No encroachments shall be permitted within the minimum required front yard, side yard or rear yard setback areas except as follows:

Chimneys, vent stacks, air-conditioning equipment, heating equipment, solar panels, decorative cupolas, elevator equipment housing and parapets may exceed the height limitation of this Ordinance by an amount not to exceed four feet (4'), or four (4) feet above the ridgeline (or plate of a flat roof), whichever is lower. Such features, however, shall be permitted only when it has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the approving authority (by the applicant/owner) that such additional height is necessary for these features to function as intended.

Roof-mounted mechanical, electrical and telephone equipment and other obtrusive structures shall be architecturally screened from view with materials that complement the balance of the building, by raising the parapet for example, and shall be of low profile to minimize the need for screening. Where the roof is pitched, such equipment should be integrated into the pitch. Cantilevers are not permitted as support for such equipment.

Lot lines of corner lots, that are coexistent with side lot lines of adjoining lots, shall be considered side lot lines.

Lot lines of corner lots that are coexisting with rear lines of adjoining lots shall be considered rear lines.

Lot lines of corner lots that are coexisting with lot lines of adjoining corner lots shall be considered side lines.

Paragraphs a, b and c notwithstanding, each corner lot shall maintain a rear yard setback for at least one (1) yard area other than a front yard.

General. Off-street parking spaces shall be provided as further specified in this ordinance. All off-street parking spaces, except for those accessed from an alley, including passageways, driveways and turning areas shall be provided with a dustless, durable, all-weather parking surface clearly marked for parking spaces and adequately drained in accordance with § 25-1700.22 of this ordinance. Parking spaces accessed from an alley may utilize crushed stone, crushed shell, porous paving, paver blocks or other materials as may be found suitable by the City. Driveway aprons are required pursuant to Subsection 25-1700.11.9 and § 25-1700.12 of this ordinance.

Exemptions. None of the off-street parking facilities as required in this Ordinance shall be required for any existing building or use not now conforming to these requirements, unless said building or use shall be enlarged by creating additional living space, additional dwelling units, additional commercial space or by changing the use as defined herein of the building in which case the provisions of this Ordinance shall apply.

Illumination of Commercial Parking Spaces. All parking areas and appurtenant passageways and driveways serving commercial uses shall during their season or period of operation be illuminated as required by § 25-1700.19 of this Ordinance during the hours between sunset and sunrise. After 10:00 p.m. throughout the entire lot, forty percent (40%) of lights in parking areas shall remain lighted until sunrise. Adequate shielding shall be provided by commercial uses to protect adjacent residential zones from the glare of such illumination and from that of automobile headlights.

Parking in Required Yards and Open Spaces.

Setbacks for Driveways and Parking Areas.

Shade and Shrubbery Requirements. Off-street parking areas which provide parking for ten (10) or more vehicles shall be provided with shade trees or shrubs of a type and size approved by the Shade Tree Committee. The shade trees or shrubs shall be located in a planned manner within the parking lot area in quantity equal to not less than one (1) shade tree for every five (5) parking spaces and with shrubbery at the periphery of the parking lot to form a living wall not higher than two feet (2').

Parking Requirements for Mixed Uses. In the case of mixed uses, the parking facilities required shall be the sum of the requirements for the various individual uses, computed separately in accordance with this Ordinance; parking facilities for one (1) use shall not be considered as providing the required parking facilities for any other use.

(Reserved)[1]

Stacked Parking. Parking spaces for any residential unit may be placed in a "stacked" fashion, one behind the other, provided that each parking space is clearly designated and assigned to the dwelling unit it is intended to serve. "Stacked" parking shall be permitted for nonresidential uses provided each parking space is clearly designated and the business owner/operator has established a vehicle management plan.

Permeable Pavers. When approved as part of an Application for Development, or with approval by the City Engineer or his designee, permeable pavers may be installed in driveways and Parking Spaces. Acceptable permeable pavers include Techo Bloc Aquastone^®, Nicolock Checker Block^®, Nicolock Turfstone^®, Aqua-Bric^®, and Grasscrete^® or approved equal.

Motor Vehicles Signage to Apply. The provision of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes of New Jersey shall, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 39:5A-1, et seq., be made applicable to all street-level parking areas, if provision is made for over fifty (50) vehicles.

Truck Berths. In addition to the parking lot requirements in the preceding section, truck berths for loading and unloading of goods and materials shall be provided. Any building or outdoor area used for business, industry, storage, hospital or other nonresidential purposes which needs to be serviced regularly by trucks shall have truck berth facilities on the premises in accordance with the following:

Two (2) or more establishments which are adjacent to each other may combine their gross floor area and outdoor areas for the purpose of determining the minimum number of truck berths required when adjacent establishments utilize truck berths jointly.

The size of a truck berth shall be a minimum of forty-five feet (45') long and twelve feet (12') wide.

Driveways, aisles, loading platforms and other areas required to make a truck berth usable shall not be included in the minimum area required for a truck berth itself.

A clear height equal to a minimum of fourteen feet (14') shall be provided for each truck berth and for each truck access way between public streets.

Loading and unloading space, with proper access from a street or alley, shall be provided on any lot on which a building for trade or business is hereafter erected or substantially altered.

Lifts shall be within a garage which is accessory to a single-family use or a two-family use only.

Lift platforms must be sealed and of a sufficient width and length to completely cover the bottom of the vehicle on the platform to prevent dripping liquids or debris onto the vehicle parked below.

Lifts must be designed so that power is required to lift the car, but that no power is required to lower the lift to enable access to the top vehicle in the event of a power outage.

Lifts shall be designed to prevent lowering of the lift when a vehicle is parked below.

Neither parking spaces equipped with mechanical lifts nor parking spaces obstructed or reduced in size by mechanical lifts shall count as parking spaces for zoning purposes.

A social, economic and environmental assessment may be required for standard site plans where the project involves ten (10) dwelling units or more or twenty (20) or more parking spaces. The purpose of the assessment is to address potential problems and impact mitigation which are specific to the site being developed. The intent is to preserve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the City.

Social, economic and environmental assessments may be required to include, but not necessarily be limited to, analysis of the following items:

Maximum height above grade for a detached single bay garage shall be fifteen feet (15'), except the height of a 2-bay garage is limited to eighteen feet (18').

Minimum exterior dimensions for a single-bay garage shall be ten feet by twenty feet (10' x 20').

Street-facing garage doors shall be located at least eighteen feet (18') from the public right-of-way.

Detached garages where permitted shall be subject to the following:

No accessory building shall be closer to the street line than the street wall of the principal building.

Sheds and detached pergolas, where permitted, shall comply with the following standards:

Roofed accessory structures such as garages and sheds are included as impervious coverage. Pergolas are not considered as building coverage, or impervious surface coverage unless they are constructed over an impervious surface as defined herein.

Sheds and detached pergolas, where permitted, shall comply with the following standards:

Garden arbors, where permitted shall comply with the following requirements:

Roof Eaves.

Dormers.

Roof Decks.

Porches.

Attic and Half-Story. Compliance with the entire criterion herein is required, otherwise the floor shall be considered a full story.

Gutters and Downspouts. To reduce the adverse impacts of stormwater runoff on adjoining properties, gutters and downspouts shall be provided for all buildings. Stormwater shall either be discharged to an approved stormwater management system, or converted to the adjacent street or alley.

The following special requirements shall apply to all lots where the rear yard adjoins a lagoon, or Beach Thorofare (Great Egg Harbor Bay).

The following special requirements shall apply to all lots where the rear yard adjoins the Atlantic Ocean.

Purpose. Floor area ratio (FAR) is provided as a means of regulating building mass, and to establish buildings that are more proportional to the lots on which they are located.

Applicability. For all detached single-family buildings, the numerator of the FAR shall be established by measuring from the exterior faces of exterior walls and shall include all habitable building area within a principal structure having structural headroom seven feet (7') and greater. For purposes of FAR, habitable building area includes all enclosed interior spaces (except attics) located on lowest floor at or above the zoning flood elevation. Detached accessory structures such as garages and sheds, and nonhabitable building area are not included in the calculation of floor area ratio.

Encroachments Prohibited. Except as otherwise provided, it shall be unlawful for any person to erect, locate or maintain any building or part of a building, any appurtenance thereto, or any other improvement including, but not limited to, any steps, fence, post, rail, landscape bed or retaining wall within or upon any public street, sidewalk or within the public right-of-way without the authorization of the Code Enforcement Officer, Zoning Official or other City employee designated by the Mayor to investigate encroachments onto public property. Absent such authorization, such an encroachment shall be removed at the expense of the owner(s) of the property to which it is appurtenant.

Existing Encroachments. In the event the City employee designated by the Mayor to investigate encroachments certifies that an encroachment satisfies all of the conditions set forth in Subsection c below, no action shall be required at that time. In the event an encroachment does not comply with all of the conditions set forth in Subsection c below, the encroachment shall be removed by the property owner within thirty (30) days of the determination of such noncompliance unless application for a revocable license is submitted within said 30-day period.

Conditions for the Continuation of an Encroachment.

Encroachments Within the Historic District. In the event the encroachment is located within the Historic District, the City employee designated by the Mayor to investigate encroachments shall forward his determination to the Historic Preservation Commission of the City of Ocean City ("HPC") for review as a minor application as defined in Article V of the Bylaws of the HPC. The HPC shall determine whether the conditions set forth in Subsection c above have been met. If the HPC determines that an encroachment satisfies all of the conditions set forth in Subsection c above, no action shall be required at that time. In the event an encroachment does not comply with all of the conditions set forth in Subsection c above, the encroachment shall be removed by the property owner within thirty (30) days of the determination of such noncompliance unless application for a revocable license is submitted within said 30-day period.

No License Conferred. A determination that an encroachment meets the conditions set forth in Subsection c above and need not be removed does not confer upon the property owner any property rights. Rather, it is a determination that the encroachment is not, at the time of the determination, required to be removed. The City may subsequently require the encroachment to be removed upon 30-day notice to the property owner, at its option, in the best interests of the City.

Revocable License Available. Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent a property owner from applying to the Mayor for a revocable license, even in cases in which a determination of compliance with Subsection c above, has been made.

Application. The application for a revocable license for an existing encroachment, or for a proposed encroachment, shall be made on such forms as are prescribed by the Mayor or his designee and shall be accompanied by a survey depicting current conditions and such other information depicting the location, size, appearance and materials used in the construction of the improvement in order to enable the Mayor to determine whether the encroachment satisfies the conditions set forth in Subsection c above.

Fee. The permit fee for a revocable encroachment license shall be one hundred twenty-five ($125.00) dollars, paid at the time of the application for a revocable license.

Encroachment License. The revocable license shall confer upon the property owner no property rights whatsoever; and, shall provide that the owner of the encroaching improvement shall be responsible to maintain the said improvement in good condition; that the license shall automatically be revoked and the encroachment removed upon the demolition or removal of the primary building to which it is appurtenant; and that the said property owner shall indemnify and hold the City of Ocean City harmless for any and all liability arising from the existence of the encroachment in or on public property. The revocable license shall also provide that the City of Ocean City may require the removal of the encroachment upon reasonable notice to the property owner, and that upon the receipt of such notice the property owner shall remove the encroachment at his or her sole expense. The revocable license shall be recorded at the expense of the property owner, shall run with the land and shall be effective upon the receipt of a recorded copy thereof by the City Clerk.

It shall be unlawful for an owner or contractor to convert or to use a crawl space for living, sleeping, eating or cooking, or to install or have a bathroom or toilet compartment in a crawl space.

The minimum penalty for violation of any of the foregoing limitations shall, upon conviction, be five hundred ($500.00) dollars.

The maximum penalty for violation of any of the foregoing limitations shall, upon conviction, be one thousand two hundred fifty ($1,250.00) dollars, or imprisonment for a period not to exceed ninety (90) days, or a period of community service not to exceed ninety (90) days.

Each and every day in which a violation of any of the foregoing limitations exists shall constitute a separate violation.

Upon conviction of violation of the foregoing limitations, the unlawful improvements shall be removed and the crawl space shall thereafter be subject to annual inspection by the City with the inspection fee paid by the owner.

Where the required rear yard setback is calculated as a percentage of existing lot depth, apply the percentage and establish the rear setback for each side yard line individually, and strike a line connecting the points. The line so stricken establishes the required rear yard setback.

Where the required rear yard setback is specified in feet, convert the setback value to a percentage and follow above procedure. For example — where the setback is twenty-five feet (25'), convert to twenty-five percent (25%).

Temporary outdoor storage of de-icing materials in accordance with the requirements below is allowed between October 15th and April 15th:

De-icing materials should be stored in a permanent structure if a suitable storage structure is available. For storage of loose de-icing materials in a permanent structure, such storage may be permanent, and thus not restricted to October 15 - April 15 and shall comply with all zoning regulations applicable to sheds.

All such temporary and/or permanent structures must also comply with all other local ordinances, including building regulations and the accessory structure requirements of the zoning regulations.

The property owner, or owner of the de-icing materials if different, shall designate a person(s) responsible for operations at the site where these materials are stored outdoors, and who shall document that weekly inspections are conducted to ensure that the conditions of this section are met. Inspection records shall be kept on site and made available to the municipality upon request.

Residents may store de-icing materials outside in a solid-walled, closed container that prevents precipitation from entering and exiting the container, and which prevents the deicing materials from leaking or spilling out. Under these circumstances, weekly inspections are not necessary, but repair or replacement of damaged or inadequate containers shall occur within two (2) weeks.

If containerized (in bags or buckets) de-icing materials are stored within a permanent structure, they are not subject to the storage and inspection requirements in § 25-300.23.3 above. Piles of de-icing materials are not exempt, even if stored in a permanent structure.

This section does not apply to facilities where the stormwater discharges from de-icing material storage activities are regulated under another NJPDES permit.