North Wales City Zoning Code
ARTICLE VIII
OR Office Residential District
§ 208-32 Intent; applicable regulations.
The intent of the Office Residential (OR) District is to allow for limited, small-scale office and nonresidential uses within a historically residential section of Main Street. The regulations herein are intended to:
A.
Permit low-impact, small-scale and owner-occupied professional and business offices and a small variety of other low-impact nonresidential uses within existing residential buildings.
B.
Encourage the continued use of existing buildings, which were originally constructed as residences, and discourage the demolition of such.
C.
Encourage the preservation of the residential character of the district.
D.
Limit the impact of nonresidential development on existing residences by requiring a residential character, limiting the scale of buildings, controlling the location of parking areas, and requiring buffer landscaping.
§ 208-33 Permitted uses.
A building may be erected, altered or used, and a lot may be occupied or used, in whole or in part, for any of the uses indicated in the Appendix A, Permitted Use Matrix,[1] and no other, provided that such uses shall comply with the district regulations established in this article, Article IV, Use Regulations (in the event of a conflict between district and use regulations, the more stringent regulation shall be applicable), and all other applicable sections of this chapter.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is included as an attachment to this chapter.
§ 208-34 Dimensional requirements.
A.
Dimensional requirements in the Office Residential district shall be as follows:
Office Residential (OR) District Dimensional Requirements | |
|---|---|
Min. lot area | 12,000 feet2 |
Min. lot width | 75 feet |
Min. front setback | 40 feet |
Min. rear yard setback | 40 feet |
Min. side yard setback | 15 feet |
Max. building coverage | 25% |
Max. impervious coverage | 50% |
Maximum principal building height | 40 feet (3 stories max.) |
Maximum accessory building height | 15 feet |
§ 208-35 Standards and criteria for special exceptions.
The Zoning Hearing Board shall not grant approval of any use requiring approval of a special exception until compliance with the following standards and criteria are met:
A.
Any use permitted by special exception in the Office Residential (OR) district shall be considered accessory use as defined by this chapter and, as such, shall be clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the property as a single-family residence. No use permitted by special exception may be established as the sole or principal use of a lot in the Office Residential (OR) district .
B.
The use must preserve, utilize, and maintain any existing principal building.
C.
Existing buildings may be expanded by no more than 25% of the building footprint that existed at the time of passage of this chapter. All additions must be designed to match the residential character of the existing building and district and, in order to ensure this, must meet the following design requirements:
(1)
Building additions shall only be constructed to the rear or side of existing principal buildings.
(2)
The building material and colors of building additions shall be made to match or complement the existing principal building.
(3)
A wall to window/door opening ratio that is between 1:1 and 2:1 shall be required.
(4)
All roofs on additions shall have a pitch of at least six vertical inches to every 12 horizontal inches. Dormers or gables may be used to break up the bulk of roofs.
D.
The hours of operation, hours of dropoff/pickup of clients or their belongings, and times of delivery to/from the premises shall be limited to the hours between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
E.
No exterior storage of any materials shall occur.
F.
No goods or merchandise of any kind shall be sold or publicly displayed upon the premises.
G.
The storage of stock-in-trade and the sale of commodities of merchandise on the premises is prohibited, except for those produced upon the premises.
H.
The occupation shall not create noise, fumes, odor, dust, electrical interference or other emanation of any kind which may be detected outside of the dwelling unit containing the use.
I.
No mechanical equipment other than equipment normally intended for domestic, household or small office use shall be permitted.
J.
When a use requiring a special exception abuts a property solely occupied by a residential use, a screen buffer with a minimum width of 10 feet shall be provided along any shared property boundaries.
§ 208-36 Lighting.
Lighting shall not shine on abutting residential properties, and lighting poles shall not exceed 12 feet in height. Nonresidential light fixtures shall be setback a minimum of 20 feet from residential property lines, and the light source itself shall not be visible from abutting residential properties.