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Londonderry Township Chester County
City Zoning Code

ARTICLE XI

AB Agricultural Business District

§ 170-55 Purpose.

The principal purpose of the AB Agricultural Business District is to provide opportunities for agriculturally related service uses and similar activities in support of agriculture within the Township and in the surrounding environs. The district also is considered to be potentially appropriate for uses not specified by the chapter but which may be considered, upon review by the Board of Supervisors, to be sufficiently compatible in this location.

§ 170-56 Uses permitted by right.

A building or other structure may be erected, altered, or used, and a lot may be used or occupied, for any one of the following principal uses, together with the permitted accessory uses, by right in accordance with the terms of this chapter:
A. 
Agriculture, in accordance with the terms of § 170-117.
B. 
Public uses, structures, or buildings owned or operated by the Township, or by an authority created by the Township, subject to other supplementary regulations set forth in this article and Articles XVII and XVIII;
C. 
(Reserved)[1]
[1]
Editor’s Note: Former Subsection C, regarding community utilities, was repealed 9-25-2006 by Ord. No. 2-06.
D. 
Veterinary office or clinic;
E. 
Any structure for the production, manufacturing, processing, cleaning, testing, repair, storage, and/or distribution of materials, goods, foodstuffs, and products on a retail or wholesale basis, subject to other supplementary regulations set forth in this article and Article XVII;
F. 
Automobile, truck, trailer, and boat sales and/or service establishment;
G. 
Growers' market, farmers' market;
H. 
Small-scale keeping of livestock, as a use accessory to a residential use, in accordance with the terms of § 170-128.
I. 
Forestry, in accordance with the terms of § 170-130.5 of this chapter.
[Added 1-3-2011 by Ord. No. 01-2011]

§ 170-57 Uses permitted as conditional uses.

The following uses shall be permitted when approved as a conditional use by the Board of Supervisors, in accordance with the standards of this article and § 170-157:
A. 
Storage, processing, and sale of bulk agricultural products, such as grain, crops, fertilizer, and like commodities used by or produced in agriculture, but excluding the slaughtering, packaging, processing, storage, and/or sale of beef, pork, lamb, poultry, fish, or like products;
B. 
Junkyard or scrap yard, in accordance with the terms of § 170-116;
C. 
Collection, processing, and resale or redistribution of spent compost, in accordance with the terms of § 170-125;
D. 
Commercial composting, in accordance with the terms of § 170-126;
E. 
Intensive agriculture, in accordance with the terms of § 170-118;
F. 
Any other lawful use not otherwise permitted by the terms of this chapter;
G. 
Any use other than agriculture that is permitted in § 170-56 where the first floor/ground floor building footprint is 2,000 square feet or greater in gross floor area, in accordance with the terms of § 170-127.
H. 
Trade school, in accordance with the terms of § 170-130.3 of this chapter.
[Added 5-12-2009 by Ord. No. 03-2009]
I. 
Heliport, in accordance with the terms of § 170-112.
[Added 11-10-2009 by Ord. No. 06-2009]
J. 
Billboards, in accordance with the terms of Article XIX of this chapter.
[Added 12-11-2012 by Ord. No. 08-2012]

§ 170-58 Area and bulk regulations.

The following regulations shall apply to all uses permitted by right or conditional use in the AB District except where an alternative standard is established for a specific use under the terms of this article and/or other applicable sections of this chapter:
A. 
Lot and yard regulations.
(1) 
Minimum gross lot area: two acres.
(2) 
Minimum net lot area: 45,000 square feet.
(3) 
Maximum impervious coverage: 50% of the net lot area, provided that neither the total building coverage nor the total paved surface shall separately exceed 30% of the net lot area.
(4) 
Minimum landscaped open space: 25%.
(5) 
Minimum lot width: 175 feet.
(6) 
Minimum front and rear yards: 50 feet.
(7) 
Minimum side yards: 25 feet.
B. 
Maximum building height.
(1) 
Principal building: 35 feet.
(2) 
Accessory building: 15 feet.
C. 
Uses provided in the AB District are under and subject to the supplemental regulations contained in this chapter and all other applicable ordinances, laws, and regulations.

§ 170-59 Standards and criteria for conditional uses.

A. 
Storage, processing, and sale of bulk agricultural products.
(1) 
All entrance and exit driveways or access points shall be not less than 150 feet from any public street intersection. A clear sight triangle shall be maintained of not less than 75 feet in each direction from the driveway or access point.
(2) 
Any property proposed to be used for the storage, processing, and sale of bulk agricultural products shall have frontage on an arterial or major collector street, and shall locate its principal point or points of vehicular access along such frontage. Trucks transporting bulk agricultural products to or from the property shall not use a road of lesser functional classification to enter or leave the property without specific approval of the Board of Supervisors as part of its grant of any conditional use approval.
(3) 
The applicant for conditional use approval shall have the burden to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that any new use or extension of an existing use will not create any increase in dust, noxious odors, noise, vibration, light, electrical interference, or like encroachment upon or interference with the use and enjoyment of surrounding and abutting residential properties.
(4) 
The Board of Supervisors may require, as a condition of approval, reasonable and appropriate buffers, plantings, screens, and the like, in addition to the applicable requirements for buffering, screening, and landscaping in this chapter and Chapter 130, Subdivision and Land Development.