Marlborough Township
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XVI
Commercial Mixed-Use CMU District
§ 275-114 Legislative intent.
In expansion of the legislative intent contained in Article I, § 275-2 of this chapter it is hereby declared to be the specific intent of this article with respect to CMU Commercial Mixed-Use development to provide regulations for the development of retail, office, and mixed-use residential and commercial to:
A.
Provide areas to accommodate nonresidential uses which do not generate large volumes of traffic, which minimize adverse impacts on abutting residential properties and which maintain or improve the visual character and architectural scale of existing development.
B.
Prohibit development of strip-style, highway-oriented commercial uses which create traffic hazards and congestion because they generate higher traffic volumes and require multiple individual curb cuts.
C.
Provide regulation standards which are necessary to encourage orderly, well-planned development and to ensure the compatibility of development with the character of the district and surrounding areas.
D.
Use building scale, building orientation and landscaping to establish or preserve community identity.
E.
Ensure that new buildings or building additions and restorations have an architectural scale and character commensurate with the existing pre-1940 architecture of the area.
F.
Encourage bicycle and pedestrian-accessible developments, reflecting a village center rather than auto-oriented commercial strip development.
G.
Encourage shared access points, parking areas, and public spaces.
H.
Promote commercial development in a scale and style that is appropriate for the historic and rural character of Marlborough Township.
I.
Avoid congestion/hazardous traffic conditions and allow for pedestrian access from the Perkiomen Trail and Village of Perkiomenville.
§ 275-115 Use regulations.
On any lot in the CMU District, any combination of the following uses is permitted:
A.
Permitted uses.
(1)
Retail establishment where the principal use of the premises is the retail sale of goods and merchandise, and whose marketplace draws as largely local in scope or services.
(2)
Restaurant, cafe or similar establishment serving food or beverages without a drive-through.
(3)
Personal service shop that requires direct, physical contact with the customer in the performance of a personal service, and shall include such uses as barber, beautician, nail manicure, and tattooing.
(4)
Retail service shop that includes businesses which typically offer service in conjunction with the sale of goods. Such uses differ from retail or office business in that the customer area is usually separated from the service area, and some form of laboratory, fabrication area or processing area is necessary. Such use includes but is not limited to shoe repair, tailor, photography studio, copying service, shipping service, eyeglass labs, and other similar uses.
(5)
Business or professional office.
(6)
Post office, or remote (automated) post office facility.
(7)
Indoor theater, indoor place of amusement.
(8)
Mixed use buildings with a nonresidential permitted use on the first floor of the building and dwelling unit(s) on higher floor(s).
(9)
Conservation Subdivision Overlay District residential development Option 1: Basic Conservation Standards, with an allowed maximum density of one dwelling unit per 40,000 square feet of total developable area. See § 275-192A(1).
§ 275-116 Dimensional standards.
A.
Minimum lot area: 10,000 square feet.
B.
Minimum lot size for residential use when the Option 1: Conservation Subdivision Overlay District Basic Conservation Standards are applied: 40,000 square feet of total developable area.
C.
Minimum lot width: 70 feet.
D.
Required front facade location, when front facade faces collector or higher classification street: not less than 15 or more than 40 feet from the ultimate right-of-way.
E.
Required front facade location, when front facade does not face collector of higher classification street: not less than zero or more than 20 feet from ultimate right-of-way. Additional buildings on a lot do not have to meet this requirement when the additional building is smaller than and behind a building meeting the facade location requirement.
F.
Minimum side yard: 15 feet.
G.
Minimum rear yard: 30 feet.
H.
Accessory building side and rear setback: 10 feet.
I.
On tracts of six acres or more of gross area, minimum building setback from tract boundary abutting a residential lot: 60 feet.
J.
On tracts of six acres or more of gross area, minimum parking setback from tract boundary abutting a residential lot: 30 feet.
K.
Maximum building coverage on a lot: 35% of gross area.
L.
Maximum impervious coverage on a lot: 80% of gross area.
M.
Maximum building height: 45 feet.
N.
Maximum dwelling units per building: 8.
O.
Minimum distance between buildings on same lot: 20 feet.
P.
Maximum building length: 150 feet for facades facing a street.
§ 275-117 General requirements.
B.
Ownership. The tract of land to be developed shall be in one ownership or shall be the subject of an application filed jointly by the owners of the entire tract, and it shall be agreed that the tract will be developed under single direction in accordance with an approved plan.
C.
Ownership and maintenance of common open space and other common facilities shall be provided in accordance with the regulations in §§ 215-51 and 215-52 of the Marlborough Township Subdivision and Land Development ordinance. All open space shall be permanently deed-restricted from future subdivision and development.
D.
A written plan for policing and eliminating litter must be established and submitted to the Township.
§ 275-118 Design standards.
A.
General layout of buildings.
(1)
Buildings shall be placed to minimize conflict between service/delivery areas and pedestrian and vehicular activities.
(2)
Buildings shall be configured to ensure safe and efficient access by emergency services.
(3)
Buildings shall be configured to ensure safe passage for pedestrians from one building entrance to the next.
(4)
Streets.
B.
Pedestrian design standards.
(1)
Sidewalks are required along all existing and proposed road frontages.
(2)
Sidewalks are required to connect the road frontage sidewalks to all front building entrances, parking areas, central open space, and any other destination that generates pedestrian traffic.
(3)
Where cul-de-sac streets are permitted by the Township, sidewalk connections shall be required to connect the bulb of the cul-de-sac with the nearest through road. These sidewalks shall be located in a right-of-way with a width of at least 25 feet which is fenced, physically defined as a public walkway, and/or contains softening buffers.
(4)
Pedestrian connectivity must be provided between all site users, to adjacent tracts and the Perkiomen Trail to the maximum extent feasible.
(5)
Sidewalks shall connect to existing sidewalks on abutting tracts and other nearby pedestrian destination points and bus transit stops.
(6)
An area shall be reserved for a future bus transit stop. There shall be appropriate access to the bus transit stop from the primary building on the site.
C.
Building design standards.
(1)
Building design standards. All buildings shall meet the following requirements:
(a)
Building footprint. The maximum building footprint shall not exceed 30,000 square feet of gross floor area unless permitted as a conditional use in accordance with § 275-115B(2).
(b)
Building orientation and entrance. Front facades shall be oriented towards commercial/main streets within the tract, with an everyday public entrance in this front facade. When buildings are located on corners, the entrance may be located on the corner with an appropriate building articulation, such as a chamfered corner, turret, canopy, or other similar building feature. Marlborough Township may allow front facades to face existing streets rather than proposed streets, when these facades will extend an existing commercial district located along this existing street.
(c)
Walls and windows. Blank walls shall not be permitted along any exterior wall facing any existing or proposed street. Exterior walls in these locations shall meet the following criteria:
[1]
Such walls shall have architectural treatments that are the same as the front facade, including consistent style, materials, colors, and details.
[2]
Windows. The ground floor of any wall facing a street shall contain windows in accordance with the following requirements:
[a]
The ground floor front facades of retail commercial uses, personal service businesses, and restaurants shall consist of at least 35% window area, but not more than 75% window area, with views provided through these windows into the business.
[b]
All other ground floor walls facing a street shall contain at least 25% window area but not more than 75% window area, with views provided through these windows into the business.
[c]
All windows must be transparent. Smoked, reflective, or black glass in windows is not permitted.
[3]
Walls or portions of walls where windows are not provided shall have architectural treatments designed to break up the bulk of the wall, including at least four of the following treatments: masonry but not flat block; concrete or masonry plinth at the base of the wall; belt courses of a different texture or color; projecting metal canopy; decorative tilework; trellis containing plantings; medallions; opaque or translucent glass; artwork, vertical visual articulation, horizontal visual articulation; lighting fixtures; or a similar architectural element not listed above, as approved by the municipal governing body.
(d)
Roofs.
[1]
Buildings with pitched roofs shall cover at least 80% of the building with a pitch of at least six vertical inches to every 12 horizontal.
[2]
Buildings shall use parapets or mansard-type roof styles to conceal flat roofs, elevator and stair shafts, large vents, and rooftop equipment such as HVAC units along roof edges.
[3]
Pitched roofs or mansards shall provide overhanging eaves that extend a minimum of one foot beyond the building wall.
(e)
Buildings must have at least a three-foot offset in all facades for every 50 feet of continuous facade. Such offsets may be met through the use of bay windows, porches, porticos, building extensions, towers, bays, gables, dormers, steeples, and other architectural treatments.
(f)
Buildings shall contain materials, windows, doors, architectural details, massing, floor heights, and roofs that are compatible with existing residential buildings within the CMU District and adjoining VC District buildings.
D.
Parking standards.
(1)
Garages, parking lots, and/or driveways shall not be the dominant visual feature of the building design, as seen from the street.
(2)
Parking design standards. Off-street parking shall comply with the following requirements:
(a)
Off-street parking areas shall be located to the side and/or rear of buildings, unless there is an additional and larger building on the lot between the proposed parking/building and the street.
(b)
Off-street parking areas may not be located between buildings and streets, unless there is an additional and larger building on the lot between the proposed parking/building and the street.
(c)
Off-street parking shall be visually screened from existing and proposed streets by hedges, walls, buffer plantings, or similar site elements.
(d)
Parking areas on abutting nonresidential lots shall be interconnected by access driveways.
(e)
Each lot shall provide easements for its parking areas and access driveways guaranteeing access and use to all other lots within the tract.
(f)
Garage doors shall not face any existing or proposed higher classification road.
(g)
Parking lots shall be set back at least 10 feet from residential lots within the tract and at least 10 feet from street ultimate rights-of-way.
(3)
Amount of required parking. All uses shall comply with the minimum parking requirements required by the off-street parking standards found in Article IV of the Marlborough Township Zoning ordinance,[1] except as adjusted below:
(a)
The amount of parking that is provided shall not exceed 120% of the minimum parking that is required by section.
(b)
On-street parking of internal lots may be used to meet the minimum parking requirement.
(c)
Required parking may be located in a common parking facility or on an abutting lot, provided such spaces are located within 200 feet of an entrance to the building.
(d)
When different uses share common parking, the total number of spaces required for all uses may be reduced when the Township determines that the peak parking demand between two or more uses will be different enough to allow an overall reduction. The amount of required shared parking will depend on the amount and type of each use but may never be less than 75% of the total amount of parking required when shared parking is not used.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original.
E.
Driveway design standards.
(1)
For tracts of six acres or more of gross lot area, no lot or building shall take driveway access from an existing collector or existing higher classification road.
(2)
On existing tracts of land less than six acres of gross lot area, existing as of the date of adoption of this section, and on lots created from such tracts of land, each lot shall have not more than one driveway access point per existing street on which the lot fronts. When feasible, abutting lots must share a common driveway.
G.
Noise control.
(1)
All noise control standards shall follow those contained in Chapter 161, Noise (the Marlborough Township Noise Control ordinance).
H.
Off-street loading areas, outdoor storage, and trash disposal areas.
(1)
All loading areas and loading docks shall be located to the sides and rears of buildings. All loading areas and loading docks shall be set back at least 25 feet from property lines.
(2)
Outdoor storage or display of materials shall not be permitted within parking areas and pedestrian accessible routes. Outdoor storage areas shall not exceed 15% of building square footage.
§ 275-119 Open space standards.
B.
Total open space.
(1)
Open space may consist of a common use area, a primary park, active recreation facilities, passive open space, and other similar types of open space.
(2)
No portion of any building lot, road right-of-way area, or stormwater management areas may be used for meeting the minimum required amount of total open space.
§ 275-120 Conditional use requirements.
A.
Drive-through facilities for permitted uses such as, restaurants, drug stores, banks and financial institutions provided they meet the conditional use standards contained in § 275-60 and provided:
(1)
Traffic and circulation.
(a)
The drive-through facilities must provide for sufficient on-site stacking lanes for a minimum of six automobiles at the first window and two automobiles for every additional lane on site.
(b)
Size of stacking lanes must be adequate to allow for safe movement of vehicles with a minimum length of 20 feet and width of 10 feet. Stacking lanes shall be shown to fully accommodate all through and turning movements of the largest vehicle anticipated to utilize the drive-through.
(c)
Lanes shall be clearly defined by pavement markings and directional signage.
(d)
Queue space shall not interfere with interior pedestrian and vehicle traffic, safe use of parking spaces, and public street access-ways.
(2)
Building and site design.
(a)
Drive-through windows shall face the rear or side yard of the site and not the street.
(b)
Drive-through windows and stacking lanes shall be buffered from view from public streets using landscaping, decorative fencing or other aesthetic screening.
(c)
Stacking lanes shall be effectively separated from parking and pedestrian areas through the use of curbing, raised islands, and/or landscaping.
(d)
Drive-through facilities, including windows, must be architecturally compatible with the building and the existing or planned streetscape.
(e)
Outdoor speakers for drive-through windows must not produce noise at a level greater than 50db at the nearest property line or building.
(f)
At least 10 feet of clear height shall be provided for the drive-through lane and bollards shall be located adjacent to drive-through windows to prevent damage to the building from vehicles.
(g)
Any drive-through menu should be located at least 300 feet from any residential structure on a separate lot and at least 100 feet from any residential structure on the same lot.
B.
Buildings greater than 30,000 square feet of gross floor area and less than or equal to 55,000 square feet of gross floor area provided they meet the conditional use standards contained in § 275-60 and provided:
(1)
Traffic and circulation.
(a)
A traffic study must be conducted describing peak hours of operations, customer volumes per hour, stacking lane length needed for the anticipated volume of drive-through vehicles, turning movements, roadway capacity and level of service of nearby streets.
(b)
Driveway intersections with streets and traffic circulation patterns within lots shall be located and designed to minimize congestion and safety problems on adjacent streets and nearby intersections. The Board of Supervisors may require alternative driveway locations and site design in order to alleviate potential congestion or safety problems.
(2)
Building and site design.
(a)
Minimum lot width: 100 feet.
(b)
Maximum impervious coverage on a lot: 75% of gross lot area.
(c)
Minimum side yard: 20 feet.
(d)
Minimum rear yard: 35 feet.
(e)
All buildings with 50,000 square feet or more of gross floor area that directly face an abutting public street shall feature at least one customer entrance. This requirement can be met for two sides of a building by a corner entrance that is visible from both sides.
(3)
Common use area.
(a)
Buildings greater than 30,000 square feet gross floor area and less than or equal to 55,000 square feet of gross floor area shall contain a common use area that will serve as a focal point and provide walkways, seating, and landscaping. Courtyards, mini-parks and plazas are encouraged. The common use area shall meet the following requirements:
[1]
It shall generally be located between the street and the front facade of the primary building, within 200 feet of this building.
[2]
It shall be equal to or greater in size than 3% of the gross floor area of the building.
[3]
It shall be directly connected to the sidewalk in front of the building, without intervening driveways or streets.
[4]
It shall consist of one contiguous area, and the shape and location of the common use area shall be approved by the Board of Supervisors in consultation with the Township Planning Commission.
[5]
It shall be improved with a gazebo, pavilion, clock tower, or paved patio area with a fountain to help identify this area as the central gathering place for the development. This improvement shall be a minimum of 100 square feet in size.
[6]
It shall contain shade trees, ornamental plantings, and seating; it may also contain outdoor dining areas.