The Zoning Districts, established pursuant to Section 1 of this Ordinance are used to achieve compatible land use arrangements to implement the Comprehensive Master Plan, and for promoting the health, safety, morals and general welfare in the City of New Hope. The following purpose statements provide a brief explanation of the principal uses allowed in each.

AG Agriculture-Residential Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide for and protect agricultural land uses, along with appurtenant residential and accessory structures, until urbanization is warranted and conditions allow for efficient expansion of urban services. This Zoning District also allows for single-family detached residences without a requirement for agricultural activities or uses.

R-1 Standard Density Residential Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide for low-density residential development of a suburban character with detached single-family homes on parcels of land of at least ten thousand eight hundred ninety (10,890) square feet.

R-2 Medium Density Residential Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide medium density residential development of a denser, suburban character with detached single-family homes on lots of at least nine thousand (9,000) square feet.

R-3 High Density Residential Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide for high density residential development of a general urban character with detached single family homes on lots of at least seven thousand five hundred (7,500) square feet.

R-4 Multi-Family Residential Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide opportunity for multiple-family dwellings, within a protected residential environment, for the highest residential density considered appropriate to the environmental character of the City. Other purposes of this Zone include:

1.

Serving as zones of transition between non-residential Zoning Districts and single-family Zoning Districts.

2.

Providing areas for low/medium density multiple-family dwellings that will be compatible with adjoining single-family development.

3.

Including other uses of a type considered not incompatible with a good high-density living environment and providing for needed community services where it is deemed appropriate.

MH Manufactured Home Park Zoning District. This District provides the requirements for the development of manufactured home parks while deriving for the City the advantage of improved appearance, compatibility of uses, optimum service by community facilities and adequate vehicular access and circulation. The areas are developed and located to provide safe and sanitary conditions for occupants.

MU Mixed Use Zoning District. This Zoning District permits a vertical mixture of residential and non-residential uses. It would involve a building designed for one or more other uses in addition to one or more dwelling units that are not accessory to any of the other uses; for example, a building with a commercial use on the ground or street level with residential loft apartments on upper floors.

B-1 Local Shopping Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to encourage the development of the business center of the City of New Hope, and further to provide for limited retail convenience goods and personal service establishments near local residential neighborhoods and to encourage the concentration of these uses in one (1) location for each residential neighborhood rather than in scattered sites occupied by individual shops throughout a neighborhood.

Restaurants in the B-1 Zoning District are permitted. Drive-thru restaurants are not permitted in the B-1 Zoning District.

B-2 General Business Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to:

1.

Provide opportunity for the greatest range of commercial uses not considered compatible in the more restrictive business Zoning District, including larger retail sales, restaurant, grocery store, department store or office, and certain residential uses;

2.

Accommodate certain commercial uses compatible with one another, but inappropriate in certain other Zoning Districts;

3.

Serve a regional as well as local market;

4.

Accommodate activities causing noise, heavy traffic, and require location in proximity to major transportation routes;

5.

Provide total on-site traffic maneuvering such that traffic entering and exiting the facility should have room to turn, queue for parking areas and park within the confines of the facility;

6.

Certain drive-thru establishments, including restaurants, are permitted;

7.

Allow for very light production and processing activities.

H-431 Highway 431 Commercial Overlay. The purpose of the Highway 431 Commercial Overlay Zoning District is to exercise greater control over the aesthetic, functional and safety characteristics of development and redevelopment along US Highway 431 within the City of New Hope where higher development standards can effectively enhance the City's image as a desirable place to live, work and shop. This Overlay Zoning District is limited to specific areas encompassing land that has already been assigned conventional base Zoning District classification(s). It supplements the standards of the base Zoning Districts with new or different standards that are intended to provide greater aesthetic and functional improvements.

M-1 Light Industrial/Manufacturing Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide a suitable protected environment for manufacturing, research and wholesale establishments which are clean, quiet and free of hazardous or objectionable emissions, and generate little industrial traffic. Industrial parks should be encouraged.

M-2 General Industrial/Manufacturing Zoning District. This Zoning District is intended to provide opportunity for the location of industrial, manufacturing, processing, warehousing, or research and testing operations that, due to employment of heavy equipment or machinery or to the nature of the materials and processes employed, require special location and development safeguards to prevent pollution of the environment by noise, vibration, odors or other factors, and may also require extensive sites for storage and parking, extensive community facilities, or generate heavy motor traffic.

PUD Planned Unit Development Zoning District. A mixed-use residential development of single-family dwellings in conjunction with rental, condominium, cooperative or townhouse properties. This Zoning District is intended to encourage innovative development that meets Comprehensive Master Plan goals and is tailored to the unique constraints and conditions of a particular site. This Zoning District allows flexibility in uses, designs, and building layouts as opposed to other Zoning Districts to better serve community needs.

FH Flood Hazard Overlay. It is the purpose of the Flood Hazard Overlay to promote the public health, safety and general welfare and to minimize public and private losses due to flood conditions in specific areas by provisions designed to:

1.

Restrict or prohibit uses which are dangerous to health, safety and property due to water or erosion hazards or which increase flood heights, velocities or erosion;

2.

Require that uses vulnerable to floods, including facilities which serve such uses, be protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction;

3.

Control the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers which are involved in the accommodation of flood waters;

4.

Control filling, grading, dredging and other development which may increase erosion or flood damage; and

5.

Prevent or regulate the construction of flood barriers which will unnaturally divert flood waters or which may increase flood hazards to other lands.

All properties annexed into the City of New Hope shall receive the AG (Agricultural Residential Zoning District) designation. If another Zoning designation is desired, the owner or authorized representative shall make application for rezoning in accordance with the provisions of this Zoning Ordinance.

Zoning Districts established by this Ordinance are bounded and defined as shown on the official Zoning Map of the City of New Hope, Alabama which, together with explanatory materials contained thereon, is hereby made a part of this Ordinance.

The following rules shall be used to determine the precise location of any Zoning District boundary shown on the official Zoning Map of the City of New Hope:

A.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following the limits of any municipal corporation shall be construed as following such limits.

B.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following streets shall be construed to follow the centerlines of such streets.

C.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following platted lot lines or other recorded property lines shall be construed as following such lines.

D.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following section lines, half-section lines, or quarter-section lines shall be construed as following such lines.

E.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following railroad lines shall be construed to lie midway between the main tracks of such railroad lines.

F.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following shorelines of any lakes shall be construed to follow the mean high-water line of such lakes and, in the event of change in such mean high waterline, shall be construed as moving with the actual mean high waterline.

G.

Boundaries shown as following or approximately following streams or other continuously flowing watercourses shall be construed as following the thread, or channel centerline, of such watercourses taken at mean low water and, in the event of a natural change in the location of such watercourses, shall be construed as moving with the thread, or channel centerline, of such watercourses.

H.

Boundaries shown as separated from, and parallel or approximately parallel to, any of the features listed in paragraphs A-G above shall be construed to be parallel to such features and at such distances there from as are shown on the map.

Table 8-1 indicates seven (7) categories of uses: Residential, Civic, Office, Retail, Service, Manufacturing, and Rural. Within each category, specific uses are listed and indicated as allowed, allowed subject to special conditions, or permitted upon appeal for a special exception. No land, structure, or building, may be used in a manner inconsistent with the uses listed in this table, unless the owner has met all special conditions, or has obtained a rezoning, special exception, or variance as required by Section 6 of this Ordinance.

Table 8-1—Allowed Uses Table

A Allowed subject to general Ordinance standards and conditions
SE Allowed only subject to special exceptions
SE ¹ Allowed only as a temporary special exception
¹ Uses in PUD Zoning Districts shall be specified based on development plans according to the standards and procedures of this Ordinance.