The following rules of construction apply to the text of this title:

(1)

A "building" or "structure" includes any part thereof.

(2)

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

(3)

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

For the purpose of this title the following terms and words are defined as follows:

(1)

Accessory building. A subordinate building or structure on the same lot with the main building, or part of the main buildings, exclusively occupied by or devoted to an accessory use.

(2)

Accessory use. A use subordinate to the main use on a lot and used for purposes customarily incidental to those of the main use.

(3)

Adult bookstore. An establishment of which more than 25 percent of its stock in trade, books, magazines, and/or other periodicals available for sale, lease, or observation contains matter depicting, describing, or relating to "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" (as defined herein).

(4)

Adult entertainment establishment. An establishment engaged in commercial activity, whether intermittently or full time, involving more than 25 percent of its business in the sale, display, exhibition, or reviewing of materials, books, magazines, films, photographs, demonstrations, or presentations depicting, describing, or relating to "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" (as defined herein).

(5)

Adult mini-motion-picture theater. An enclosed building which offers for an admission fee, membership fee, or other valuable consideration material describing, depicting, or relating to "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" (as defined herein) by any means of display, including, but [not] limited to, motion pictures, television or live performances.

(6)

Adult motion picture theater. An establishment, whether in a completely enclosed building or not, which offers, for an admission fee or other valuable consideration, the viewing of motion picture films which depict, portray, simulate, or represent "specified sexual activities" or "specific anatomical areas" during more than 25 percent of its operating hours.

(7)

Alley. Any dedicated public way other than a street, providing a secondary means of access to a property, not less than 18 feet wide nor more than 30 feet wide.

(8)

Animated sign. Any sign having a conspicuous and intermittent variation in the illumination or physical position of any part of the sign; provided, however, that a slow rotation of a sign shall not be considered animation.

(9)

Apartment. A room or suite of rooms, including bath and culinary accommodations, in a two-family or multiple dwelling intended or designed for use as a residence by a single family.

(10)

Apartment, garden. A group of two or more multiple dwelling buildings not over two stories in height, located on the same lot, that offer each dwelling unit direct access to an open yard area.

(11)

Automobile or trailer sales area. Any space used for display, sale, or rental of motor vehicles or trailers, in new or used and operable condition.

(12)

Basement. A story having part but not more than one-half its height below finished grade. A basement is counted as a story for the purpose of height regulations, if subdivided and used for business or dwelling purposes, by other than a janitor employed on the premises (see Cellar).

(13)

Boardinghouse. A building other than a hotel, where, for compensation and by prearrangement for definite periods, meals, or lodging and meals, are provided for three or more persons, but not exceeding five persons.

(14)

Building. A structure, either temporary or permanent, having a roof supported by columns or walls.

(15)

Building, height of. The vertical distance measured from the curb level to the highest point of the roof surface if a flat roof; to the deck line of mansard roofs; and to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for gable, hip and gambrel roofs. For buildings set back from the street line, the height of the building may be measured from the average elevation of the finished grade along the front of the building provided its distance from the street line is not less than the height of such grade above the established curb level.

(16)

Cellar. A story having more than one-half of its height below the average finished level of the adjoining ground. A cellar shall not be counted as a story for purposes of height measurement. Also a cellar shall not be used as a separate business or dwelling.

(17)

Church. A building, together with its accessory buildings and uses, where persons regularly assemble for religious worship, and which building, together with its accessory buildings and uses, is maintained and controlled by a religious body organized to sustain public worship.

(18)

Convalescent, nursing and rest homes. A building wherein infirm, aged or incapacitated persons are accepted and furnished shelter, care, food, lodging and needed attention, or nursing for a compensation.

(19)

Curb level. The level of the established curb in front of the building measured at the center of such front; where no curb has been established the county engineer shall establish such curb level or its equivalent for the purposes of this title.

(20)

Drive-in restaurant. A location where food is prepared and consumed within or without the building or removed from the building and lot for consumption.

(21)

Driveway. A designated roadway constructed of standard road building material on which vehicles gain ingress or egress to a property.

(22)

Dwelling. Any building, or portion thereof, which is designed or used exclusively for residential purposes (see Trailer).

(23)

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

(24)

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

(25)

Dwelling, multiple. A building or portion thereof used or designed as a residence for three or more families living independently, but not including automobile courts, motels, or hotels.

(26)

Essential services. The phrase "essential services" means the erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance of public utilities or municipal departments or commissions of underground or overhead gas, electrical, steam, or water transmission or distribution systems, collection, communication, supply, or disposal systems, including towers, poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police callboxes, traffic signals, hydrants, and other similar equipment, and accessories in connection therewith, but not including buildings, reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utilities or municipal departments or commissions or for the public health or safety or general welfare.

(27)

Family.

a.

One or more persons related by blood or marriage occupying a dwelling unit and living as a single, nonprofit housekeeping unit.

b.

A collective number of individuals living together in one house under one head, whose relationship is of a permanent and distinct domestic character, and cooking as a single housekeeping unit. This definition shall not include any society, club, fraternity, sorority, association, lodge, combine, federation, group, coterie, or organization, which is not a recognized religious order, nor include a group of individuals whose association is temporary and resort-seasonal in character or nature.

(28)

Filling station. Also known as gas stations or service stations. Any building or premises used for the dispensing, sale or offering for sale at retail of any motor fuels, oils or lubricants. Also permitted as of right, the sale and service of minor motor vehicle repair such as tires, batteries, plugs, points, minor motor tuneups, generators, starters, radiator hoses, fan belts and the replacements of small parts which are carried as stock for sale.

(29)

Fire rating. Shall be as recommended by fire underwriters' laboratories or the equivalent.

(30)

Garage, parking. A structure or series of structures for the temporary storage or parking of motor vehicles, having no public shop or service in connection therewith, other than for the supplying of motor fuels and lubricants, air, water, and other operating commodities to the patrons of the garage only.

(31)

Garage, private. An accessory building or portion of a main building designed or used primarily for the storage of motor-driven vehicles, boats, house trailers, and similar vehicles owned and used by the occupants of the building to which it is accessory.

(32)

Garage, public. Any premises used for the storage or care of motor-driven vehicles, or where any such vehicles are equipped for operation, repaired, or kept for remuneration, hire, or sale.

(33)

Group housing. A residential development involving the ultimate construction of a group of one-family, two-family dwellings or multiple-family or combination of multiple and two-, or one-family dwellings on a lot, parcel or tract of land, or on a combination of lots under one ownership.

(34)

Health club. An establishment which offers service in the form of massages, baths, exercise or similar services, singly or in combination, to the public for an admission charge, membership fee, or other valuable consideration. The term "health club" does not include:

(1)

Hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics, or the office or quarters of a physician, a surgeon, a chiropractor, or an osteopath; or

(2)

Exercise clubs exclusively for annual members and their guests where the services, without massage in any form, are performed by a person of the same sex as the members or guests; and where the facilities (other than basketball courts, racquetball courts, squash courts, tennis courts, handball courts, swimming pools, weight rooms, gymnasiums, or similar facilities) are not utilized by members of both sexes at the same time; or

(3)

Barbershops and beauty parlors.

(35)

Home occupation. Any occupation or profession carried on as a subordinate use by a member of a family, residing on the premises, in connection with which there is used no advertising sign; provided that (a) no commodity is sold upon the premises; (b) not over 25 percent of the total actual floor area of any one story is used for home occupation or professional purposes; and (c) no person is employed other than a member of the immediate family residing on the premises; (d) no such home occupation may be conducted in an accessory building; and (e) no such home occupation shall require interior or exterior alterations.

(36)

Hotel. A building occupied as the more or less temporary abiding place of individuals who are lodged with or without meals in which there are more than ten sleeping rooms usually occupied singly, and no provision made for cooking in any individual room or apartment.

(37)

Junkyard. A place where waste, discarded or salvaged materials are bought, sold, exchanged, stored, baled, packed, disassembled or handled, including automobile wrecking yards, house wrecking, and structural steel materials and equipment, but not including the purchase or storage of used clothing, used furniture and household equipment, used cars in operable condition, used or salvaged materials as part of manufacturing operations.

(38)

Kennel. Any lot or premises used for the sale, boarding, or breeding of dogs, cats, or other household pets. Kennel shall also mean the keeping of five or more dogs, cats, or other household pets of the mammal group over the age of six months.

(39)

Lodginghouse. A building where lodging only is provided for compensation to three or more, but not exceeding five persons, in contradistinction to hotels open to transients. A building for lodging more than five persons shall be considered an apartment or hotel.

(40)

Lot of record. A lot which is a part of a subdivision, the map of which has been recorded in the office of the register of deeds, or a lot described by metes and bounds, the deed to which has been recorded in the office of the register of deeds at the time this title is passed.

(41)

Lot. Land occupied or to be occupied by a building and its accessory buildings, or by any other single activity permitted herein, together with such open spaces as are required under this title and having its principal frontage upon a street.

(42)

Lot, corner. A lot situated at the junction of two or more streets; or a lot bounded entirely by streets; or a lot in which the interior angle formed by the extensions of the street lines in the directions which they take at their intersections with lot lines, other than street lines, forms an angle of 135 degrees or less. In the event that any street line is a curve at its point of intersection with a lot line other than a street line, the tangent to the curve at that point shall be considered the direction of the street line. Any portion of a corner lot whose nearest frontage is more than 100 feet from the point of intersection of the two street lines or of the two tangents shall be subject to the regulations applicable to either a through lot, or an interior lot.

(43)

Lot, interior. A lot other than a corner lot.

(44)

Lot, through. An interior lot having frontage on two parallel, or approximately parallel, or converging streets.

(45)

Massage. The performance of manipulative exercises upon the human body of another by any method of pressure on or friction against or stroking, kneading, rubbing, tapping, pounding, vibrating, or otherwise stimulating with the hands, or other parts of the human body, or with any mechanical or bathing device, commonly used in the practice of massage, with or without supplementary aids or lotions.

(46)

Massage parlor. An establishment having a fixed place of business where a person offers the service of massage to the public for or in conjunction with an admission charge, membership fee, or other valuable consideration. The term "massage parlor" does not include:

(1)

Hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics, or the office or quarters of a physician, a surgeon, a chiropractor, or an osteopath; or

(2)

Exercise clubs exclusively for members or clientele where the services, without massage in any form, are performed by a person of the same sex as the members or clientele; or

(3)

Barbershops and beauty parlors.

(47)

Motel. A combination or group of two or more detached, semidetached, or connected permanent buildings occupying a building site integrally owned, and used as a unit to furnish living accommodations for transients only.

(48)

Nonconforming building or structure. Any lawful building or other structure which does not comply with the applicable bulk regulations for the district, either at the effective date of this title or as a result of a subsequent amendment thereto.

(49)

Nonconforming use. Any lawful use, whether of a building or other structure or a tract of land, which does not conform to the applicable use regulations for the district, either at the effective date of this title or as a result of a subsequent amendment thereto. However, no principal use shall be deemed nonconforming because of failure to provide required accessory off-street parking spaces, or required off-street loading berths.

(50)

Reserved.

(51)

Pets. Household pets shall be construed to include dogs, cats, canaries, parakeets, and other kindred animals and fish usually and ordinarily kept as household pets. As used herein it shall not be construed to include horses, mules, donkeys, cows, bulls, sheep, goats, rabbits, fowl and other domesticated animals.

(52)

Public park. Any park, playground, beach, outdoor swimming pool, parkway, within the jurisdiction and control of a governmental agency authorized by state statutes to own and maintain parks.

(53)

Public utility. Any person, firm, corporation, municipal department, or board fully authorized to furnish and furnishing, under municipal regulation to the public, electricity, gas, steam, communication services, telegraph services, transportation, or water.

(54)

Restaurant. A building where food is prepared and consumed only within the building.

(55)

Specified anatomical areas.

(1)

Less than completely and opaquely covered: (a) human genitals, or pubic regions, (b) buttocks, and (c) female breasts below a point immediately atop of the areola; and

(2)

Human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.

(56)

Specified sexual activities.

(1)

Human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal;

(2)

Acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse, sodomy, sadomasochistic abuse, bestiality, beseechality [sic], buggery, lesbianism, homosexuality, human excretory functions, fellatio, or cunnilingus;

(3)

Fondling or erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttock or female breast.

(57)

Story. That portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or, if no such floor above, the space between such floor and the ceiling next above it.

(58)

Story, half. A space under a sloping roof which has the line of intersection of roof decking and wall face not more than three feet above the top floor level, and in which space not more than two-thirds of the floor area is finished off for use. A half story containing independent apartment or living quarters shall be counted as a full story.

(59)

Street. A thoroughfare which affords a principal means of access to abutting property and which has been accepted as a public street.

(60)

Streets, private. Shall mean any street, road, or lane which is privately owned and used by the public. This does not pertain to private drives or roads that lead to private dwellings.

(61)

Structure. Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a temporary or permanent location on the ground or is attached to something having a permanent location in, on, or below the ground. When a structure is divided into separate parts by an unpierced wall, each part shall be deemed a separate structure.

(62)

Structural alterations. Any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams, or girders, or any substantial changes in the roof and exterior walls.

(63)

Takeout restaurant. A location where food is prepared or offered for sale but must be removed from the building and lot for consumption.

(64)

Trailer or trailer coach. Any vehicle with or without motive power, designed for carrying property or persons and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, and so constructed as to permit occupancy as a dwelling or sleeping place by one or more persons, and licensable as a trailer coach under Act No. 300 of the Public Acts of 1949, as amended, and any vehicle with motive power designed primarily for living, sleeping or used to carry a unit so designed.

(65)

Trailer coach park. Any lot, site, parcel or tract of land under the control of any person, upon which three or more occupied trailer coaches are harbored, or which is offered to the public for that purpose, regardless of whether a charge is made thereof or not, and shall include any building, structure, tent, vehicle, or enclosure used or intended for use as a part of the equipment of such trailer coach park.

(66)

Yard. An open space on the same lot with a building unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as otherwise provided herein. The measurement of a yard shall be construed as the minimum horizontal distance between the lot line and the building or structure.

(67)

Yard, front. A yard extending across the front of the lot between the side lot lines and measured between the front line of the lot and the nearest point of the building (see Yard, rear).

(68)

Yard, rear. A yard extending across the rear of a lot between the side lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the main building or any projections other than steps, unenclosed balconies, or unenclosed porches. On corner lots the rear yard shall be considered as parallel to the street upon which the lot has its least dimension. On both corner lots and interior lots the rear yard shall in all cases be the opposite end of the lot from the front yard.

(69)

Yard, side. A yard between the side lot line and the nearest side line of the building and extending from rear line of building to the front line of the building.

(70)

Zone. A section or district of the political subdivision for which the regulations governing the height, area, use, structure, or size of buildings and premises are the same.

(71)

Child care center. A facility, other than a private residence receiving one or more children for care for periods of less than 24 hours a day, and where the parents or guardians are not immediately available to the child. Child care center includes a facility which provides care for not less than two consecutive weeks, regardless of the number of hours of care per day. Child care center does not include a Sunday school, vacation Bible school, or a religious instructional class that is conducted by a religious organization where children are in attendance for not greater than three hours per day for an indefinite period, or not greater than eight hours per day for a period not to exceed four weeks, during a 12-month period, or a facility operated by a religious organization where children are cared for not greater than three hours, while persons responsible for the children are attending religious services.

(72)

Family day care home. A private residence in which the operator permanently resides as a member of the household in which one but less than seven minor children are received for care and supervision for periods of less than 24 hours a day, unattended by a parent or legal guardian, except children related to an adult member of the family by blood, marriage or adoption. Family day care home includes a home that gives care to an unrelated minor child for more than four weeks during a calendar year.

(73)

Group day care home. A private residence in which the operator permanently resides as a member of the household in which more than six but not more than 12 minor children are given care and supervision for periods of less than 24 hours a day unattended by a parent or legal guardian, except children related to an adult member of the family by blood, marriage or adoption. Group day care home includes a home that gives care to an unrelated minor child for more than four weeks during a calendar year.

(Ord. No. 31.97, § 2, 5-28-85; Ord. No. 31.108, § 1, 10-28-86; Ord. No. 31.114, § 1, 6-21-88; Ord. No. 31.158, § 1, 3-23-04)