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Huntsville City Zoning Code

ARTICLE 43.

AIRPORT INDUSTRIAL PARK DISTRICT REGULATIONS[7]

Purpose. The purpose of the airport industrial park district is to provide a protective district for the orderly and harmonious development of the lands of the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority.

These regulations shall apply to all the lands of the Huntsville-Madison County Airport Authority located in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, consisting of some 3,000 acres, more or less.

The nature and type of uses permitted in this district shall be governed by their performance standards relative to smoke, dust, dirt, and other particulate matter; toxic or noxious matter; odorous matter, vibration; noise; fire and explosive hazard; heat; glare; radioactive materials; electromagnetic interference; and stream pollution.

The minimum standards heretofore referred to set forth the minimum control necessary in each of the several areas to prevent adverse effect of land use permitted in the airport industrial park district, on the operation and maintenance of the Huntsville-Madison County Airport, and on nearby property.

These airport industrial park district regulations are intended to promote the physical and mental health, safety, morals, welfare, comfort, and convenience of the inhabitants of the district and its environs.

Within an airport industrial park district as shown on the official Zoning Maps of the City of Huntsville, Alabama, the following regulations shall apply:


Footnotes:
--- (7) ---

Cross reference— Aviation, ch. 6.


43.1.- Uses permitted.

No building, structure or land shall be used and no building or structure shall hereafter be erected, structurally altered, enlarged, or maintained, except for one or more of the following uses:

Dwellings only in connection with bona fide agricultural operations, or as living quarters for bona fide caretakers and/or watchmen and their families.

Farming and other agricultural uses.

Federal, state, county or city owned or operated buildings and uses.

Office buildings for general office purposes.

Off-street parking for motor vehicles in connection with uses within the district.

Research, experimental and testing laboratories.

Industrial uses, manufacturing and processing, provided all such uses are in accordance with performance standards as stated in section 43.7 hereof.

Structures accessory to uses permitted by [this] section 43.1 hereof, including but not limited to, warehouses, storage buildings, and pump houses.

Accessory uses to uses permitted in the airport industrial park district such as recreational facilities and dining facilities in connection with the operation of an establishment and primarily for employees.

Heliports and radio and television studios but not including broadcast towers, provided such uses are in accordance with section 43.7 hereof.

Retail sales and consumer service establishments (not including warehouse sales) accessory to any permitted use, other than agricultural or residential uses.

Bulk fuel storage.

Hotel, motel, and related dining facilities.

Signs shall be permitted in accordance with the provisions of article 72—Sign control regulations.

Permitted uses as special exceptions as defined and regulated by subsection 92.5.3 hereof.

(Ord. No. 96-1008, § 2, 1-23-1997; Ord. No. 09-1053, § 1, 12-17-2009; Ord. No. 21-46, § 1(Exh. A, § B.2.), 2-25-2021)

43.2. - Uses specifically prohibited.

The intent of this section is to prohibit those industries which could be obnoxious or offensive to other uses permitted in and adjacent to the district by reason of noise, smoke, dirt, dust, odor, fire or explosive hazard, and other objectionable features.

The following uses are specifically prohibited:

Abattoir, stockyards.

Asphalt manufacture.

Auto wrecking or storage of wrecked autos for the purpose of used parts sales.

Processing, incineration or storage of dead animal materials including curing, tanning, and storage of hides, distillation of bones, and fat rendering.

Salvage yards or junkyards.

Paper pulp manufacture.

Coal, coke, or wood storage yard.

Dead animal or offal reduction.

Grease, lard, or tallow manufacture from animal fats.

Poultry killing or dressing.

Veterinary hospital.

Trailer parks.

43.3. - Required yards and landscaped areas for industrial buildings.

43.3.1. No principal or accessory structure shall be located less than 50 feet from any side or rear lot line.

43.3.2. No principal or accessory structure shall be located less than 100 feet from any existing or proposed major street as adopted by the Huntsville Planning Commission.

43.3.3. The required front and side yards set forth above shall be landscaped and the provisions of section 3.1, buffer of screen planting, of this ordinance shall be observed where appropriate.

43.3.4. Exterior storage of materials shall be contained by fencing in such a manner as to be neat in appearance when viewed from any street.

43.3.5. All building heights shall conform to the airport obstruction ordinance (article 63) and amendments thereto.

43.4. - Density regulations.

43.4.1. Buildings shall not cover an area greater than 30 percent of the total area of the tract upon which the buildings are located.

43.4.2. Minimum lot width of each tract shall be not less than 200 feet as measured at the building line, except lots for permitted residential uses.

43.5. - Street access and frontage.

Each lot shall have a minimum frontage of 150 feet on a public road; provided, however, the planning commission may approve a lesser frontage to a minimum of 50 feet for lots located on culs-de-sac or on street curves, or having other extraordinary characteristics.

43.6. - Off-street parking and loading requirements for industrial uses.

Except as provided for herein all off-street parking and loading requirements shall be provided for as set forth in article 70 hereof.

43.6.1. Off-street parking and loading spaces are not permitted in the required front yard except for visitors and/or administrative parking.

43.6.2. Visitor parking shall be provided on a basis of at least one parking space for each ten employee spaces.

43.6.3. Parking shall not be permitted in more than 25 percent of the required front yard or in the first ten feet.

Required bicycle parking spaces and facilities shall be provided as set forth in article 76 hereof.

(Ord. No. 09-430, § 14, 7-9-2009; Ord. No. 10-507, § 2, 8-26-2010)

43.7. - Performance standards.

43.7.1. General. No part of the airport industrial park district and no improvement thereon shall be used or allowed to be used at any time for the manufacture, storage, distribution, or sale of any product or the furnishing of any service, in a manner which is unreasonably noxious or offensive, or an unreasonable annoyance or a nuisance to other tenants on the airport because of odors, heat, fumes, smoke, noise, glare, vibration, soot, or dust. No activity shall be carried on which may be or may become dangerous to public health and safety; which shall increase the fire insurance rating for adjoining or adjacent property, or which shall be illegal.

43.7.2. Noise. Except for the operation of motor vehicles, aircraft and other transportation facilities to, from, and on a building site or incidental to the use thereof, and on the public airport areas of the airport, the sound pressure level generated on a building site shall not at any point on the property line exceed the decibel level in the designated octave bands shown below:

Octave Band Cycle/
Second
Maximum Permitted Sound Level
in Decibels
Re 0.0002 Dynes/cm2
   3 —  300 75
 300 — 1,200 55
1,200 — 4,800 45
4,800 and above 40

 

Testing of aircraft engines and other engines shall be conducted in noise-suppressing test cells so that sound levels do not exceed the levels specified above.

43.7.3. Vibration. Maximum permitted vibration from any cause shall not exceed the following when measured at the property line:

Frequency
(Cycles/Second)
Displacement
(Inches)
10 and below 0.0008
10—20 0.0005
20—30 0.0003
30—40 0.0002
40—50 0.0001
50 and above 0.0001

 

43.7.4. Air pollution. Except for the operation of motor vehicles and aircraft to, from, and on the building site or incidental to the use thereof, the following requirements shall apply:

(1)

Any use producing smoke, dust, odor, fumes, gas, aerosols, particulates, products or combustion, or any other atmospheric pollutant, shall be conducted within a completely enclosed building.

(2)

No use shall emit smoke for more than three minutes in any one hour which is darker than Number One in the Ringelmann Chart as published and revised by the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

(3)

No operation shall discharge toxic or noxious matter into the atmosphere.

(4)

The emission of noxious or objectionable odors which are detectable without instruments at or beyond the property line will not be permitted.

(5)

Particulate matter shall be defined as any material discharged into or suspended in the atmosphere in finely divided form. Calculation of the total net rate of emission of particulate matter within the boundaries of any lot shall be made in the following manner:

(a)

Determine maximum emission in pounds per hour from each source of emission and divide this figure by the acres in the lot area, thereby obtaining the gross hourly rate of emission in pounds per acre.

(b)

For each gross hourly rate of emission, deduct the height of emission correction factor from the following table, interpolating as necessary for heights not given:

Allowances for Height of Emission

Height of Emission Above Grade (Feet) Correction Pounds/Hour/Acre
 50 0.01
100 0.06

 

The result is the net hourly rate of emission in pounds per acre from each source of emission.

(c)

Adding together individual net rates of emission gives the total net rates of emission from all sources of emission within the boundaries of the lot.

The total net rate of emission from all sources within the boundaries of a lot in the airport industrial park district shall not exceed one pound per acre of lot area during any one hour. The emission from all sources within any lot area of particulate matter containing more than ten percent by weight of particles having a diameter larger than 44 microns is prohibited. The emission of particles in the form of fly ash from any flue or smokestack shall not exceed 0.2 grains per cubic foot of flue gas at a stack temperature of 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

43.7.5. Stream pollutants. No effluent shall be discharged in any stream, nor any discharge in the Huntsville sewerage system shall be permitted, except as approved by the City of Huntsville City Engineer and the State of Alabama Water Improvement Commission.

43.7.6. Heat or glare. Any operation producing intense glare or heat shall be performed within an enclosed or screened area in such a manner that the glare or heat emitted will not be perceptible without instruments at any property line of a building site.

43.7.7. Fire and explosive hazard. All activities and all storage of flammable and explosive materials shall be in accordance with the National Board of Fire Underwriters' publications and local ordinances.

43.7.8. Industrial waste materials. All disposal of industrial waste shall be in accordance with the State of Alabama Water Improvement Commission regulations therefor.

43.7.9. Radioactive materials. The handling of radioactive materials, the discharge of such materials into the air or water, and the disposal of radioactive wastes shall be in conformance with the regulations of the Atomic Energy Commission as set forth in Title 10, Chapter 1, Part 20, "Standards for Protection Against Radiation," as amended.

43.7.10. Electromagnetic interference. Industries shall emit only that amount of unshielded spurious electromagnetic radiation as is necessary for the conduct of their operations. Federal Communications Commission requirements shall govern maximum radiation which tends to interfere with meaningful signals.

43.8. - Off-street parking and vehicular use area (PVA) landscaping and lighting.

Landscaping and lighting of off-street parking and vehicular use areas are required in accordance with article 71, off-street parking and vehicular use area landscaping requirements.

(Ord. No. 99-1020, § 2, 1-13-2000)