Lower Pottsgrove Township
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XV
LCO Limited Commercial and Office District 1
§ 250-96 Declaration of legislative intent.
In expansion of the legislative intent contained in § 250-3 of this chapter and the community development objectives contained in § 250-5 of this chapter, it is hereby declared to be the specific intent of this article with respect to LCO Limited Commercial and Office development to provide appropriate locations for restricted commercial and office usage where unrestricted commercial and office development would be undesirable. Further, it is the intent of this article to:
A.
Encourage the retention and conversion of existing buildings and the formation and continuance of a quiet, compatible district for business and professional offices intermingled harmoniously with residences and commercial uses as identified in the Lower Pottsgrove Comprehensive Plan.
B.
Provide for only those commercial and office uses which would not conflict with nearby existing residential development and which can serve as transitions between the residential development and areas of heavy traffic and which themselves would not be generators of heavy traffic.
C.
Provide regulations specifically tailored to permit development of smaller, individual office and limited commercial uses or a small-scale congregation of such uses.
D.
Prevent the encroachment of strip highway development which would be deleterious to the existing residential character of the surrounding areas.
E.
Allow for the sharing of services and infrastructure such as parking and accessways.
F.
Provide a zoning district specifically tailored to the East High Street and Sanatoga Village areas.
§ 250-97 Use regulations.
[Amended 8-4-2003 by Ord. No. 244; 11-20-2003 by Ord. No. 247]
In an LCO District a building may be erected, altered or used or a lot may be used or occupied for any of the following purposes or combination of such uses and no other:
A.
Professional offices for doctors, dentists, chiropractors or any practitioner of the healing arts for humans; lawyers, engineers or architects, urban planners, accountants, economic consultants or other professionals similar to those listed above.
B.
Business offices providing services such as security and commodity brokerage, real estate sales, employment counseling, insurance sales, advertising, mailing and stenographic services and other services similar in nature to those listed above.
D.
Personal service shop, including, but not limited to, hairdresser, barbershop, shoe repair, dry-cleaning establishment, provided that any dry-cleaning establishment shall be a nonflammable type of operation and that a minimum of 30% of a shop used for such purposes shall be devoted to customer use.
E.
Specialized retail stores, such as a gift shop, antique shop, bookstore, custom shop or shop making articles sold at retail on the premises (except for manufacturing or fabrication with any materials, which activities are prohibited), tobacco shop, jewelry store, hobby shop, florist, wearing apparel store and any other use of a similar nature. Any general retail establishment for the sale of food, beverages, furnishings and/or other household supplies, variety merchandise, automobile service/repair station of fuel pump service islands or other similar uses shall not be permitted.
F.
Dance, art or music studio.
G.
Travel agency.
H.
Photography studio.
I.
Single-family dwelling.
J.
Two-family dwelling (twin or duplex).
K.
Multifamily dwellings.
M.
Accessory uses on the same lot with and customarily incidental to any of the uses provided for in this section.
N.
Drugstore.
§ 250-98 Conditional uses.
[Amended 11-20-2003 by Ord. No. 247]
In an LCO District the following conditional uses may be allowed as enumerated below:
A.
The following conditional uses may be allowed on lots with a minimum area of 15,000 square feet, for which application is made following the procedures outlined in § 250-220 of this chapter.
(1)
Bank or financial institution, excluding any such use with drive-in teller facilities.
(2)
Restaurant, cafe or similar establishment serving food or beverage but excluding drive-in, fast food and other similar establishments which prepare a substantial portion of food or beverages for takeout. Characteristics of such excluded establishments include, inter alia, disposable containers and utensils and self-service. It shall be the burden of the applicant to prove that its proposed use does not constitute one of the excluded establishments.
(3)
Funeral home.
(4)
Warehouse facility, when combined with a retail establishment as permitted in § 250-97E herein, provided its combined maximum ground floor area does not exceed the, building coverage limit set forth in § 250-99 or 7,500 square feet, whichever is less; provided, further, the screen buffering is provided pursuant to §§ 215-49 through 215-58 of the Township's Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
§ 250-99 Dimensional standards.
The following dimensional standards shall apply for permitted uses pursuant to § 250-97 herein and conditional uses pursuant to § 250-98 herein.
Permitted Uses (§ 250-97) | Conditional Uses (§ 250-98) | |
|---|---|---|
Minimum lot size | 8,000 square feet | 15,000 square feet |
Minimum width at building line | 75 feet | 100 feet |
Minimum front yard | 30 feet | 50 feet |
Minimum rear yard | 30 feet | 50 feet |
Minimum side yard | 15 feet (one side only required)* | 20 feet (one side only required)* |
Maximum building coverage | 25% | 20% |
Minimum vegetative coverage** | 20% | 20% |
Building height [Added 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 274] | 35 feet | 35 feet |
§ 250-100 Standards for consideration of conditional uses.
[Amended 8-25-1994 by Ord. No. 127-T]
In addition to the appropriate dimensional standards contained in § 250-102 herein and the procedures specified in § 250-220, the Township Commissioners shall determine that the following standards are met before granting approval to any conditional use.
A.
In addition to the requirements contained in § 250-206 herein, any necessary loading and unloading operations shall be carried on within or contiguous to the facade of any building used for the purposes of any conditional use.
B.
Property line buffers shall be placed along all boundaries of a development constructed pursuant to this chapter which abut a residential, a mixed use that contains residential, or an institutional use or district. Buffers shall be designed according to § 215-54 of the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215).
§ 250-101 Maximum building dimensions.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 274]
The greatest dimension of a building or structure measured parallel to exterior building walls shall be 125 feet. For circular or partially circular buildings, the diameter or assumed diameter shall not exceed 150 feet. There shall be a maximum building density of 15,000 square feet per developable acre, with individual buildings being no larger than 15,000 square feet.
§ 250-102 Lot line development regulations.
On those lots on which a building may be constructed on the lot line, only one side yard is required pursuant to the minimum side yard provision contained in this section. The following regulations shall apply; provided, however, no building built solely for residential purposes may be built on a lot line, and further provided that no building may be built on a lot line which abuts a structure used solely for residential purposes whether in the LCO District or another district.
A.
No building wall situated on a lot line shall contain windows, doors or other openings or loading areas.
B.
The roof shall not be drained toward a wall situated on a lot line.
C.
No building shall be placed on a side lot line unless access is provided onto the abutting property to allow for inspection, maintenance and repair of the building wall and foundation or other legal mechanism to the satisfaction of the Township Solicitor.
D.
Structures on abutting lots may be built along their common lot line, creating a party wall between the abutting uses, provided that, for purposes of measuring maximum building length, the two buildings connected by the party wall shall be considered as one structure.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
§ 250-103 Access regulations.
The following regulations shall pertain to access for all lots to be developed in the LCO District and shall also govern lots to be redeveloped in the district to the maximum extent feasible.
A.
Accessways leading onto a public street shall be built to the dimensional requirements specified in the Lower Pottsgrove Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215).
B.
For lots other than corner lots which have less than 100 feet of frontage, a maximum of one accessway to a public street shall be permitted.
C.
For any lots used for development pursuant to this district or for a group of two or more lots which share parking pursuant to the requirements of § 250-104 herein, no more than two points of access may be permitted onto each street on which the lot(s) abut.
D.
Corner lots or groups of lots with shared parking that front onto two streets shall not have two points of access onto one street and none on the other, unless the placement of an access onto one street would create a traffic hazard or unduly impact existing residential development. Two points of access onto one street shall also be permitted if one or two points of access are provided onto the other street. In addition, where the lot or group of lots front onto two streets of differing classification (according to the Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, Chapter 215), the developer may elect to place two points of access on the street of lesser classification with none on the other fronting street, if the lot or group of lots have more than 100 feet of frontage on the road of lesser classification and so doing would not create a hazardous traffic situation or unduly impact existing residential development.
E.
Accessways shall be spaced a minimum of 50 feet on center on any lot used for development pursuant to this district or for a group of two or more lots which share parking pursuant to the requirements of § 250-104 herein. In addition, accessways shall be spaced a minimum of 50 feet on center from existing accessways on adjacent properties whenever feasible. When this is not feasible, common drives and/or the use of shared common parking pursuant to § 250-104 herein shall be encouraged.
F.
On lots used for nonresidential purposes or only partially for residential purposes, no accessway shall be located closer than 25 feet to any lot used exclusively for residential purposes whether in the LCO District and shall also govern lots to be redeveloped in the district to the maximum extent feasible:
§ 250-104 Parking and internal circulation.
The following regulations shall govern parking and circulation within lots to be developed in the LCO District and shall also govern lots to be redeveloped in the district to the maximum extent feasible:
A.
The number of parking spaces required for any development shall be regulated by the requirements contained in § 250-203, except where a lesser number may be permitted when parking is shared according to the provisions contained in Subsection F herein. For mixed-use structures as defined in § 250-97, the parking provided shall be equal to the sum total of required spaces for all uses contained therein.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
D.
For double parking bays, 15% of the area of each parking space may be maintained in grass, provided that the grass is separated from the paved areas by a suitable wheelstop or bumper.
E.
For parking areas of more than 20 cars, a minimum of 10% of the parking area shall be devoted to interior parking lot landscaping, exclusive of any other landscaping or buffering requirements and exclusive of the grass area permitted under Subsection D herein. The landscaping required by this subsection shall be installed in such manner that no individual landscaped area shall contain less than 200 square feet; the minimum horizontal dimension of any such area shall be 10 feet.
F.
The owners of two or more adjacent lots may elect to share common parking facilities according to the following requirements:
(1)
An application to do so shall be filed jointly by all affected lot owners with the Zoning Officer, accompanied by a plan showing the location of all proposed parking, parking reserve areas and accessways as well as all buildings which shall use the common parking area.
(2)
The aggregate number of parking spaces required for all uses which will share the common parking area may be reduced up to a maximum of 25% if the applicants can demonstrate to the Zoning Officer's satisfaction that a greater efficiency is effected by joint use of a common parking area or that other circumstances warrant such reduction (i.e., complementary operating hours of the uses which will be sharing the parking area). Regardless of the number of spaces actually developed, a parking area to accommodate the aggregate number of parking spaces normally required shall be fully designed, and the area which is proposed to be eliminated shall be shown as parking reserve area. Such area shall be required to be developed as designed so that the minimum area of vegetative cover will not be reduced below the appropriate percentage contained in Subsection D herein in the event the entire parking area, including reserve areas, is subsequently developed. All reserve areas not utilized for parking shall be landscaped according to an approved plan.
(3)
For purposes of determining the number and location of accessways, the entire area devoted to common parking shall be considered one parking lot.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
(4)
Some portion of the common parking area shall be within 200 feet of an entrance regularly used by patrons into each use served by the common parking area.
(5)
An application to permit shared common parking shall be contingent upon each lot owner obtaining any necessary access easements and rights-of-way.
§ 250-105 New development landscaping.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
All new developments developed subsequent to the enactment of this chapter shall provide a permanent landscaped planting area of at least 25 feet in depth, designed for screening from view any residential, commercial, office or industrial uses which are adjoining and contiguous to the development as specified in §§ 215-49 to 215-58 of the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215).
§ 250-106 Frontage landscaping requirements.
[Amended 12-3-2007 by Ord. No. 276]
Along the frontage of every lot, except for area devoted to accessways, landscaping shall be provided as described in §§ 215-49 to 215-58 of the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215). The landscaped areas shall extend toward the interior of the lot for a minimum distance of five feet from the ultimate right-of-way line. Additionally, landscaping between the ultimate right-of-way and the curbline or edge of the roadway shoulder shall be encouraged, recognizing that such landscaping may have to be removed in the future for roadway improvements; landscaping in this area would therefore be encouraged to represent a low financial investment and/or be capable of relocation. In all instances, landscaping shall be so installed that clear sight distances are provided as identified in § 215-16 of the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (Chapter 215).
§ 250-107 Refuse areas.
The design of buildings in the LCO District shall include either a provision for the storage of refuse inside the building(s) or within an area enclosed by either walls or opaque fencing outside the building(s) and designed to be architecturally compatible with the building(s). Such walls or fencing shall be designed to shield the refuse areas from direct view of any adjacent property and must be at least six feet high.
§ 250-108 Outdoor display and storage.
All uses except for parking lots shall be completely enclosed within a building. No merchandise, goods, articles or equipment shall be stored, displayed or offered for sale outside any building, except seasonal articles which are too large or otherwise infeasible to be stored indoors. Such articles shall be stored adjacent to the building housing the establishment selling the articles and shall be enclosed by either walls or opaque fencing designed to be architecturally compatible with the building and which shall be at least six feet high. Any outdoor display areas shall be considered to be sales floor area for the purposes of computing building coverage and for computing parking requirements.
§ 250-109 Lighting.
§ 250-110 Integrated developments.
In those instances wherein developments in the LCO District are proposed to consist of multiple buildings, the following regulations shall apply:
A.
The entire development shall be designed as an architecturally integrated unit.
B.
The minimum distance between a building or group of buildings shall be 20 feet, except that all structures connected by common rooflines or covered walkways shall be considered as one building, and the determination for maximum building dimensions shall be made as such.
§ 250-111 Conversions.
All conversions must meet all requirements of this district to the maximum extent feasible, as determined by the Township Planning Commission, except that the parking requirements may be reduced up to 40%.