requirements of this Ordinance. It shall include the horizontal area at each floor level devoted to stairwells and elevator shafts.

Groundwater: Water located beneath the earth's surface in the zone of saturation of unconsolidated or consolidated aquifers.

Guest Unit: A bedroom or suite of rooms, including a bedroom, in a hotel, motel, motor inn, lodging house, guest house, Bed and Breakfast Home or Establishment, to be rented as separate units to transient guests.

Hazardous waste: A product or waste or combination of substances which because of quantity, concentration, or physical, or chemical, or infectious characteristics poses, in the Board of Health's judgment, a substantial present or potential hazard to the human health, safety, or welfare, or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, used or disposed of, or otherwise managed. Any substance deemed a hazardous waste in G.L., Ch. 21C, shall also be deemed a hazardous material for the purpose of this ordinance.

Hostel: An overnight lodging facility licensed by a recognized national or international hostelling organization, offering temporary lodging and services related to hostelling to members of such organizations and other travelers. Lodging shall not be provided to any individual for more than 14 days in any six month period, or for more than seven consecutive days.

Hotel, Motel, Motor Inn: A structure or structures providing sleeping rooms for residence of transient guests, and where public eating facilities are provided; but not including buildings of charitable, educational or philanthropic institutions.

Impervious Surface: Material on the ground that does not allow surface water to penetrate into the soil.

Junk: Any article or material or collection thereof which is worn out, cast off, or discarded and which is ready for destruction or has been collected or stored for salvage or conversion. Any article or material which, unaltered or unchanged and without further reconditioning can be used for its original purpose as readily as when new, shall not be considered junk.

Junk Yard: A site or facility used for the collection, storage, salvage, disposal, dismantling, processing, recycling, sale, or resale of waste materials including paper, rags, cloth, metal, glass, batteries, rubber, parts from old or damaged motor vehicles and equipment, and other discarded goods and materials. These materials are generally but not necessarily, stored in the open air or under a roofed structure rather than within a fully enclosed building.

Leachable Waste: Waste materials, including solid wastes, sewage, sludge, and agriculture wastes, that are capable of releasing water-borne contaminants to the surrounding environment.

Lot: See Section 3.1.8.

Lot Area: See Section 3.1.8.

Lot Coverage: See Section 3.1.8.

Lot Frontage: See Section 3.1.8.

Lot Width: See Section 3.1.8.

Marine-Related: An activity involving, pertaining to or requiring the loading, unloading, storage, processing or sale of fish or other water-borne goods or materials, or the embarking or disembarking of passengers, or the docking, construction, repair, servicing or maintenance of vessels.

Medical Marijuana Cultivation Facility: When separated from a Medical Marijuana Treatment Center, a facility for the cultivation and harvesting of medical marijuana that meets the requirements set forth in 105 CMR 725.105(B)(1)(a—f)

Medical Marijuana Treatment Center: Any medical marijuana treatment center, as defined under state law as a Massachusetts not for profit entity that acquires, cultivates, possesses, processes (including development of related products such as food, tinctures, aerosols, oils or ointments), transfers, transports, sells, distributes, dispenses, or administers marijuana, products containing marijuana, related supplies; or educational materials to qualifying patients or their personal caregivers, which is properly licensed and registered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health pursuant to all applicable state laws and regulations.

Mining of Land: The removal or relocation of earth materials, including but not limited to, topsoil, sand and gravel, metallic ores, or bedrock.

Mobile Home: A movable or portable dwelling unit built on a chassis, designed for connection to utilities when in use, and designed without necessity of a permanent foundation for year-round living. A manufactured home designed for installation on a permanent foundation and for permanent connection to utilities without any provision for attachment of wheels shall not be considered a mobile home, whether or not built on a chassis, provided such manufactured home has a brick, wood, or similar exterior, and a pitched roof; and meets U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development construction and safety standards.

Mobile Home Park: Premises which have been planned and improved for the placement of mobile homes for nontransient use.

Mural: A decorative display applied directly to a wall surface without supplementary backing, framing or other means of support.

Nonconforming Building or Lot: A building or lot that does not conform to a dimensional regulation prescribed by this Ordinance for the district in which it is located or to regulations for signs, off-street parking, off-street loading, or accessory buildings but which building or lot was in existence at the time the regulation became effective and was lawful at the time it was established.

Nonconforming Use: A use of a building or lot that does not conform to a use regulation prescribed by this Ordinance for the district in which it is located, but which was in existence at the time the use regulation became effective and was lawful at the time it was established.

Nursery School or Day Care Center: Any facility operated on a regular basis, whether known as a day nursery, nursery school, kindergarten, child play school, progressive school, child development center, pre-school, or known under any other name which receives children, not of common parentage, under seven years of age, or under sixteen years of age if such children have special needs, for non-residential custody and care during part of all of the day separate from their school system; any part of a private organized educational system, unless the services of such a system are primarily limited to kindergarten, nursery or related pre-school services; a Sunday school conducted by a religious institution; a facility operated by a religious organization where children are cared for during short periods of time while persons responsible for such children are attending religious services; a family day care home; an informal cooperative arrangement among neighbors or relatives; or the occasional care of children with or without compensation therefor.

Nursing, Convalescent or Rest Home, Hospital: An institution licensed by the Department of Public Health as a nursing, convalescent or rest home, charitable home for the aged, hospital or sanitarium pursuant to Sections 51 and 71 of Chapter III, General Laws.

Open Space: Lot area not covered by any structure other than a swimming pool, and not used for driveways, parking or storage. However, balconies and any roof area developed for recreation shall be deemed to be open space.

Parking Space: Space adequate to park an automobile, plus means of access. All parking spaces required by this Ordinance shall be built to the standards set forth in Section 4.1.4. Where spaces are not marked, each space shall be assumed to require 350 square feet.

Personal Wireless Service Facility: See Section 5.13

Philanthropic Institution: An endowed or charitably supported non-profit religious or non-sectarian activity maintained for a public or semi-public use.

Principal Building or Use: Building or use other than an accessory one.

Public Utility: Electrical, gas, steam, water, communication or public passenger transportation systems and their appurtenances. Excluded from this definition are all personal wireless service facilities.

Radio Transmission: Premises used for the commercial transmission of radio or television, not including studios.

Recharge Area: Area of permeable earth materials which is hydrologically connected to aquifers through which precipitation or surface water is transmitted to the subsurface zone of saturation.

Recreational Marijuana Establishment: A marijuana cultivator, marijuana testing facility, marijuana product manufacturer, marijuana retailer, or any other type of licensed marijuana-related business, subject to regulation under Chapter 94G of the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL c. 94G); provided, however, that a Registered Marijuana Dispensary shall not be deemed to be a Recreational Marijuana Establishment.

Recreational Vessel: Means a vessel that is:

(a)

Being manufactured or operated primarily for pleasure; or

(b)

Leased, rented or chartered to another for the latter's pleasure.

Retail Use: A business establishment where the principal activity is the sale of goods directly to the consumer. Retail business uses include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following: antique store, appliance store, book/newspaper store, clothing store, computer store, department store, drug store, dry goods store, furniture store, grocery store, jewelry store, liquor store, musical instruments, stereo/video store, variety store.

Self-Storage Service Facility: A building or group of buildings consisting of individual, self-contained units leased to individuals, organizations, or businesses for self-service storage of personal property and other non-hazardous durable goods, excluding vehicles. The use of units for other than dead storage is prohibited.

Shopping Center: A retail business, entertainment, or consumer service establishment or an aggregation of such establishments on the same premises, having a minimum of 10,000 square feet of gross floor area.

Sign: Any device, including those on or inside of windows, designed to inform or attract the attention of persons not on the premises on which the sign is located, except for those devices specifically not considered signs in Section 4.3.1.

Sign, Accessory: A sign whose subject matter relates exclusively to the premises on which it is located, or to products, accommodations, services or activities on the premises.

Sign Area: The area of the smallest horizontally or vertically oriented rectangle which could enclose all the display area of the sign, together with any backing different in color or material from the finish material of the building face, without deduction for open space or other irregularities. Structural members not bearing advertising matter shall not be included unless internally or decoratively lighted. Only one side of flat, back-to-back signs shall be included in calculating sign area.

Sign, Free-Standing: A sign erected or affixed to the land, and not attached to a building.

Sign, Non-Accessory: Any billboard, or sign not an accessory sign.

Solid Waste: Useless, unwanted, or discarded solid material with insufficient liquid content to be free flowing. This includes but is not limited to rubbish, garbage, scrap materials, junk, refuse, inert fill material and landscape refuse.

State Highway: A highway owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or one designated as a State Numbered Highway by the Massachusetts Department of Public Works.

Street: Any public or private way which, by lawful procedure, has been recognized by the City and which has, as determined by the Planning Board, sufficient width, suitable grades and sight distances, adequate clearances, and adequate construction to provide for the needs of vehicular traffic in relation to the proposed use of the land deriving frontage therefrom, and for the installation of municipal services to serve such land and the buildings erected or to be erected on such land.

Street Line: The right-of-way line of a street, assumed to be twenty (20) feet from the center of the traveled roadway where no such right-of-way line has been established or can be readily determined.

Structure: Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a fixed location on the ground, or attachment to something located on the ground. Structures include buildings, mobile homes, billboards, fences that exceed six (6) feet in height, swimming pools, tanks, or the like, or part thereof; boundary walls and fences not exceeding six feet in height are not considered to be structures.

Swimming Pool: Any constructed pool, located above or below the ground, whether portable or fixed, used or capable of being used for swimming, wading, or bathing purposes. Pools having depth of two feet or more and having a capacity of two hundred cubic feet or more in volume shall be considered structures.

Temporary Structure: Tent, construction shanty, or trailers, or similarly portable or demountable structures, intended for continuous use for not longer than one year.

Temporary Use: Use, occupation or occupancy of a parcel of land, building or structure for a period not to exceed one calendar year.

Trailer Truck Park: A transportation terminal principally used for the parking, storage, and servicing of trailer trucks or other trucks of more than two-ton capacity, may include eating and sleeping facilities for truck drivers.

Transportation Terminal: Premises principally used for the loading or unloading of cargo from or into vehicles or storage, which may include the parking, storage or servicing of such vehicles, including trucks, rail freight cars, and marine vessels; but not including such activities if customarily accessory to a principal use.

Utility Trailer: A towed vehicle for transportation of goods or animals, but not intended for human occupancy.

Water's Edge: The point where land, seawall or bulkhead meets the mean high tide line, or if a pier or dock extends beyond the mean high tide line, the edge of that pier or dock next to the water.

Watershed: Lands lying adjacent to water courses and surface water bodies which create the catchment or drainage areas of such water courses and bodies.

Yard: See Section 3.1.8.

Yard, Front: See Section 3.1.8.

Yard, Rear: See Section 3.1.8.

Yard, Side: See Section 3.1.8.

Yard Sale: The occasional temporary use of a yard or garage for the retail sale of household articles formerly used by the residents of those or neighboring premises.

(Adopted 7-6-99; amended 12-11-01; Ord. of 6-14-2011(4); Ord. of 7-23-2013(2); Ord. of 8-27-2013(2); Ord. of 11-17-2015(1); Ord. of 5-10-2016(1); Ord. of 9-26-2017(1); Ord. No. 2021-085, 5-25-2021)