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Lubbock City Zoning Code

ARTICLE 39

10 WORD USAGE

§ 39.10.001 Rules of construction.

a. 
"Shall," "will," "should," "may," and "must."
1. 
The words "shall," "must," and "will" are always mandatory.
2. 
The words "should" and "may" are discretionary.
b. 
Representative of the city.
Any office referred to in this UDC by title means the person employed or appointed by the City in that position, or their duly authorized representative, and includes any person designated to perform the duties of such office.
c. 
Customary usage.
Definitions not expressly prescribed in this UDC are to be construed in accordance with customary usage in municipal planning and engineering practices.
d. 
Most recent version.
All references to other county, state, or federal regulations in this UDC refer to the most current version and citation for those regulations unless expressly indicated otherwise. If the referenced regulations have been repealed and not replaced by other regulations, requirements for compliance are no longer in effect.
e. 
Tense and number.
Words in the present tense include the future and vice-versa. Words in the singular number include the plural number and vice-versa.
f. 
Building and structure.
The word "building" includes the word "structure."
g. 
District.
The word "district" means zoning district.
h. 
City.
The word "City" means Lubbock, Texas.
i. 
Comprehensive plan.
The words "Comprehensive Plan" refer to Plan Lubbock 2040, a Comprehensive Plan for the Future.
j. 
Gender.
If a feminine term is used, the masculine also applies and vice-versa.
k. 
Conjunctions.
1. 
And. The word "and" shall be construed to include all connected items in a series or set of conditions or provisions.
2. 
Or. The word "or" shall be construed to include one or more of the items in a series or set of conditions or provisions, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
l. 
Lists.
The use of terms such as "including," "such as," or similar language is intended to provide examples, not to be exhaustive lists of all possibilities, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
m. 
Rounding.
If any regulatory formula in this UDC results in a non-whole number of an indivisible object or feature (for example, a bufferyard requiring 6.33 trees or a parking lot requiring 20.75 spaces), then the non-whole number shall be rounded down or up to the next lowest or highest whole number (in the bufferyard case, 6 and in the parking lot case, 21).
n. 
Days.
All references to "days" are deemed calendar days unless expressly indicated otherwise. The time in which an act shall be completed is computed by excluding the first day and including the last day. In computing working days, if applicable, Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays observed by the City are excluded. A day concludes at the close of business for the Planning Department, and any materials received after that time will be deemed to have been received the following day.
o. 
Illustrations, tables, and text.
1. 
Text. The text material of this UDC controls over tables and illustrations in cases of inconsistency. Likewise, tables control over illustrations.
2. 
Graphics. Illustrations and photographs in this UDC are provided for illustrative purposes only.
p. 
Defined and undefined terms.
Terms defined in Division 10.2, Definitions, are those having a special meaning relative to the purposes of this UDC. All words not defined in Division 10.2 shall be given their usual and customary meanings, according to the Director of Planning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
(Ordinance 2023-O0054 adopted 5/9/2023)

§ 39.10.002 Definitions.

A. 
 
Abutting
means property where two adjoining lots have a common boundary, not including lots that are separated by a public right-of-way.
AC
means the Auto-Urban Commercial zoning district.
Accessory Dwelling Unit
means a space incorporated within the living area or detached from the primary single-family residence. It includes permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.
Accessory Structure
means a subordinate and incidental structure located on the same lot as and reasonably necessary and incidental to the principal use or structure. This definition includes, but is not limited to, garages, tool houses, greenhouses, and storage sheds.
Accessory Use
means a subordinate use incidental to and located on the same lot with the principal use, and which is reasonably necessary and incidental to the conduct of the principal use.
Adjacent
means next to, but shall not necessarily mean "touching." Also refer to the definition for "Abutting."
Adult Care Center
means a facility that provides services under an Adult Day Care Program on a daily or regular basis, but not overnight, to four or more elderly or handicapped persons who are not related by blood, marriage or adoption to the owner of the facility. Adult Care Centers must be licensed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. This definition includes adult day care centers, rescue missions, and shelters for the homeless and other types of transient housing not licensed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Agent
means a person designated in writing by the short-term rentaloperator in lieu of themselves as the 24-hour emergency contact for a lawfully operating short-term rental.
Agricultural Accessory Use or Structure
means an agricultural use or structure that specifically supports the agricultural use on the same property.
Agricultural Use
means a use category for the commercial production of field crops for food, fiber, or energy; community gardens; orchards; viniculture; horticulture; dairying; pasturage; aquaculture; and truck farming. The term also includes bulk grain or feed storage; commercial feedlots; grain mills; greenhouse/nursery; farming, landscaping, and horticultural sales and services; hatcheries; indoor crop production; riding stables, private; wildlife sanctuaries; woodland preserves; animal husbandry or the raising or breeding of game, livestock, cattle, horses, or poultry, and the keeping of bees, or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list. An Agricultural Use includes any use listed under "Residential Uses" - "Agricultural" in Table 39.02.016-1 in Section 39.02.016, Land Use Matrix.
All-Weather Surface
means areas paved with concrete, asphalt, graded stone, grass-crete pavers, uni-stone pavers, or other paving materials approved by the City Engineer.
Alley
means a public way that gives access to the rear of lots or buildings.
Alternative Tower Structure
means clock towers, bell steeples, light poles, and similar alternative antenna mounting structures.
Ancillary Exterior Wall
means any building facade that is visible from a public right-of-way, residential property, or public open space, but that is not the primary facade.
Animal Husbandry
means the keeping or raising of livestock or any other animal for agricultural purposes, whether it be commercial or non-commercial. This definition includes game farms, hatcheries (fish or fowl), and poultry.
Animal, Large
means any equine animal including, but not limited to, a horse, stallion, mare, gelding, filly, colt, mule, hinny, jack, jennet, any species of the bovine family; including but not limited to any cow, calf, steer or bull, any llama, sheep, ram, ewe, lamb; any goat, billy, nanny, or kid; or an emu, ostrich, or rhea.
Apartment
means any building, or portion thereof, which is designed, built, rented, leased, let, or hired out to be occupied as five or more dwelling units or which is occupied as the home or residence of five or more families living independently of each other and maintaining separate cooking facilities. The use may include a manager's or rental office.
Appeal
means a request for review of a decision regarding the interpretation of any provision of this UDC or a final decision by a decision-making body.
Area of Special Flood Hazard
means an area having special flood, mudflow, or flood-related erosion hazards and shown on a Flood Hazard Boundary Map (FHBM) or a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) as Zone A, AO, A1-A30, AE, A99, AH, AR, AR/A, AR/AE, AR/AH, AR/AO, AR/A1-A30, V1-V30, VE or V. The SFHA is the area where the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP's) floodplain management regulations shall be enforced and the area where the mandatory purchase of flood insurance applies. For the purpose of determining Community Rating System (CRS) premium discounts, all AR and A99 zones are treated as non-SFHAs.
Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Non-Freestanding or Vending Kiosk
means an automated mechanized consumer banking device operated by a financial institution for the convenience of its customers, whether inside or outside of a financial institution, or located in a structure unrelated to the financial institution operating it.
Automobile and Related Uses
means a use category that includes commercial uses related to direct sales of and service to passenger vehicles, light, medium, and heavy trucks and equipment, and other motor vehicles such as motorcycles, boats, and recreational vehicles.
Uses in this use category include: Automobile and vehicle wash; Automobile structured parking (primary use); Automobile parking lot (primary use); Automobile/vehicle parts and/or accessories; Automobile/vehicle sales and rental; Automobile/vehicle repair and auto body; Automobile/vehicle service; Travel Plaza; Truck parking lot (primary use); or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Automobile and Vehicle Wash
means any area or business using self-service, in-bay automatic, or conveyor equipment for cleaning and washing motor vehicles, whether as a part of another business operation (e.g., as an accessory use to an automobile fueling or charging station, automobile sales, rental, and service), or as a stand-alone operation, of any type, on a commercial basis. This definition includes auto laundries and car washes.
Automobile Parking Lot (Primary Use)
means surface lots, which may be shared or leased, designed and built for the parking of small to medium-sized motor vehicles, not including large trucks such as semi-trailers that are designed to move large quantities of goods and with no other use taking place on the property.
Automobile Structured Parking (Primary Use)
means a garage that is available to the public for free or for a fee, or to residents, tenants, or guests of a building. Structured parking is also frequently referred to as a parking garage.
Automobile/Motorcycle Race Track
means a facility that is used primarily for the sport of racing motor vehicles (e.g., automobiles, trucks, and/or motorcycles). A racetrack may include seating, concession areas, suites, and accessory administrative offices. This term also includes any facility used for driving motor vehicles under simulated racing or driving conditions.
Automobile/Vehicle Parts and/or Accessories Sales
means retail sales of automobile-related parts and accessories.
Automobile/Vehicle Repair and Auto Body
means any land, building, structure, or premises used for the general repair of automobiles including but not limited to engine rebuilding or reconditioning of motor vehicles; engine steam cleaning; transmission welding or rebuilding and installation; collision service such as body, frame and fender straightening and repair; tire recapping and vulcanizing; and painting of motor vehicle after a collision, fire damage, water damage, or other natural disaster or for the purpose of restoration. This definition includes automobile body shops; automotive glass shop; muffler shop; and spray-painting shop.
Automobile/Vehicle Sales and Rental
means premises on which new or used passenger automobiles or light trucks in operating condition are displayed for sale, lease, or rental. This definition includes automobile sales and service; motorcycle shop, including sales, rentals and service; secondhand or used car sales lot.
Automobile/Vehicle Service
means any land, building, structure, or premises used for the routine maintenance of automobiles and limited servicing of automobiles including, but not limited to, the sale and installation of oil, lubricants, filters, batteries, tires, brakes, belts, and other similar activities or for installing or repairing parts and accessories but not to include the activities of Automobile/Vehicle Repair and Auto Body as defined.
Awning or Canopy
means any structure attached to the wall of a building which was built and designed for the purpose of cosmetics or for shading a window, door, or sidewalk. Awnings are not integral to the building, are typically triangular or curved in cross-section and are generally comprised of a metal frame and canvas or other fabric.
B. 
 
Bakery, Wholesale
means a place for preparing, cooking, or baking of products primarily intended for off-premise distribution. This definition includes confectionary works.
Balcony
means an open habitable or decorative portion of an upper floor extending beyond a building's exterior wall with one or more sides permanently open to the exterior except for a railing or parapet not exceeding four feet in height. A balcony is not supported from below by vertical columns or piers but is instead supported by either a cantilever or brackets.
Bank, Credit Union, and Financial Services
means any of the class of business in freestanding buildings, kiosks, or automated teller machines that provides financial services and the transmission of funds.
Base Flood
means the flood having a one-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.
Base Flood Elevation (BFE)
means the elevation shown on the flood insurance rate map (FIRM) and found in the accompanying flood insurance study (FIS) for zones A, AE, AH, A1-A30, AR, V1-V30, or VE that indicates the water surface elevation resulting from the flood that has a 1% chance of equaling or exceeding that level in any given year - also called the base flood. Refer to the City's Drainage Criteria Manual.
Basement
means any area of the building having its floor subgrade (i.e., below ground level) on all sides.
Batch Plant
means a permanent or temporary use where cement, mortar, or asphalt is manufactured. This definition includes concrete products manufacturing.
Bay Window
means a window, that is not a transom window, that is part of an outside wall of the structure and that projects outward from the remaining portion of the wall.
Bicycle Space
means an area for the temporary storage of a bicycle that is permanently reserved for such purpose.
Big Box Retail
means a retail development with a single general commercial building or multiple such buildings all of which are a minimum of 50,000 square feet in gross floor area. The format includes warehouse club stores with or without paid memberships, discount retailers, and similar uses.
Billboard
means any structure upon which copy is placed on a poster or panel and mounted on a pole or metal structure, typically as follows: (1) wood posts or pole supports with dimensional lumber as the secondary support (A-frame) with a wood or metal catwalk and a single display panel, (2) steel A-frame constructed with angle iron or steel supports with metal framing, catwalk, and a single display panel, (3) multi-mast structure constructed with steel poles, I-beam or equivalent as primary support, with a catwalk, and a single display panel, or (4) monopole structure constructed with tubular steel support, tubular steel framing, metal catwalk and a single display panel with a concrete foundation.
Block
means the aggregate of private lots and rear alleys circumscribed by streets.
Block Face
means one side of a street between two connective features intersecting that street. The features can be other streets or boundaries of standard geographic areas (e.g., parkland, bulb of a cul-de-sacstreet, other right-of-way, etc.).
Boarding or Rooming House
means any building or portion thereof which contains guest rooms which are designed or intended to be used, let or hired out for occupancy by, or which are occupied by three or more, but not exceeding 11 individuals, for compensation, paid directly or indirectly, and no meals are served or provided to the occupants.
Brewery
means a place where beer is manufactured or made commercially.
Brewpub
means an establishment that sells beer that has been brewed on the premises, and which may include a restaurant.
Build-to-Zone (BTZ)
means the range of allowable distances from the front property line along which the principal vertical plane of the building's primary facade shall be built in order to create a moderately uniform line of buildings along the street.
Building
means a structure having a roof supported by columns or walls and designed or intended for the shelter, support, enclosure or protection of persons or chattels, except for tents and canopies.
Building Materials and Hardware Sales
means the retail sale, rental, or lease of durable consumer goods, or the retail sale, rental, or lease of such goods in combination with repair and maintenance services and the sale of replacement parts and accessories. Stores that include in part the sale of raw materials such as lumber and/or brick are included within this definition and land use category. This definition also includes builder's supply; electrical supply dealer; hardware store; home improvement center; paint, tile, carpet, wall covering, and floor covering store.
Building Official
means the building inspection administrator of the Department of Building Safety of the City of Lubbock or his or her Designee.
C. 
 
Canopy Tree
means a tree whose canopy is a minimum of 20 feet in width at maturity, planted for its high crown of foliage or overhead canopy.
Cargo Terminal
means a facility used for the loading and unloading of materials to be distributed by either truck or train. This includes railroad roundhouse or shops; truck, bus, and train maintenance facilities; railroad yards; and truck or railway freight terminal depot or station.
Carnival
means an establishment with amusement activities; merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels and similar types of amusement rides; booths for the conduct of games of skill; food dispensing facilities; and sideshows; that are temporarily conducted outdoors and not within a theater, auditorium, gymnasium or other permanent building.
Carport
means a roofed motor vehicle shelter open on three sides that does not allow the vehicle to pass completely through.
Cemetery/Funeral Services
means land used or intended to be used for the burial of the dead, whether human or animal, including crematoriums and mausoleums and buildings where funeral services may be held. This definition includes funeral homes and/or mortuaries.
CFR
means Code of Federal Regulations.
Child Care, Day Care Center
means a child care facility that provides care at a location other than the residence of the director, owner, or operator of the child care facility for seven or more children under 14 years of age for less than 24 hours a day, but at least two hours a day, three or more days a week. This definition includes day care centers, nursery schools, and kindergartens.
Circus
means an event with a variety of shows, including, but not limited to, animal acts, feats of physical skill, and performances by entertainers such as jugglers or clowns, which is temporarily conducted out-of-doors and not within a theater, auditorium, gymnasium or other permanent building.
City
means the City of Lubbock, Texas.
City Engineer
means the City Engineer of the City of Lubbock or his or her designee.
City Manager
means the City Manager of the City of Lubbock or his or her designee.
Civic and Institutional Uses
means a use category containing uses that provide services to the general public related to recreation, fellowship, worship, health, and education.
Uses in this category include: Adult care center; Cemetery/funeral services; Correctional institution; Child care, day care center; Club or lodge; Community centers, public; Educational services (excluding transportation-related instruction); Educational services (transportation-related instruction only); Hospital/rehabilitative care; Library, museum, or gallery; Medical and diagnostic laboratories; Medical office/clinic; Place of public assembly, indoor; and Governmental service (police, fire, emergency medical services); or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Civic Building
means a building designed specifically for a civic and institutional use.
Civic Open Space
means a natural or landscaped outdoor area provided for the purpose of active or passive public recreation. It may include publicly accessible outdoor amenities such as a playground, seating area, picnic area, multi-use path and temporary or permanent small outdoor performance space or place of public assembly.
Clearance
means the minimum distance from the bottom of the sign to the sidewalk or grade beneath the sign.
Club or Lodge
means a building and related facilities owned and used on a regular or recurring basis for fraternal, social, educational, recreational, or cultural enrichment of its members, and whose members meet certain prescribed qualifications for membership. This definition includes health or athletic clubs.
Cluster System
means a sewage collection, treatment, and disposal system designed to serve two or more sewage-generating units on separate legal tracts where the total combined flow from all units does not exceed 5,000 gallons per day that complies with Title 30, Chapter 285, of the Texas Administrative Code.
Commercial Amusement, Indoor
means uses that provide commercial amusement indoors (except sexually-oriented businesses). This definition includes game rooms (pinball machines and video games machines only); pool, billiard and/or domino parlors; skating rinks; theaters and motion picture shows (includes multiple screens and live action theaters); coin-operated machines; bowling alleys; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Commercial Amusement, Outdoor
means uses that provide commercial amusement outdoors, including, but not limited to: athletic field, park, stadium, or arena, commercial; baseball field/park; farmers' market; golf course or golf driving range; miniature golf course; model airplane center or go-cart track; motorcycle race track; outdoor markets, limited to farm products and new merchandise; pool (commercial); or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Commercial Uses
means a use category that includes uses engaged in the provision of goods, services, and repair activities to retail consumers and, to a lesser extent, other businesses.
Common Destination
means an area of focused community activity, usually defining the approximate center of a Pedestrian Shed. It may include without limitation one or more of the following: a Civic Open Space; a Civic Building; a Commercial center; a Third Place; a Meeting Hall; or a transit station and may act as the social center of a neighborhood.
Common Ownership
means the collective ownership of a property by two or more persons. The property is not held in any one person's name in particular, but in the names of all the persons.
Community Garden
means an area of land managed and maintained to grow and harvest food or horticultural products for personal or group consumption or for off-site sale or donation.
Concept Plan
means an initial submittal describing a Planned Unit Development project.
Contiguous
means "touching" or "in contact."
Contractor's Shop and/or Service Yard
means an area used to store and maintain construction equipment and other materials customarily used in the trade carried on by the construction contractor. This definition includes building materials, storage; contractor plan or storage yard; roofing contractor's shop; septic tank service; insulation applicator business; pest control service; and refrigeration service. This definition excludes temporary contractor's storage associated with the site of an on-going construction project.
Contributing Building, Structure, or Site
means a building, structure, or site that is part of a local, state, or federal historic registry, and that retains a significant amount of its physical integrity, whether exposed or concealed, and character-defining features, or that is associated with significant people or events.
Cornice
means a projecting horizontal decorative molding along the top of a wall or building.
Correctional Institution
means a facility providing housing and care for individuals legally confined for violations of law. This definition includes prison, jail, or other place of incarceration.
Crescent
means a bulbous additional right-of-way dedication where two streets intersect creating a crescent shape, which allows for vehicle turning movement and/or access to the lots abutting the right-of-way. Lots fronting onto a crescent shall follow the same minimum front setback requirement as lots fronting onto a cul-de-sac.
Cul-de-sac
means a bulbous street or passage closed at one end, the design of which shall adhere to the City of Lubbock Engineering Minimum Design Standards and Specifications.
D. 
 
Dancing
means to move the body, especially the feet, in rhythm, ordinarily to music.
Dedication Deed
means a legal instrument that designates property, usually within a subdivision, with a particular legal description. It also designates the boundaries of land reserved for public use, such as streets or alleys, is signed by the owner(s) and primary lienholder(s) of the property being platted and identifies easements for particular purposes such as utilities. A plat accompanies and illustrates the legal description and right-of-way dedications from the dedication deed (or Dedicatory Certificate).
Design Engineer
means the professional engineer responsible for the design of water, sewer, paving and/or drainage improvements.
Developer
means a person who causes land to be divided into a subdivision or a person who submits an application to the City for a land development project.
Development
means any manmade change in improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation, drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials.
Development Application
means a written or digital request to receive approval of a development review procedure listed in Article 39.07, Development Review Procedures.
Development Lot
means a parcel or abutting parcels of land, that have definite boundaries, which is improved as a single unit of use.
Diligence
means a constant and earnest effort to complete activities proposed as part of an approved application.
Distillery
means a place where liquor is manufactured or made commercially.
Div.
means Division.
Donation Bin/Recycling Collection, Drop-Off
means containers dedicated for the purpose of collecting discarded materials for recycling or reuse for the benefit of nonprofit charitable organizations.
Dormitory
means a building in which living quarters are provided primarily for individual students under the general supervision or regulation of an established college or university and as distinguished from an apartment, hotel, motel or rooming house. A dormitory may provide apartment units for guests, faculty or supervisory personnel on a ratio not to exceed one such apartment unit for each 50 students for which the building is designed. Individual rooms or suites of rooms may have cooking facilities. The dormitory may include facilities such as a commissary and/or snack bar, lounge and study area, dining halls and accessory kitchen, recreation facilities and laundry, provided that these facilities are for the benefit and use of the occupants and their guests and not open to the general public. This definition includes sorority houses and fraternity houses.
Drainage Criteria Manual (DCM)
means the manual adopted and approved by the City of Lubbock City Council that establishes requirements for drainage plans, drainage analyses, drainage design and construction in newly developing or redeveloping areas.
DRC
means Development Review Committee.
Drip Line
means a vertical line extending from the outermost edge of a tree's crown canopy to the ground.
Drip Line Zone
means the area of undisturbed natural soil around a tree defined by a horizontal circle drawn at grade with the center being the center of the main trunk of the tree and a radius equal to the distance from the center of the main trunk to the outermost portion of the drip line.
Drive-In or Drive-Through Facility
means a place of business being operated for the retail sale of food and other goods, services, or entertainment wherein patrons may be served or otherwise conduct their business while remaining in their automobiles.
DU
Duplex
means a single building that contains two dwelling units located on a single lot. The units share either common walls or common floor/ceilings. A duplex is also known as a two-family dwelling.
Dwelling
means a building or portion of a building designed exclusively for residential occupancy, including single-family, two-family, and multiple-family dwellings, except for buildings designed and used as hotels, boarding or rooming houses, and motels.
Dwelling Unit
means one or more rooms in a dwelling designed for occupancy by one individual or family living independently as a single housekeeping unit, with no more than one kitchen unit.
Dwelling Units per Acre
means the number of residential dwelling units per 43,560 square feet of development. This measurement accounts for lot areas and widths, common open space (as applicable), and rights-of-way.
E. 
 
E-Cigarette
means any electronically actuated device or inhaler meant to simulate cigarette smoking that uses a heating element to vaporize a liquid solution that causes the user to exhale any smoke, vapor, or substance other than that produced by unenhanced human exhalation. The liquid used in e-cigarettes typically contains nicotine; therefore, e-cigarettes and their associated liquids are classified as both tobacco products and tobacco paraphernalia.
Easement
means the right of the public or an authorized entity or entities to use the land owned by another for a specific purpose.
Educational Services
means any use devoted to learning, regardless of whether it is public, private, commercial or noncommercial or for children or adults. Playground equipment, athletic fields, athletic stadiums, cafeterias, gymnasiums, parking (including bus parking), and libraries are considered valid accessory uses of this land use. This definition also includes commercial school, including trade or technical schools, except mechanical; nonprofit training center with retail sales as an incidental use; private schools having a curriculum equivalent to that of public schools, public schools; and schools, private or public, directly related to the medical profession.
Electronic Message Display or "EMD"
means a sign capable of displaying words, symbols, figures, or images that can be electronically or mechanically changed by remote or automatic means.
Encroachment
means a structural or architectural element that breaks the plane of a vertical or horizontal regulatory limit extending into a setback, into the public frontage, into the right-of-way or onto another property.
Engineering Minimum Design Standards and Specifications
means the design standards and construction specifications issued by the engineering department for municipal water, wastewater, storm sewer, and street paving improvements.
ETJ
means Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.
Existing Structures
means structures, for the purpose of determining rates, for which the start of construction commenced before the effective date of the FIRM or before September 2, 1982, for FIRMs effective before that date.
Existing Vegetation
means the plant cover, floristic composition, or vegetation structure occurring in a specific place at a specific time and must be healthy and non-invasive.
Exterior Architectural Feature
means the style, design, general arrangement, and components of all the outside surfaces of a structure which characterize the landmark or district.
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ)
means the unincorporated area, not part of any other city, which is contiguous to the corporate limits of Lubbock as defined in the Texas Local Government Code, Title 2, Chapter 42, and extends from such limits a distance of five miles.
F. 
 
Facade
means the exterior wall of a building that is set along a street, not including an alley.
Facade Transparency
means the amount of transparent window glass or other openings in the facade of a building, relative to the overall surface area of the facade.
Family
means one or more persons related by blood, adoption or marriage, or not more than three unrelated persons living and cooking together as a single housekeeping unit. Residents of group homes are included within this definition.
Farm, Ranch, or Orchard
means land used for growing of usual farm products and/or raising of usual farm poultry and farm animals and including the necessary accessory uses for raising, treating, and storing products raised on the premises, but not including the commercial feeding of offal or garbage to swine or other animals and not including any type of agriculture or husbandry specifically prohibited by ordinance or law. This definition includes agricultural field crop or orchards; agricultural animal husbandry; crop production; feedlots; game farms; hatchery (fish, fowl, or poultry); horticulture; indoor crop production or farming; livestock grazing or pasturing; and private stable or riding facility.
Farming, Landscaping and Horticultural Sales and Services
means the sale of products either cultivated by agricultural methods or sold to assist with the cultivation of agriculture. This definition includes agricultural implement and tractor sales and service; feed grinding and processing; irrigation intake or pump; irrigation sales and services, including pumps and equipment; dairy supply dealer; and feed stores.
FEMA
means the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
FIRM
Fixtures
means the assembly that holds the lamp in a lighting system which is designed to provide light output control. This includes, but is not limited to, reflectors (mirrors) or refractors (lens), the ballast, housing, and the attachment parts.
Flood Administrator
means the City Engineer or his or her appointee who administers and implements provisions related to floodplain management.
Flood Hazard Boundary Map
means an official map of a community issued by FEMA, where the boundaries of the flood, mudflow and related erosion areas having special hazards have been designated.
Flood Insurance Rate Map
means an official map of a community on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency has delineated both the areas of special flood hazard areas and other flood areas and the risk premium zones applicable to the community.
Flood Insurance Study (FIS)
means a compilation and presentation of flood risk data for specific watercourses, lakes, and coastal flood hazard areas within a community. When a flood study is completed for the NFIP, the information and maps are assembled into an FIS. The FIS report contains detailed flood elevation data in flood profiles and data tables.
Flood or Flooding
means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of two or more acres of normally dry land area or of two or more properties from:
a. 
The overflow of inland or tidal waters.
b. 
The unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff of surface waters from any source.
Flood Protection System
means those physical structural works which have been constructed specifically to modify flooding in order to reduce the extent of the areas within a community subject to a special flood hazard and the extent of the depths of associated flooding. Such a system typically includes hurricane tidal barriers, dams, reservoirs, levees, or dikes. These specialized flood modifying works are those constructed in conformance with sound engineering standards.
Floodplain Management
means:
a. 
The operation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage, including but not limited to, emergency preparedness plans, flood-control works and floodplain management regulations.
b. 
Floodplain management is a decision-making process that aims to achieve the wise use of the nation's floodplains. "Wise use" means both reduced flood losses and protection of the natural resources and function of floodplains.
Floodplain Management Regulations
means Zoning Ordinances and Subdivision Ordinances, including this UDC, Building Codes, Health Ordinances, Drainage Criteria Manual, Special Purpose Ordinances (such as floodplain and grading ordinances) and other applications of police power. The term "floodplain management regulations" describes such state or local ordinances, in any combination thereof, that provide standards for the purpose of flood damage prevention and reduction.
Floodplain or Floodprone Area
means any land area susceptible to being inundated by floodwaters from any source.
Floodproofing
means any combination of structural and non-structural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures that reduce or eliminate flood damage to real estate or improved real property, water and sanitary facilities, structures and their contents.
Floodway
means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than a designated height.
Flour Mill
means a building and the equipment used for grinding grain into flour, including a corn mill, flour mill, or other similar type of mill.
FMSL
means feet above mean sea level.
Forecourt
means a Private Frontage wherein a portion of the facade is close to the frontage line and the central portion is set back.
Foundation Planting
means a group of plants used in landscape design to blend a building with its setting and obscure from view any undesirable features of the foundation.
Fraternity/Sorority House
means a house on or off the premises of a college campus that contains sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, and common living space including kitchens, bathrooms, and living rooms for collegiate fraternities or sororities.
Freestanding Canopy
means any structure that is not attached to the wall of a building which was built and designed for the purpose of covering or shading an area. Freestanding canopies are comprised of a roof and posts and are open on all sides.
Freeway
means a major divided highway depicted on the current City of Lubbock Master Thoroughfare Plan designed for high-speed travel, having few or no intersections and frontage roads with limited access to the main lanes.
Front Facade
Front Lot Line
means the line on a parcel where the public street right-of-way ends and the owner's property begins. On parcels intended for multi-family, mixed-use, or nonresidential development, the front lot line shall be the abutting dedicated street right-of-way of greatest designation, or when two or more lot lines are the same designation, then the lot line of most narrow length that abuts a street right-of-way. On parcels intended for all other residential development, the front lot line shall be the abutting dedicated street right-of-way of least designation, or when two or more lot lines are the same designation, then the lot line of most narrow length that abuts a street right-of-way.
Frontage
means the area between a building facade and the vehicular lanes, front lot lines, or pedestrian-only street, inclusive of its built and planted components.
Frontage Build-Out
means the percentage of the lot width which must be occupied by building facade within the building setback or build-to-zone. For example, a property that is 100 feet wide with a minimum frontage build-out of 60% would require that at least 60 feet of facade length be maintained along the setback or within the build-to-zone. Any additional length of front facade would be allowed to step back further from the build-to-zone, if desired. The intent of this requirement is to encourage development to maximize their front facade exposure along the Street.
Frontage Elements
means the structural and architectural elements which extend outward from the facade of a building along frontages, including awnings, canopies, galleries, porches and stoops, and which do not count as an extension of the facade itself for the purposes of measuring setbacks and build-to-zone.
Frontage Line
Fuel Sales
means a place where vehicular fuel, stored only in underground tanks, is offered for sale to the public or where charging stations are made available for the charging of vehicles.
Fully Shielded
means a light fixture that emits no light above a horizontal plane touching the lowest part of the fixture.
G. 
 
Gallery
means a narrow balcony or platform running the length of a wall that is covered and open at one side.
Garage
means a detached accessory building or an attached portion of the main building for the parking or temporary storage of automobiles for the occupants of the premises.
Garden Wall
means a wall no greater than 48" in height that defines the frontage line and/or the perimeter of a property, dividing private areas from streets, rear lanes, or adjacent lots.
GFA
means Gross Floor Area.
GI
means the General Industrial zoning district.
Glare
means a lighting effect that creates an intense and blinding light that reduces visibility.
GOBO Projection Sign
means a sign displayed on a fixed surface by projecting light through a semitransparent template that contains a static image. Note: "GOBO" is an acronym for "goes between optics."
Governmental Service Facility (Police, Fire, Emergency Medical Services)
means a local government facility for the conduct of public safety and emergency services, including fire and police protection services and emergency medical and ambulance services.
Grand Opening
means a temporary promotional activity for a new business for a period and frequency established in Section 39.02.021, Temporary Uses and Standards.
Greenhouse/Nursery
means an establishment primarily engaged in the propagation (for sale at retail or wholesale) of horticultural specialties, such as flowers, shrubs, and trees, intended for ornamental or landscaping purposes. This definition includes commercial and noncommercial uses.
Grocery (Food Sales)
means an establishment engaged in retail and/or wholesale sale of food, foodstuffs, sundries, or other common household items to members of the public. This definition includes all types of grocery stores regardless of the square footage of the store. The use may contain a cafeteria as an internal accessory use.
Groundcover
means plants of species that will not generally reach a height of more than two feet, installed in such a manner as to form a continuous cover over the ground. Groundcover includes sod, ornamental grasses, mulch, or perennial or seasonal plantings. Xeriscape groundcover, where a minimum of 5 live plants are planted within the groundcover area, for every 100 square feet of the groundcover area, is included in this definition.
Group Home
means a residential dwelling occupied as a residence by persons who would otherwise not meet the definition of family (more than two unrelated persons).
H. 
 
Habitable Space
means as defined by the International Building Code or the International Residential Code.
Hard Surface
means a surface that will not soften when exposed to moisture and which is of sufficient thickness to withstand usual wheel loads. The use of asphalt, concrete, soil-cement, also gravel or crushed rock when used in compliance herewith will meet this requirement. Caliche may be used as a base for asphalt, crushed rock, or gravel. In the event gravel or crushed rock is used, such material must be applied six to eight inches thick with a soil binder, or, in the alternative, applied two to three inches thick over a minimum six-inch-thick caliche base. Caliche, used by itself, will not be acceptable as a hard surface. The use of precast concrete slabs is acceptable if such slabs are at least two feet square and are adequately reinforced. Such slabs must be clearly specified in construction plans approved by the building official.
Hardscape
means the non-living elements used in landscape such as decorative walls, ledges, fountains, sculptures, stone paths, etc.
HC
means the Heavy Commercial zoning district.
HDR
means the High Density Residential zoning district.
Heavy Machinery Sales and Rentals
means an establishment providing for the sales and rental of equipment to be used for farming and construction, trailers and recreational vehicles, boats and boat trailers, mobile homes, Class 7 and larger heavy duty trucks, with long-term leasing or service (business permitted outside of the building).
Helipad (Hospital/Public Safety)
means any landing area for helicopters on public or private lands, which, in addition, includes all necessary facilities for the picking up and discharging of passengers or cargo.
Highest Adjacent Grade
means the highest natural elevation of the ground surface prior to construction next to the proposed walls of a structure.
Historic Landmark
means any individual building, structure, site, area, or land or of architectural, landscape architectural, historical, archeological or cultural importance or value, as may be designated for preservation by a local, state, or federal governmental entity.
Historic Preservation Overlay District
means an area designated by the City Council with lands, structures, and landscape architectural features regulated for the preservation and utilization of the district.
Historic Structure
means any structure that is:
a. 
Listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places (a listing maintained by the Department of the Interior) or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting the requirements for individual listing on the National Register;
b. 
Certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior to qualify as a registered historic district;
c. 
Individually listed on a state inventory of historic places in states with historic preservation programs which have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior; or
d. 
Individually listed on a local or state inventory of historic places in communities with historic preservation programs that have been certified either:
1. 
By an approved state program as determined by the Secretary of the Interior; or
2. 
Directly by the Secretary of the Interior in states without approved programs.
Home Beauty Shop
means the use of a residential dwelling to engage in the business practice or the trade of hair dressing or cosmetology under a license issued by the State of Texas.
Home Furnishing Store
means retail or service activities for the selling of home furnishings and appliances that can either be easily installed or are intended to be used as furniture. Stores that sell a substantial amount of raw materials such as lumber and/brick are not included within this definition or its use category. Rather, this definition includes household appliance sales and repair shop; small appliances; upholstery shops, furniture, and the like.
Home Occupation
means an occupation, profession, domestic craft, or economic enterprise that is customarily conducted in a residential dwelling. This definition includes, but is not limited to, the use of a home for cottage food production operations and day nurseries that are owner-occupied and provide services for less than six children.
Horticulture
means the cultivation of a garden, orchard, or plant nursery that includes flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants.
Hospital/Rehabilitative Care
means an institution providing primary health services and medical or surgical care to persons, primarily inpatients, suffering from illness, disease, injury, disability, and other physical or mental conditions and including, as an integral part of the institution, related facilities, such as laboratories, outpatient facilities, training facilities, medical offices, and staff residences.
Hotel or Motel
means a building occupied for transient residential purposes where individuals are lodged with or without meals, in which, as a rule, the rooms are occupied singly for hire, there may be a public dining room and a general kitchen. A motel or hotel may include accessory uses such as restaurants, club rooms, banquet halls, ballrooms, and meeting rooms.
HPO
means Historic Preservation Overlay zoning district.
I. 
 
Indoor Crop Production
means a method of growing crops or plants, usually on a large scale, entirely indoors, often implementing growing methods such as hydroponics and utilizing artificial lights to provide plants with the nutrients and light levels required for growth.
Industrial and Manufacturing Product Sales and Supply
means the sale and supply of petroleum products and large scale industrial and manufacturing products typically sold and shipped in large quantities. This definition includes uses such as oil well equipment sales, service and/or storage; pump sales and service; road machinery sales and service (totally within a building); road machinery sales and service (business permitted outside of building); welding equipment and supplies (acetylene).
Industrial and Manufacturing Uses
means a use category that includes uses engaged in the manufacturing, assembly, or processing of business or consumer goods, chemicals, animal and agricultural products, and metals. Sales to and visits by the general public are rare.
Uses in this use category include: Bakery, Wholesale; Batch Plant, Permanent; Contractor's Shop and/or Service Yard; Industrial and Manufacturing Product Sales and Supply; Manufacturing, Heavy (includes handling of explosive and/or foul materials); Manufacturing, Light (includes product assembly and processing); Meat Packing and Related Industries; Micromanufacturing; Publishing Services; Resource Extraction; Stockyard; Taxidermy Shop; Warehousing and Storage; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Industrialized Housing
means a single-family residential structure that is:
a. 
Designed for the occupancy of one or more families;
b. 
Constructed in one or more modules or constructed using one or more modular components built at a location other than the permanent site; and
c. 
Designed to be used as a permanent residential structure when the module or the modular component is transported to the permanent site and erected or installed on a permanent foundation system.
The term is synonymous with "modular home."
Infill
means redevelopment of a vacant property surrounded on a minimum of two sides by existing development.
Installation
means the temporary or permanent construction of the foundation system and the placement of a manufactured home or manufactured home component on the foundation, including supporting, blocking, leveling, securing, anchoring, and properly connecting multiple or expandable sections or components and making minor adjustments.
Installer
means a person, including a retailer or manufacturer, who contracts to perform or performs an installation function on manufactured housing.
Intermodal Shipping Container
means a metal standardized re-sealable transportation box for unitized freight handling with standardized equipment, commonly referred to as a "sea container."
IP
means the Industrial Park zoning district.
Item of Information
means a word, logo, abbreviation, symbol, or geometric shape.
J. 
 
Junkyard, Salvage Yard, and Wrecking Yard
means a place or a business that owns junk and/or salvage and is operated to store, buy, or sell said junk and/or salvage. Typically, all or part of the junk and/or storage is stored outdoors.
K. 
Kennel
means a place primarily for the keeping of five or more dogs, cats, or other small animals more than four months of age, where they are housed, groomed, bred, boarded, trained, and/or sold. Veterinarian services are not included in the definition of a kennel. This definition includes an animal shelter (totally within a building).
L. 
 
Lake Area
means that part of any natural stormwater lake area in the City, the perimeter of which has been established by the City Engineer, and it is the predicted 100-year water surface elevation of overflow playa lakes, and the 500-year, 24-hour predicted peak water surface elevation for non-overflow playas (reference elevation). The lake area can either reside in its natural state or be modified through a cut and fill plan.
Landfill
means a solid waste disposal facility consisting of an area of land or an excavation used for disposal of any solid waste resulting from the operation of residential, commercial, industrial, governmental, or institutional establishments that would normally be collected, processed, and disposed of through a public or private solid waste management service.
Landscaping
means creating an aesthetic effect by the use of a combination of plant material, including, but not limited to, grass, trees and shrubs, planters, brick, stone, natural forms, aggregate and other landscape features.
Lease-Purchase
means a lease contract for a manufactured home, in which the lessor retains title, containing a provision or, in another agreement, conferring on the lessee an option to purchase a manufactured home.
LI
means the Light Industrial zoning district.
Library, Museum, or Gallery
means an institution for the collection, display, and distribution of books, objects of art or science, and which is sponsored by a public or quasi-public agency, and which facilities are open to the general public.
License Holder or Licensee
means a person who holds a department-issued license as a manufacturer, retailer, broker, rebuilder, salesperson, or installer.
Light Trespass
means the shining of light produced by a luminaire beyond the boundaries of the property on which it is located.
Live-Work Unit
means a building or portion of a building that combines a dwelling unit with an integrated retail or workspace that is principally used by one or more of the residents of the dwelling unit. The workspace is secondary or accessory to the primary residential use and is designed to accommodate changes in use.
Loading Facility
means a space logically and conveniently located for bulk pickups and deliveries, scaled to delivery vehicles, and not considered as part of the minimum required off-street surface parking.
Lot
means the contiguous area of land under one ownership having access to a street, or access easement, either occupied or to be occupied, by a building or building group together with accessory buildings and used together with such yards and other open spaces as are required by this UDC, which parcel of land is designated as a separate and distinct tract with boundaries and is identified by a tract, lot number, or symbol in a duly approved subdivision plat of record.
Lot Coverage
means the area of a parcel occupied by permanently anchored primary and/or accessory buildings.
Lot Lines
means the lines designated on a plat as being the boundaries of a lot.
Lot, Double Frontage
means a lot with frontage on two parallel streets, with vehicular access normally restricted to only one of the streets.
Lowest Floor
means the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area (including basement). An unfinished or flood resistant enclosure usable solely for parking of vehicles, building access or storage in an area other than a basement area is not considered a building's lowest floor, provided that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable nonelevation design requirement of Section 60.3 of the National Flood Insurance Program regulations.
Lumen
means a unit used to measure the amount of light emitted by a lamp. The lumen rating associated with a given lamp is generally indicated on its packaging or may be obtained from the manufacturer.
Luminaire
means a complete lighting unit consisting of a light source and all necessary mechanical, electrical, and decorative parts ready to be mounted on a pole or other location.
M. 
 
Manufactured Home Installation
means the temporary or permanent construction of the foundation system and the placement of a manufactured home or manufactured home component on the foundation, including supporting, blocking, leveling, securing, anchoring, and properly connecting multiple or expandable sections or components and making minor adjustments.
Manufactured Home Park
means any tract of land that is 10 or more acres under single ownership, where accommodation is provided for a non-transient manufactured home use. The definition includes mobile homes and travel trailer parks. The use may include a manager's or rental office, pool, laundry, or other amenity designated for the use of the residents of the Manufactured Home Park.
Manufactured Home Sales or Storage
means a business engaged in the display, sales, storage, or rental of manufactured homes or other portable buildings.
Manufactured Home Space or Recreational Vehicle Space
means a plot of land within a manufactured home or recreational vehicle park designated for the accommodation of a single manufactured home or recreational vehicle.
Manufactured Home Stand
means a hard-surfaced area of a manufactured home or recreational vehicle space that is reserved for the placement of a manufactured home or recreational vehicle. Each manufactured home stand shall be provided with adequate "tie downs" to secure the superstructures against uplift, sliding, rotation and overturning. See "tie-down" requirements in Section 39.05.013, Specific Standards.
Manufactured Home, HUD-Code
means a structure constructed on or after June 15, 1976, according to the rules of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development; built on a permanent chassis; designed for use as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when the structure is connected to the required utilities; transportable in one or more sections; and in the traveling mode, measures at least eight body feet in width or at least 40 body feet in length or, when erected on site, includes at least 320 square feet; and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems of the home. The term HUD-code manufactured home does not include a recreational vehicle as defined by 24 C.F.R. Section 3282.8(g).
Manufacturer
means a person who constructs or assembles manufactured housing for sale, exchange, or lease-purchase in this state.
Manufacturing, Heavy
means a use category containing uses engaged in the manufacturing, assembly or processing of chemicals, animal products and metals, the activities of which are likely to have characteristics that discourage adjacency to residential uses. This definition includes:
acetylene manufacturing and storage;
acid manufacturing;
alcohol manufacturing and storage;
aluminum product fabrication;
ammonia manufacturing or storage;
animal raising, slaughtering, dressing, and packing;
arsenals;
asphalt manufacturing or refining;
asphalt storage, liquid or solid;
bag and bagging;
blacksmithing or horseshoeing;
blast furnace;
bleaching powder or chlorine manufacture or storage;
boiler making, repairing and boiler work;
brick, tile, pottery, or terra cotta manufacturing (business permitted outside of building);
butane and propane manufacture;
celluloid or similar-cellulose material manufacture;
cement, lime, gypsum, or plaster of paris manufacture;
chemical plants;
clothing manufacturing;
cooperage works;
corrugated metal manufacture;
cottonseed products manufacturing;
creosote treatment or manufacturing;
die casting manufacture;
disinfectants and insecticides;
dye stuff manufacture;
emery cloth and sandpaper manufacture;
fat rendering;
fertilizer manufacture;
forge plant;
foundry;
galvanizing gas manufacture;
glassblowing;
glue or gelatin manufacturing;
gravel crushing, screening, and washing (business permitted outside of building);
laboratory, chemical, general analysis;
linen and towel supply service;
liquefied petroleum gas sales and service, wholesale;
lumber yard or sawmill;
machine shop;
match manufacture;
manufactured home or mobile home manufacturing;
mixing plant for concrete, mortar, plaster and paving materials;
monument manufacture;
oil and rubber goods manufacture and refining;
oil cloth and linoleum manufacture;
oil compounding and barreling;
oil reclamation plant;
ornamental iron works;
paint manufacture;
paper (waste) and rag processing and storage;
paper box manufacturing and paper products manufacturing;
petroleum refining;
pharmaceutical manufacture;
planing mill;
prefabricated or ready-built house or portable building manufacturing;
refrigerator manufacture;
rolling mill;
sandblasting;
sash and door manufacturing;
sheet metal workshop;
shoe polish manufacture;
smelter;
soap manufacture;
steel fabrication plant;
stone cutting;
storage of poisonous gases and insecticides;
structural steel plant;
tank manufacture (business permitted outside of building);
tanning and curing of raw hides or skins;
tar distillation or manufacturing;
textile manufacturing;
tile roofing manufacture (business permitted outside of building);
trailer or camper manufacturing;
welding shop; or
other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Manufacturing, Light
means uses engaged in the manufacturing, assembly or processing of industrial, business or consumer goods, usually from basic finished inputs such as metal, stone, glass, plastic or rubber. Contractors and building maintenance services and similar uses perform services off-site. Few customers, especially the general public, come to the site, includes product assembly and processing. This definition includes:
armature binding;
bag cleaning;
bottling plant;
bottling works;
broom manufacturing;
cabinet or carpentry shop;
candle manufacturing;
candy plant;
cheese manufacturing;
chemical laundry; cleaning, dyeing, or dry cleaning shop;
commercial laundry;
cotton baling or compressing (no ginning);
cotton ginning;
creamery and dairy products manufacturing;
egg storage, egg candling, egg sorting, egg grading;
electronic components assembly;
electroplating;
food products manufacture, unless otherwise classified; frozen food lockers;
fruit and vegetable canning or preserving manufacture—not otherwise classified;
hot tamale plant;
ice cream manufacturing;
ice manufacturing and bulk ice storage;
job printing and lithographing;
mattress manufacturing or mattress renovation;
milling, custom;
moving, storage, packing, manufacturing and crating of household goods;
pickle, sauerkraut, or vinegar manufacture;
plumbing service;
plumbing, heating, refrigeration, or air-conditioning business;
sign shops, limited to window lettering, painted wall signs, banners and desk signs;
store fixture manufacturing;
tamale plant;
textile manufacturing;
tortilla manufacturing;
yeast plant; or
other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Marquee
means a permanent roof-like structure other than a roof attached to, supported by, and projecting from a building, providing protection from natural elements over the ground, sidewalk, or walkway.
Master Drainage Plan
means that plan adopted and approved by the City Council that establishes the regulatory water surface elevation for Playa Lakes and rates of overflow between lakes for certain areas studied within the corporate limits of the City and certain areas within the City's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Master Sign Plan
means an optional submittal that coordinates and sets the scope, character, and aesthetic quality of signs for a larger property or multi-building development, while allowing an additional degree of flexibility and creativity in sign design and display.
MDR
means the Medium Density Residential zoning district.
Mean Sea Level
means the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD) of 1988.
Meat Packing and Related Industries
means an establishment building where meat, poultry, or eggs are cooked, smoked, or otherwise processed or packed but does not include a slaughterhouse or rendering plant.
Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories
means a facility that is used for the express purpose of the design, fabrication, and repair of dental and optical goods, and/or a laboratory where tests are performed on biological specimens in order to obtain information about the health of a patient. This definition includes medical, dental, and optical laboratories.
Medical Office/Clinic
means a use where medical, dental, psychiatric, psychological, chiropractic, and other outpatient services are performed. This definition includes blood banks and blood plasma centers.
Meeting Hall
means a building available for gatherings, including conferences, that accommodates at least one room equivalent to a minimum of 100 square feet per projected dwelling unit within the Pedestrian Shed in which it is located.
Microbrewery, Microdistillery, or Microwinery
means a small, independently owned establishment where beer, wine, or other alcoholic beverage is brewed, fermented, or distilled for on-premises consumption and/or distribution.
Micromanufacturing
means the retail or business-to-business production of artisan goods that are produced indoors using small hand tools or light machinery including, but not limited to, 3-D printers or computer numerical control routers. Sample uses include, but are not limited to, fruit and vegetable canning, pickling, or preserving; ironwork; two-dimensional and three-dimensional printing; the making or assembling of bedding, candles, cheese or other dairy products, clothing or textiles, electronic components, non-alcoholic beverage, signs, or soap.
Mobile Home
means a structure:
a. 
Constructed before June 15, 1976;
b. 
Built on a permanent chassis;
c. 
Designed for use as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when the structure is connected to the required utilities;
d. 
Is transportable in one or more sections; and
e. 
In the traveling mode, measures at least eight body feet in width or at least 40 body feet in length or, when erected on-site, at least 320 square feet; and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems of the home.
MU-1
means West Broadway Mixed-Use zoning district.
MU-2
means Broadway Mixed-Use zoning district.
MU-3
means the General Mixed-Use zoning district.
MU-5
means the Civic Center Mixed-Use zoning district.
Mulch, Locally-Sourced
means mulch created in Lubbock County from source materials that came from Lubbock County.
Multiple-Family
means a use category containing residential occupancy of three or more self-sufficient dwelling units on a single property by households on a month-to-month or longer basis in structures. Units are accessed by/from interior elevators or hallways, or from individual exterior entrances and are separated by interior walls and/or floors.
Uses in this use category include: Apartments, Dormitories, Fraternity/sorority houses, Live-work units, Manufactured home parks, Multiplexes, Retirement housing, Vertical mixed-use, or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Multiplex
means a multi-family building type with three or four dwelling units, or which is occupied as the home or residence of three or four families living independently of each other and maintaining separate cooking facilities. A multiplex is designed to resemble a large single-family home. Units may have either private or shared access and may be arranged in a variety of configurations, including back-to-back, side-to-side, or over-under.
Mural
means a wall sign consisting of visual depictions and/or works of art such as mosaic, painting or graphic art techniques that are painted directly onto the exterior of a wall of a building.
N. 
 
N/A
means Not Applicable.
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)
means a federal program enabling property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance as a protection against flood losses in exchange for state and community floodplain management regulations that reduce future flood damages.
NC
means the Neighborhood Commercial zoning district.
New Construction
means, for the purpose of determining insurance rates, structures for which the start of construction commenced on or after the effective date of an initial FIRM or after December 31, 1974, whichever is later, and includes any subsequent improvements to such structures.
For floodplain management purposes, new construction means structures for which the start of construction commenced on or after the effective date of a floodplain management regulation adopted by a community and includes any subsequent improvements to such structures.
New Manufactured Home Park or Subdivision
means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed on or after the effective date of floodplain management regulations adopted by a community.
Nightclub or Bar
means a commercial establishment where alcoholic beverages may be served for consumption on the premises and in which dancing, musical entertainment, comedy, or other types of performances and activities may be presented.
Non-Contributing Building
means a building that does not add to the historic architectural qualities, historical or traditional cultural associations, or archeological values for which a property is significant because:
a. 
It was not present during the period of significance or does not relate to the documented significance of the property or district;
b. 
Due to alterations, disturbances, additions, or other changes, it no longer possesses historical integrity or is incapable of yielding important information about the period;
c. 
It does not independently meet any of the National Register of Historic Places evaluation criteria; or
d. 
It is less than 50 years old.
It is possible for a non-contributing building to be located within the Historic Preservation Overlay (HPO) district.
Non-Overflow Playa Lake
means a lake with storage volume sufficient to completely contain the combined runoff from its subbasin's initial condition runoff, its subbasin's FFD condition 100-year, 24-hour runoff, as well as the overflow volume contributed to it from upstream playas.
Nonconformity
means a general term including any nonconforming uses, buildings, structures, lots, site features, signs, and billboards. A nonconformity met the applicable regulations at the time it was established, erected, platted, or developed, but no longer complies with the standards of this UDC.
Nonconformity Conversion
means the process where a nonconformity changes to a conforming use.
Nonresidential Use
means any use listed under "Nonresidential Uses" in Table 39.02.016-1 in Section 39.02.016, Land Use Matrix.
Nudity
means appearing while any of the following portions of the human body are less than completely and opaquely covered:
a. 
Genitals, whether or not in a state of sexual arousal;
b. 
Pubic region or pubic hair;
c. 
Buttock(s);
d. 
The portions of the female breast(s) beginning from a point immediately above the top of the areola and continuing downward to the lowest portion of the breast(s); or
e. 
Any combination of the above.
O. 
 
OF
means the Office Zoning District.
Off-Street Parking
means an area for the temporary storage of an automobile which shall be permanently reserved for such purpose, and which shall not be within or on any public street, alley or other right-of-way.
Office, General
means a room or group of rooms used for the provision of executive, management, governmental, or administrative services. Typical uses include administrative offices and services including real estate, magazine agency, insurance, nonprofit training center, property management, investment, personnel, radio studios with no tower or antenna, travel, secretarial services, telephone answering, and business offices of governments, public utilities, organizations, and associations but excluding medical offices. This definition includes pest control (office only), janitorial or cleaning service (office only), and carpet cleaning (office only), or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
On-Site Sewage Disposal System
means one or more systems that:
a. 
Do not treat or dispose of more than 5,000 gallons of sewage each day;
b. 
Are used only for disposal of sewage produced on a site where any part of the system is located; and
c. 
Comply with Title 30, Chapter 285, of the Texas Administrative Code.
Opacity
means the measurement of a fence as the total width of pickets (or other fence components), divided by the distance between posts; or in the case of horizontal fence types, the total width of horizontal fence elements divided by the height of the fence. For example, if a fence measures a total of 100 linear feet, and the combined width of all of its vertical pickets is 60 feet, then the fence has a 60 percent opacity.
Open Space
means land areas that are left undeveloped or mostly undeveloped from ground to sky in order to meet the minimum common open space requirement of a zoning district for an entire subdivision. Common open space may be open to the general public or open to only residents of its associated subdivision.
Operator
means any person who operates a short-term rental, as defined in this UDC.
Ornamental Tree
means a tree whose canopy is a minimum of 10 feet in width at maturity, planted primarily for its ornamental value such as flowers, leaf color, size, or shape.
Outdoor Display of Merchandise
means the outdoor display or sale of finished products actively available for sale. This definition does not include products in shipping boxes, crates, on pallets, or other shipping containers, which shall be considered Outdoor Storage.
Outdoor Exhibition or Show
means a temporary outside use that lasts for less than a week at a time and which includes multiple different entertainment opportunities for both children and/or adults.
Outdoor Sales Event
means a temporary location for the purpose of purchase by consumers, whether immediately or by placing of orders, of any merchandise, services, products, or goods irrespective of whether payment for such is made outdoors or in a temporary structure or permanent structure. This definition includes Christmas tree and Christmas wreath sales from Thanksgiving Day through December 31st and garage sales.
Outdoor Shooting/Archery Range
means the use of land for archery and/or the discharging of firearms for the purposes of target practice, skeet and trap shooting, mock war games (paintball), or temporary competitions, such as turkey shoots. This definition includes shooting galleries. Excluded from this definition shall be general hunting and unstructured and nonrecurring discharging of firearms on private property with the property owner's permission.
Outdoor Storage
means the storage of any item outside of an enclosed building or structure that is not accessible to the general public. This includes, but is not limited to, garden supplies; building supplies; plants; materials stored in crates or boxes; lumber yards; pipe; contractor's equipment; and other similar uses.
Outdoor Swimming Pool
means an above- or below-ground structure that is filled with water and used for swimming.
Overflow Playa Lake
means a Playa Lake where storage volume is not sufficient to completely contain the combined runoff from its subbasin's initial condition runoff, its subbasin's Future Fully Developed (FFD) condition 100-year, 24-hour runoff, as well as the overflow volume contributed to it from upstream Playa Lakes.
Owner
means the person or entity that holds legal and/or equitable title to real property.
P. 
 
Package Store
means a place where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption off the premises as a part of the primary business activity. Refer to Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, Chapter 22, Section 22.01.
Parapet
means a low protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony.
Park & Recreation Facility or Center
means an area containing a building or complex of buildings housing community recreation facilities owned, operated, or leased for operation by a public entity. This definition includes private community centers for recreational and social use; private recreational centers; public parks and recreational facilities; wildlife sanctuaries; woodland preserves.
Parking space
means an area for the temporary storage of an automobile that is permanently reserved for such purpose.
Parkway
means any part of the public right-of-way lying between the curb or improved roadway surface edge of any public street and the abutting private property line.
Passenger Terminal
means a facility that receives and discharges passengers and at which facilities and equipment required for their operation are provided. This definition includes bus passenger terminal, trolley, taxi, railroad, shuttle van, or other similar vehicular services.
Pawn Shop
means an establishment licensed to transact business by the Consumer Credit Commissioner under TLGC Chapter 371, Finance Code, where money is loaned on the security of personal property pledged in the keeping of the owner (pawnbroker).
Pedestrian Shed
means an area defined by the average distance that may be traversed at an easy walking pace from its edge to its center. This distance is applied to determine the size of a neighborhood or extent of a community. Pedestrian sheds are oriented toward a central common destination. A standard pedestrian shed has an average 1/4 mile or 1,320-foot radius, which is about the distance of a five-minute walk at a leisurely pace.
Person
means every natural person, firm, co-partnership, association, partnership, corporation, joint stock association, body politic, or society; and the term "person" shall include both singular and plural, and the masculine shall embrace the feminine gender. The term includes a trustee, receiver, assignee, administrator, executor, guardian, or other representative.
Personal Service
means an establishment primarily engaged in providing services generally involving the care of the person or his or her apparel. This definition includes barber or beauty shop; body piercing studio; carpet cleaning family-bundle; gym for fitness, yoga, barre, zumba, or similar activities; janitorial or cleaning service; laundry and/or dry-cleaning pickup station; micro-blading salon; reducing studio or salon; health club; self-service laundry; dry-cleaning pick-up station; tailor shop; tattoo studio; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Place of Public Assembly, Indoor
means a building in which people assemble for civic, educational, religious, or cultural purposes. This use includes event facilities, meeting halls, fraternal organizations, places of worship, performing arts facilities, public uses, and private clubs. This use does not include residential buildings. This definition includes civic center, performing arts center; semipublic uses such as community clubhouses, YMCA, YWCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc.
Place of Worship
means a place of public assembly whose primary purpose is to provide a meeting area for religious practice.
Planning and Zoning Commission
means the City Council-appointed commission that advises the City Council regarding zone changes and other matters that affect the growth and development of the community and reviews and approves plats.
Plat, Amending
means a plat that corrects minor errors in course or distance, descriptions of real property, scrivener errors, or that shifts internal lot lines without vacation of the preceding plat and without a public hearing or approval of other lot owners within the platted subdivision.
Plat, Conveyance
means a plat solely for the purpose of the recording of the lot, recording an existing lot or parcel created by other means, or to record the remainder of a tract created by the final platting of a portion of the property. A Conveyance Plat may be used to convey the property's interests but does not constitute approval for development of the property and the property subject to the Conveyance Plat is not eligible for a Building Permit.
Plat, Final
means a map or drawing of all, or a portion of, a subdivision prepared according to the City subdivision regulations by a registered professional surveyor, approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission or other authority and filed in the county clerk's office as a legal designation. A Final Plat includes a Replat.
Plat, Preliminary
means the conceptual design, presented as a drawing, for a proposed subdivision which serves as a working instrument for review and approval or denial by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Required changes are noted within the acceptance or rejection of the plat by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Each Preliminary Plat shall contain all contiguous property under single or common ownership, unless otherwise allowed by the Director of Planning, and include topographic information.
Playa Lake
means a natural saucer-like depression in the topography, typically having a clayey bottom that collects runoff from rain but is subject to rapid evaporation. The term includes all areas within the basin projected to be inundated by pooled stormwater runoff, as determined by an engineering analysis performed according to this UDC.
Playa Lake Area Cut and Fill Plan
means a plan, requiring approval of the City Engineer, that indicates excavation and embankment representing the physical changes being made with a playa lake modification.
Playa Lake Database
means a system where the City collects detailed information about playa lakes.
Playground
means a civic open space designed and equipped for children's recreation.
Point of Order
means the location where a customer orders an item at a drive-through establishment.
Porch
means an open air element of a building with a floor and a roof covering the floor that is supported by columns, posts, or piers. A porch may be located on more than one story.
Portable-On-Demand (POD) Storage Unit or Container
means a large container, typically intended for transport by large truck, train, or ship, that is used for the temporary storage and or transport of personal property.
Porte-Cochere
means a permanent structure attached to a residence or a nonresidential establishment and erected over a driveway, not exceeding one story in height, open on two or more sides, and that allows a vehicle to pass completely through.
Post-FIRM
means those buildings or structures that were constructed on or after the date of the initial FIRM. The City's initial FIRM is dated September 2, 1982.
Poultry
means a domestic fowl, including a chicken, turkey, goose, pigeon, guinea fowl, quail, ostrich, emu, or other similar type of bird, raised for the production of meat or eggs, or for sale.
Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution
means a large-scale creation of power which includes large solar collectors and windmills for nonresidential uses and more forms of utility power generation. This definition includes central power and lighting plants.
Pre-FIRM
means those buildings or structures that were constructed before the date of the community's flood hazard map or those buildings or structures that pre-date the initial FIRM.
Primary Civic Open Space
means the main outdoor gathering place for a community. It is often, but not always, associated with an important civic building.
Primary Facade
means the facade of a building that faces the street. In the case of a corner lot, it is the facade along the higher priority street on the street hierarchy established in Section 39.02.005a, General Mixed-Use Standards.
Primary Frontage
means the frontage along the primary frontage line.
Primary Frontage Line
means the lot line dividing a lot from a street right-of-way. On a corner lot only one lot line shall be considered as a front lot line, for commercial uses this shall be the lot line along the higher priority street on the street hierarchy and for residential uses this shall be the lot line along the lesser priority street on the street hierarchy.
Principal Entrance
means the main point of access for pedestrians into a building.
Principal Structure
means the largest and primary building on a lot.
Principal Use
means the main activity or combination of activities on a lot or in a structure.
Private Yard Area
means the area that is unenclosed, except for fencing, and open to the sky, located between the principal structure and accessory structure. The private yard area may consist of pools, yards, atriums, gardens, walkways, patios, and other similar uses as acceptable.
Production Water
means water that comes out of the well with the crude oil as a byproduct during the extraction of oil and natural gas either on- or off-site. Production water contains soluble and non-soluble oil and organics, suspended solids, dissolved solids, and various chemicals used in the production process.
Production Water, Treated
means production water that has been treated to remove oil residues, salts, suspended solids, and other chemicals so that the water may be reused. The level of treatment is dependent on what the water be used for.
Professional Engineer
means an engineer licensed to practice engineering in the State of Texas.
Public Frontage
means the area between the vehicular lanes and the frontage line.
Public Realm
means the physical and social domain of the public that is held in common either by their physical presence or by visual association. This includes, but is not limited to, plazas, squares, parks, thoroughfares, public frontages, private frontages, civic buildings, and civic open spaces.
Publishing Services
means an establishment primarily engaged in the production of books, magazines, newspapers and other printed matter. This definition includes printing plant and/or newspaper.
PZC
R. 
 
RE
means the Residential Estates zoning district.
Rear Lot Line
means the line opposite the established or assumed Front Lot Line of the same property where the owner's property ends, abutting a dedicated right-of-way or separate parcel.
Recreational Equipment or Trailer, Oversized
means any recreational equipment or trailer whose total size or total combined (equipment and trailer measured together) size, excluding any trailer tongue, is over seven feet in width or seven feet in height or 22 feet in length.
Recreational Vehicle
means a vehicle which is built on a single chassis; measures 400 square feet or less when measured at the largest horizontal projections; is self-propelled or permanently towable by a light duty truck; and is designed primarily as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel, or seasonal use and not for use as a permanent dwelling. The term shall include any travel trailer, camp trailer, pop-up or tent campers, house trailer, motor home or house car, and any pickup camper, on or off the pickup (excluding recreational dual purpose vehicles), except a simple shell, on the pickup, having no cooking or bath facilities. As used in this UDC, the term recreational vehicle is synonymous with vacation travel trailer.
Recreational Vehicle Parks and Campgrounds
means a parcel in single ownership on which two or more recreational vehicle sites and/or camping sites are located, established or maintained for occupancy by recreational vehicles or camp units as temporary living for recreation, education, or vacation purposes.
Repair Service
means establishments primarily engaged in the provision of repair services to individuals and households, rather than businesses, but excluding Automobile and Related Uses. This definition includes bicycle and lawnmower sales and repair shops; electronics repair shop; furniture repair; medical device repair; radio and television repair shops; shoe or boot repair shop; small household appliance sales or repair shops; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Replat
means a Final Plat which relocates lot boundaries of existing platted lots, meeting the same requirements as a Final Plat.
Reserve Strip
means a narrow strip of land that a subdivider uses to prevent or control access to abutting streets or parcels. Bufferyards are not considered reserve strips.
Resource Extraction
means the removal or recovery by any means whatsoever of sand, gravel, soil, rock, minerals, mineral substances, or organic substances, other than vegetation, from water or land on or beneath the surface thereof, exposed or submerged. This definition means mining and extraction of caliche, clay, gravel; quarrying of rock or stone; sanitary landfills; oil or gas well; rock crusher; salt works.
Restaurant
means a place where the primary business is the preparation and sale, on the premises, of food to members of the general public, and providing kitchen facilities separate and apart from the area of the premises devoted to public dining and which may or may not provide live entertainment to patrons of the premises. This definition includes brewpub; outside dining patios; restaurants with sales of mixed alcoholic beverages as an incidental use; restaurants, when designed for service and consumption of food inside the building only; sports grill; microbrewery, microdistillery, or microwinery; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Retail Floor Area
means the sum of the square footage of all enclosed floors, mezzanines, and lofts of a building devoted to retail sales of merchandise, including floor areas used for display, merchandise, and access isles.
Retail Sales
means the sale of goods, merchandise, services, and/or commodities to the general public. This definition includes:
antique shop;
art gallery, commercial;
arts and crafts store;
auction sales;
bake shop, candy store, delicatessen, donut shop, or pie shop;
barber or beauty supply dealer;
book or stationery shop or newsstand;
cafe supply dealer, fixtures;
camera shop;
canvas goods shop, tents and awnings (no manufacturing);
coin and stamp shop;
consignment clothing store;
dairy supply dealer;
department store;
discount center;
dress shop;
drug store;
duplicating/copy service;
family center;
feed store with no grinding, packaging, or mixing of feed permitted;
feed store;
florist shop;
furniture store, new;
gift shop;
gun shop;
hat shop;
hobby shop;
medical or nursing supplies and devices;
monument sales;
music or record shop;
music or video shop;
newsstand;
office supply—no bulk printing operation permitted;
pet shop or pet grooming - no boarding of animals permitted;
pharmacy;
secondhand stores of consumer goods;
shoe store;
sporting goods store;
store fixtures sales;
toy store;
wholesale/warehouse—intended for the sale and storage of art and or art supplies;
wine-beer, or alcohol tasting facility; or
other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Retailer
means a person engaged in the business of buying for resale, selling, or exchanging manufactured homes or offering manufactured homes for sale, exchange, or lease-purchase to consumers, including a person who maintains a location for the display of manufactured homes; and a person who sells, exchanges, or lease-purchases at least two manufactured homes to consumers in a 12-month period.
Retirement Housing
means one or more dwelling units designed for independent living and marketed specifically for the elderly or for persons with physical disabilities. This definition includes rest homes, nursing homes, assisted living, and continuing care facilities.
Ride-Share Loading Area
means an area designated to be used solely for the quick pick-ups and drop-offs of passengers using ride-sharing services.
Ride-Sharing
means the process of private vehicles being used for the temporary transportation of passengers. This definition includes ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft and other taxi services.
Riding Stable
means a building designed for and used for the storage of horses, mules, donkeys, vehicles drawn by such animals, or both.
Right-of-Way
means a strip of land dedicated, deeded, used, or intended to be used for a street, alley, sidewalk, railroad, or other purpose by the public, certain designated persons, or governing bodies. It is an appropriation of the land to some public use made by the owner and accepted for such use by the public.
S. 
 
Screening Device
means a solid six-foot fence or wall of wood or masonry construction, or other materials approved by the Director of Planning, that is required by this UDC.
SD
Sec.
means Section.
Self-Storage Facility
means a building or group of buildings under common management and control that are used for the storage of personal property or records, where individual owners or tenants control individual storage spaces.
Setback
means the horizontal distance of a required private open area at grade between the outer wall (or exterior finish) of a building or structure and the adjoining property lines, or, in the case of an abutting private street, the back-of-curb, unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from the ground upward. The front and side setback lines span the entire width of the property. The interior side and exterior side setback lines extend from the required front setback line to the required rear setback line.
Setback Figure
FIGURE NOTES: A = Front Setback; B = Side Setback; C = Street Side Setback; D = Rear Setback
Sexually-Oriented Business
means a sex parlor, nude studio, modeling studio, love parlor, adult bookstore, adult movie theater, adult video arcade, adult movie arcade, adult video store, adult motel, or other commercial enterprise the primary business of which is the offering of a service or the selling, renting, or exhibiting of devices or any other items intended to provide sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to the customer.
SF-1
means the Very Low Density Single-Family zoning district.
SF-2
means the Low Density Single-Family zoning district.
Short-Term Rental
means a residential dwelling unit(s) that is rented out for compensation on a temporary basis for a period of less than 30 consecutive days.
Short-Term Rental Permit
means a permit issued by the City that identifies the address of the subject property as a lawful short-term rental, the short-term rental permit number, the names and contact information of the owner, operator, and agent, if applicable, and a 24-hour emergency contact phone number for all of the preceding persons.
SI
Side Lot Line
means the lot lines that run generally perpendicular or at angles to the street or any lot line which is not a front or rear lot line.
Sign
means any words, numbers, figures, devices, designs, trademarks, or other symbols visible from a public street, that attracts attention to or makes information known (such as an opinion, individual, firm, profession, business, commodity or service). A sign includes its structural supports designed for display.
Sign Area
means the area measured by the smallest single rectangle that will enclose the outside dimension of the background panel or surface that includes the sign copy. For freestanding signs, the signstructure, including the base, side, and top frame not including the sign copy is not included in the sign area calculation.
Sign Height
means the vertical distance between the highest part of the sign or its supporting structure, whichever is higher, and the average established ground level beneath the sign.
Sign Setback
means a setback that is the horizontal distance between a sign and the front lot line, measured from the nearest part of the sign, including its extremities and supports, to any point on an imaginary vertical plane projecting from the front lot line.
Sign Setback
means the horizontal distance between a sign and the front lot line, as measured from that part of the sign, including its extremities and supports, nearest to any point on an imaginary vertical plane projecting from the front lot line.
Sign, A-Frame, or Easel
means a freestanding sign that has two sides, and the frame or support structure of which is hinged or connected at the top of the sign in such a manner that the sign is easily moved or erected and that may or may not have wheels. Also known as a "sandwich board," "curb sign," or "sidewalk sign."
Sign, Abandoned
means any sign except for a billboard, that no longer correctly directs or exhorts any person or advertises a bona fide business lessor, owner, product, service, or activity.
Sign, Accessory
Sign, Banner
means a sign made of fabric or any nonrigid material with no enclosing framework. This definition does not include a flag mounted on a flagpole but does include pennants.
Sign, Billboard
see "Billboard."
Sign, Canopy
means any sign painted, printed, attached, or otherwise applied to the surface of a canopy or awning.
Sign, Damaged
means any sign which has become so deteriorated or dilapidated as to require more than minimal reconditioning to restore it to an average, normal state of repair.
Feather Sign
means a sign made of flexible material in the shape of a feather, quill, sail, blade or teardrop, and mounted on a solid or flexible pole or cord. These are sometimes referred to as "quill signs," "shark fin" signs or flags, "teardrop flags," or "sail banners."
Sign, Flag
means a flexible piece of fabric, normally rectangular and attached on one side to a pole or rope.
Sign, Freestanding
means a single or double-faced sign placed upon or supported by the ground independent of any other structure, usually a monument sign.
Sign, Freestanding Canopy
means any sign painted, printed, attached, or otherwise applied to the surface of a freestanding canopy.
Sign, Hanging
means a sign with shapes, symbols or channel letters inscribed on a sculptural or three-dimensional object, and that projects from a wall or is suspended from a horizontal architectural ledge (such as a canopy or marquee) or projection or from the ceiling of an architectural recess.
Sign, Incidental
means a sign with copy located on a panel and mounted on a pole or a wall or similar structure, with or without a structural frame, that is normally incidental to the allowed use of the property but can contain any message or content.
Sign, Marquee
means a sign attached to, in any manner, or made a part of a marquee.
Sign, Miscellaneous
means a sign that is not prohibited but that is not a freestanding, roof, canopy, wall, or incidental sign type.
Sign, Monument
means a freestanding sign that is placed upon the ground or supported by a base that is at least 50% of the width of the sign at its widest point. A monument sign does not include a pole sign.
Sign, Mural
See "Mural."
Sign, Pole
means a freestanding sign that is supported by a pole, is not attached to a building, and where the bottom edge of the sign face is located at least three feet above the average finished grade at the base of the sign. A "pole sign" does not include a flag mounted on a flagpole.
Sign, Portable
means any sign not permanently affixed to the ground or to a building and which is designed to permit removal and reuse. A portable sign may be mounted on wheels, or on a metal or other chassis that is not permanently attached to the ground surface, or constructed of canvas, cardboard, wallboard, or other light temporary materials.
Sign, Projecting (Blade)
means a sign that is attached or affixed to a building, wall, or structure other than a pole, and that extends more than 15 inches from that building, wall, or structure. Also known as a "blade" sign.
Sign, Roof
means any signs that are mounted on the roof of a building, or that is wholly or partially dependent upon the building for support, and that projects above the highest point of a building with a flat roof, the eave-line of a building with a gambrel, gable, or hip roof, or the deck-line of a building with a mansard roof.
Sign, Sloping or Mansard Roof
means any sign affixed to a sloping or mansard roof.
Sign, Subdivision Entry
means a freestanding sign at the entrance of a single-family or two-family residential development.
Sign, Temporary
means a sign typically made of lightweight or filmsy material that can be easily or quickly mounted or removed (such as cloth, canvas, vinyl, cardboard, wallboard, or other light temporary materials), with or without a structural frame, intended for a temporary period of display.
Sign, Vehicle or Trailer
means any vehicle or trailer that displays, carries, pulls, or transports a sign or billboard and where: (1) the copy is visible from the public right-of-way, and (2) the vehicle is parked so that the copy is visible from the public right-of-way.
Sign, Wall
means any sign affixed flat against and parallel to a building wall. For the purposes of this definition, a wall shall include window areas.
Single-Family
means a use category containing residential occupancy of one or, in the case of a duplex, two self-sufficient dwelling units on a single property by a household on a month-to-month or longer basis in a structure.
Uses in this use category include: Duplexes; Cottages; Garden homes; Short-Term Rental; Single-family detached dwellings; Townhouses; Industrialized housing; or other uses that the Director of Planning interprets to be functionally similar to a use in this list.
Single-Family Cottage
means a type of Single-Family Detached Dwelling that is located on its own lot, is used by a single family, and does not exceed 1,300 square feet.
Single-Family Detached Dwelling
means a building containing a single dwelling unit that is used, intended or designed to be built, used, rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied, or that is occupied for living purposes, and that is:
a. 
Intended to be occupied as the home or residence of one family, and
b. 
Located on a single lot or tract and is unattached to other buildings containing dwelling units.
Single-Family Garden Home
means a type of Single-Family Detached Dwelling that is located on its own lot, is shifted to one side of the lot immediately against or approximately against a side lot line and is used by a single family.
Site Development Plan
means a detailed line drawing clearly describing the project and demonstrates the project's compliance with the applicable requirements of this UDC.
Site Feature
means an element of a site that is regulated by Article 39.03, Building and Site Design, or Article 39.04, Subdivision Standards, including but not limited to building design, parking, loading, stacking, access, trees, landscaping, buffering, signs, and outdoor lighting.
Site Landscaping
means the installation of groundcover, xeriscape groundcover, rocks, decorative pavers, or stamped, dyed concrete, on areas of a site not designated as foundation plantings, bufferyards, parking lot landscaping, or utilized for pedestrian and vehicular access to the building (for example, sidewalks, parking spaces, loading spaces, service areas, and drive-in or drive-through facilities).
Skyglow
means a form of light pollution involving the diffuse illumination of the night sky, apart from natural light sources such as the moon and stars.
Smoke Shop or Tobacco Store
means an establishment dedicated to the retail sale of tobacco, tobacco products, or tobacco paraphernalia as its primary source of income. A grocery store or similar retail use that sells tobacco products or tobacco paraphernalia as an ancillary sale is not included in this definition.
Solar Collectors/Windmills (small accessory structures)
means alternative and environmentally-friendly energy sources that collect or create power on-site for an individual home, group of homes, or a nonresidential development.
Space Width
means the horizontal distance between the side lot lines, measured at right angles to the lot depth at a point midway between the front and rear lot lines.
Sq. Ft.
means Square Feet.
Stack Lot
means a lot used for the outside storage of used materials, machinery, or equipment, and to which the general public is not normally invited.
Stacking Lane
means a vehicular lane of stacking spaces dedicated to the drive-through, pick-up, and ATM type uses.
Stacking Space
means an eight-foot wide by 18-feet deep space where vehicles wait or temporarily stand for occupants who patronize a drive-through or pick-up nonresidential establishment.
Start of Construction
means, for other than new construction or substantial improvements under the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, Pub. L. 97-348, this includes substantial improvement and means the date the building permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, placement or other improvement was within 180 days of the permit date. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. Permanent construction does not include land preparation, such as clearing, grading and filling; nor does it include the installation of streets and/or walkways; nor does it include excavation for a basement, footings, piers or foundations or the erection of temporary forms; nor does it include the installation on the property of accessory buildings, such as garages or sheds, not occupied as dwelling units or not part of the main structure. For a substantial improvement, the actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor or other structural part of a building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.
Stockyard
means a site for services involving the temporary keeping of livestock for slaughter, market, or shipping. Typical uses include stockyards and animal sales in auction yards. This definition includes livestock sales.
Storm Shelter
means a shelter specifically designed and constructed to protect a large number of people from a natural hazard event. The number of persons taking refuge in the shelter will typically be more than 12.
Stormwater Detention Basin
means an area dedicated for the primary use of stormwater impoundment. Undeveloped open space activities may also exist. Stormwater detention basins may be under public or private ownership.
Story
means that habitable portion of a building included between the surface of any finished floor to the surface of a finished ceiling. Habitable attics and raised basements are not considered stories for the purposes of determining building height.
Street
means a dedicated public way primarily used for vehicular or pedestrian traffic as access to abutting properties or for other public uses such as allowed utility facilities. Cross-sections of the different types of streets are found in the engineering design standards and specifications.
Street, Alley Cut-Off
means a triangular area of dedicated right-of-way formed at the intersection of two streets, two alleys or a street and an alley which provides for vehicle turn movements.
Street, Arterial
means those streets which transfer traffic from collector streets to freeways on the current City of Lubbock Master Thoroughfare Plan.
Street, Centerline Offset
means the distance between the centerlines of streets intersecting a common street.
Street, Collector
means those streets which transfer traffic from local streets to arterial streets or freeways on the current City of Lubbock Master Thoroughfare Plan.
Street, Local
means an existing or proposed street that is not shown as a Collector A, Collector B, Minor Arterial A, Minor Arterial B, Principal Arterial A, or Principal Arterial (Modified) on the current City of Lubbock Master Thoroughfare Plan.
Street, Private
means a roadway that is not dedicated or accepted for public use or maintenance that provides vehicular or pedestrian access to more than one property, business, or dwelling unit.
Streetscreen
means a freestanding wall built along the frontage line, or coplanar with the facade, often for the purpose of masking a parking lot from the thoroughfare. Also referred to as a streetwall.
Structure
means anything constructed or erected which requires a location on the ground or attached to something having a location on the ground.
Structure, Principal
Studio (Arts, Crafts, or Recording)
means a place designed to be used both as a dwelling place and a place of work by an artist, artisan, or craftsperson, including persons engaging in the application, teaching, or performance of fine arts such as, but not limited to, drawing, vocal or instrumental music, painting, sculpture, and writing.
Subdivider
means a person who causes land to be divided into a subdivision. For the purposes of this UDC, it is the same as developer.
Subdivision
means the division of a tract of land within the corporate limits, or within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City, into two or more parts for the purpose of laying out any division of any tract of land or any addition to the City, or for laying out suburban lots or building lots or any lots and streets, alleys, or parks or other portions intended for public use, or the use of purchasers or owners of lots fronting thereon or adjacent to the streets, alleys, and parks. The term "resubdivision" and "addition" shall be included within this definition.
Subsec.
means Subsection.
Substantial Damage
means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before-damaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.
Substantial Improvement
means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before start of construction of the improvement. This includes structures which have incurred substantial damage, regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include either:
a. 
Any project for improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of state or local health, sanitary or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary conditions; or
b. 
Any alteration of a historic structure, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation as a historic structure.
Surveyor
means a registered professional land surveyor licensed to perform land surveying in the State of Texas.
T. 
 
Tattoo Studio
means an establishment where tattooing or permanent cosmetic application is performed, completely separated from living quarters, and being subject to all provisions of Article 8.10 of the City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances.
Taxidermy Shop
means an establishment that prepares, stuffs, and mounts the skins of animals with lifelike effect.
TCEQ
means Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Temporary Construction or Field Sales Office
means a building or structure that is temporarily placed to aid in the process of managing a construction project.
Tenant
means, for purposes of Division 3.5, Signs, a space in a building that is either rented or owned (for example, a condominium unit) by a separate person, corporation, partnership or other entity, with an entry on the building's front facade.
Third Place
means a private building that includes a space conducive to unstructured social gathering. Third places are usually bars, cafes, and corner stores.
Thoroughfare
means a way for use by vehicular and pedestrian traffic, or pedestrian traffic only, and to provide access to lots and open spaces, consisting of public frontage and often vehicular lanes. The term also means arterial.
Thoroughfare Plan
means a general plan adopted by ordinance by the City Council for the public roads, streets, and highways within the corporate limits or in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City that designates the type and width of major streets. Specifically, this term means the current City of Lubbock Master Thoroughfare Plan.
TLGC
means Texas Local Government Code.
Tobacco Paraphernalia
means any equipment, device, or instrument that is primarily designed or manufactured for the smoking, chewing, absorbing, dissolving, inhaling, snorting, sniffing, or ingesting by any other means into the body of tobacco, tobacco products, or other controlled substances as defined in Texas Health and Safety Code. Items or devices classified as tobacco paraphernalia include, but are not limited to, the following: pipes, punctured metal bowls, bongs, water bongs, electric pipes, e-cigarettes, e-cigarette juice, buzz bombs, vaporizers, hookahs, and devices for holding burning material. Lighters and matches are excluded from the definition of tobacco paraphernalia.
Tobacco Product
means any product in leaf, flake, plug, liquid (such as e-cigarette liquid), or any other form, containing nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol derived from the tobacco or hemp plant, or otherwise derived, which is intended to enable human consumption of the tobacco or nicotine in the product, whether smoked, chewed, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed, or ingested by any other means. For the purposes of this UDC, this term excludes any product that has been specifically approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for sale as a tobacco/smoking cessation product or for other medical purposes, where such product is marketed and sold solely for such an approved purpose.
Tower (Telecommunications)
means any structure that is designed and constructed primarily for the purpose of supporting one or more antennas, including self-supporting lattice towers, guy towers, or monopole towers.
Tower/Cupola
means, for the purposes of the Mixed-Use Districts, a stand-alone structure that is significantly taller than it is wide or a portion of a building that is significantly taller than it is wide and typically has more detail than the surrounding building(s). When a tower is a portion of a building, the tower eave or cornice is taller than the remainder of the building eave or cornice height and one or more of the tower facades is located forward of the remaining buildingfacade.
Townhouse
means a house joined with other houses in a row, joined to its neighbors by party walls and covered by the same roof, while occupying separate lots. No townhouse structure shall have less than three dwelling units or an overall length exceeding 300 feet.
Trailer
means any portable or mobile vehicle on wheels, skids or rollers not structurally anchored to a foundation, either self-propelled, or propelled by an attached vehicle, animal, person or other propelling apparatus, which is used or may be used for commercial hauling or storage purposes.
Transportation, Utility, and Communication Uses
means a use category with the purpose of the transmission of energy or material to benefit the general public.
Travel Plaza
means an establishment engaged in the fueling, servicing, repair, and/or parking of tractor trucks and trailers or similar heavy commercial vehicles, including the sale of accessories and equipment for such vehicles. A travel plaza may also include overnight accommodations, showers or restaurant facilities primarily for the use of truck crews, and all of the typical conveniences for standard-sized automobile users that one typically sees at a gas station. This definition includes truck stops.
Truck Parking Lot (Primary Use)
means surface lots with no other use taking place on the property designed and built for large trucks such as semi-trailers that are designed to move large quantities of goods. This definition includes a parking lot or parking garage.
TWC
means Texas Water Code.
U. 
 
UDC
UDHPC
means Urban Design and Historic Preservation Commission.
Unoccupied
means a property on which all buildings are unused or not being used for a permitted activity.
Use
means the purpose for which land or a building is arranged, designed or intended, or for which either land or a building is, or may be, occupied or maintained.
Utilities
means the conduits, pipes, wires, etc. and associated appurtenances used to provide various services to both residential and commercial uses. Water, wastewater, and stormwater service are primary utilities provided by the municipality and natural gas, electricity, and communication are primary utilities provided by public or private utilities. This definition includes public utility installations.
V. 
 
Vacant
means a property on which there is situated no structure(s).
Vacation Travel Trailer
Variance
means a grant of relief to a person from the requirements of this UDC when specific enforcement would result in unnecessary hardship.
Vehicle
means every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is, or may be, transported or drawn upon a street or highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.
Vehicle Charging Station
means a public or private parking space that is served by battery charging station equipment that has as its primary purpose the transfer of electric energy (by conductive or inductive means) to a battery or other energy storage device in an electric vehicle.
Vehicle Use Area
means an unenclosed area used by three or more vehicles of any type, including but not limited to automobiles, recreational vehicles, recreational equipment, or trailers, moving or at rest, including, but not limited to, parking lots, loading and unloading areas, stacking lanes, access and circulation drives, driveways, and parking aisles.
Vehicular Lanes
means the lanes providing traffic and parking capacity within an Arterial, Collector, or Local Street. They usually consist of marked lanes in a variety of widths for parked and for moving vehicles.
Vending Kiosk
means a self-service, interactive device that is located on the outer side of a principal building (or as a stand-alone unit outside and independent of the principal building), which is accessible to the general public for the purposes of dispensing product or information.
Vertical Illuminance
means a measure of how much light is falling onto a surface, typically measured in footcandles, calculated in a plane perpendicular to the property line.
Vertical Mixed-Use
means a building that contains both commercial and residential uses and is not limited by a regulation defining on which floor or floors the residential and commercial uses are required to be located.
Veterinary Clinic and/or Service, Large Animal
means any establishment maintained and operated by a licensed veterinarian for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury of large animals and livestock. The term may also include veterinarians who in addition to their large animal services also provide care for small domestic animals.
Veterinary Clinic and/or Service, Small Animal
means any establishment maintained and operated by a licensed veterinarian for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury of small domestic animals. The term does not include large animal and livestock veterinarians.
Violation
means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with the community's floodplain management regulations. A structure or other development without the elevation certificate, other certifications or other evidence of compliance required in Sections 60.3(b)(5), (c)(4), (c)(10), (d)(3), (e)(2), (e)(4) or (e)(5) of 44 CFR is presumed to be in violation until such time as that documentation is provided.
Visibility Triangle
means a triangular area that includes that portion of public right-of-way and any private property within a triangle formed by a diagonal line extending through points on the two property lines 25 feet from the street corner intersection of the property lines in all districts except for the MU districts. In the MU districts, the lines extend 10 feet from the back of curb.
The vertical dimensions of this triangle are a minimum of 12 feet vehicular traveled ways, including alleys, streets and easements, and a minimum of eight feet above sidewalks as established in Section 36.01.005, Maintenance of Sidewalks, Parkways, Alleys, etc.-By Abutting Owner, of the City of Lubbock Code of Ordinances.
Refer to Section 39.02.023, Measurements, for visual depictions related to this term.
W. 
 
Warehousing and Storage
means a building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials. This definition includes bulk grain or feed storage; cold storage warehouse; cotton storage; grain elevator and storage; scrap paper or rag storage; storage of hides or skins; storage or baling of rags; wholesale house, sales office and storage - no cotton storage.
Water and Wastewater Treatment
means facilities used for the treatment, storage, and distribution of potable and gray water to customers; and a facility, or group of facilities, used for the collection and treatment of industrial or domestic wastewater for sewer systems and for the reduction and handling of solids and gases removed from such wastes.
Water Storage
means facilities and infrastructure provided by a public agency, utility, or franchise which conveys water facilities including regional water storage tanks and reservoirs. This definition includes water storage, elevated, and water storage, ground.
Water Storage Capacity
means the volume of stormwater which any natural stormwater lake area is capable of holding in its natural state before any filling, cutting or redesign.
Water Surface Elevation
means the height, in relation to the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD) of 1988 (or other datum where specified), of floods of various magnitudes and frequencies in the floodplains of coastal or riverine areas.
Winery
means an agricultural processing facility used to produce wine that is purchased for off-premises distribution or consumption, except for limited tasting facilities. The processing activities may include but are not limited to, wholesale sales, crushing, fermenting, blending, aging, storing, bottling, and administrative office functions. This term includes vineyards.
Wing or Extension
means that part of a building projecting towards the rear lot line, if any, but only if the width of that projection is less than one-half of the total building width. For the purposes of this definition, building width shall be the greatest dimension of the building, as measured at right angles to the front property line.
Wireless Telecommunications Tower
means radio or television broadcasting towers, telecommunications towers, and antenna arrays. This definition includes antenna, tower, or alternative tower structure.
Y. 
 
Yard
means any open space between a building or group of buildings and the nearest lot line that is unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward unless specifically allowed in this UDC.
Yard, Front
means that yard between the front setback and the front lot line.
Yard, Rear
means that yard between the rear setback and the rear lot line, if any.
Yard, Side
means that yard between the side setback and the side lot line, if any.
Z. 
 
ZBA
means Zoning Board of Adjustment.
(Ordinance 2023-O0054 adopted 5/9/2023; Ordinance 2024-O0110 adopted 8/27/2024; Ordinance 2024-O0130 adopted 9/24/2024; Ordinance 2024-O0137 adopted 10/28/2024; Ordinance 2025-O0025 adopted 2/25/2025; Ordinance 2025-O0095 adopted 8/18/2025)