For the purposes of this title, the following definitions shall be used, unless a different definition is specifically provided for a section. Words used in the present tense include the future; the singular number includes the plural number; and the plural number includes the singular number. The word "shall" is "mandatory" and not permissive.

1.

Abutting means to have a common property line or district line.

2.

Accessory use or structure means a use or detached structure subordinate to the principal use of a structure, parcel of land, or water and located on the same lot or parcel serving a purpose incidental to the principal use or the principal structure.

3.

Acre net means the actual land devoted to the land use, excluding public streets, public lands, or unusable lands, and school sites contained within 43,560 square feet.

4.

Alley means a public or private right-of-way, which affords only a secondary means of access to the side or rear of an abutting property.

5.

Apartment means a suite of rooms or a room in a multiple dwelling, which suite or room is arranged, intended or designed to be occupied as a residence of a single family, individual or group of individuals, with separate facilities and utilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking and eating.

6.

Arterial street means a public street or highway used or intended to be used primarily for large volume or heavy through traffic. Arterial streets shall include freeways and expressways as well as arterial streets, highways and parkways.

7.

Automobile wrecking yard means any premises on which is kept more than one vehicle, not in running order or operating condition, or in a general state of disrepair, which is not completely enclosed within a building.

8.

Basement means a story partly or wholly underground. The height of a basement shall be the vertical distance between the surface of the basement floor and the surface of the floor next above it. A basement shall be counted as a story for the purposes of height measurements, if the vertical distance between the ceiling and the main level of the adjoining ground is more than five feet.

9.

Bed and breakfast establishment means an establishment, which is licensed by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services as a "bed and breakfast establishment," and is any place of lodging that includes the following:

a.

Provides eight or fewer rooms for rent to no more than a total of 20 tourists or transients;

b.

Provides no meals other than breakfast and provides the breakfast only to renters of the place;

c.

Is the owner's personal place of residency;

d.

Is occupied by the owner at the time of any rental; and

e.

Was originally built and occupied as a single-family residence or prior to use as a place of lodging, was converted to use and occupied as a single-family residence.

10.

Block means a tract of land bounded by streets or by a combination of streets and public parks or other recognized lines of demarcation.

11.

Boarding house means a building other than a hotel or restaurant where meals or lodging are regularly furnished by prearrangement for compensation for three or more persons not members of a family, but not exceeding ten persons and not open to transient customers.

12.

Buildable lot area means the portion of a lot remaining after required yards have been provided.

13.

Building means any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls used or intended to be used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, equipment, machinery or materials. When a building is divided into separate parts by unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part shall be deemed a separate building.

14.

Building, accessory, means a building or portion of a building subordinate to the main building and used for a purpose customarily incidental to the permitted use of the main building or the use of the premises.

15.

Building, detached, means a building surrounded by open space on the same lot. (See Section 17.72.010 for minimum setbacks to other structures.)

16.

Building, height of, means the vertical distance from the average finished grade at the building to the highest point of the roof.

17.

Building inspector means a person designated by the common council to enforce this title. Reference to the building inspector shall be construed to include the zoning official, the director of public works, or any other duly appointed city employee.

18.

Building, principal or main, means the building on a lot in which is conducted the principal use as permitted on such lot by the regulations of the district in which it is located.

19.

Building setback line means a line parallel to the lot line at a distance parallel to it, regulated by the yard requirements set up in this zoning code.

20.

Building, principal, means a building in which the principal use of the lot on which it is located is conducted.

21.

Business means an occupation, employment or enterprise which occupies time, labor and materials, or wherein merchandise is exhibited or sold, or where services are offered.

22.

Canopy means a structure attached to and extending outward from a building, designed to protect a building and/or people under the canopy from the sun, rain or snow.

23.

Carport means an automobile shelter having one or more sides open.

24.

Cellar means that portion of a building having more than one-half of the floor-to-ceiling height below the average grade of the adjoining ground. This portion is not a completed structure and serves as a substructure or foundation for a building.

25.

Channel means those floodlands normally occupied by a stream of water under average annual high-water flow conditions while confined within generally well established banks.

26.

Clinic, medical or dental, means a group of medical or dental offices organized as a unified facility to provide medical or dental treatment as contrasted with an unrelated group of such offices, but not including bed-patient care.

27.

Community living arrangement means the following facilities licensed, operated or permitted under the authority of the Wisconsin State Statutes: a community living arrangement for adults, as defined in Wis. Stats. § 46.03(22), a community living arrangement for children, as defined in Wis. Stats. § 48.743(1), a foster home, as defined in Wis. Stats. § 48.02(6), and an adult family home, as defined in Wis. Stats. § 50.01(1).

28.

Conditional use means the occupations, vocations, skills, arts, businesses, professions or uses specifically designated in each zoning district, which for their respective conduct, exercise or performance in such designated districts may require reasonable, but special, peculiar, unusual or extra ordinary limitations, facilities, structures, thoroughfares, plans, condition modification, or regulations in such district for the promotion or preservation of the general public welfare, health, convenience or safety therein and in the city and therefore may be permitted in such district only by a conditional use permit.

29.

Controlled access arterial street means the condition in which the right of owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons to access, light, air or view in connection with an arterial street is fully or partially controlled by public authority.

30.

Conservation standards means guidelines and specifications for soil and water conservation practices and management enumerated in the "Technical Guide," prepared by the USDA Soil Conservation Service for Winnebago County, adopted by the county soil and water conservation district supervisors, and containing suitable alternatives for use and treatment of land based upon its capabilities from which the landowner selects that alternative which best meets his/her needs in developing his/her soil and water conservation.

31.

Development means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, construction of additions or substantial improvements to buildings, other structures, or accessory uses, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or disposition of materials.

32.

District, basic, means a part or parts of the city for which the regulations of this title governing the use and location of land and building are uniform.

33.

District, overlay, also referred to herein as "regulatory areas," provide for the possibility of superimposing certain additional requirements upon a basic zoning district without disturbing the requirements of the basic district. In the instance of conflicting requirements, the more strict of the conflicting requirements shall apply.

34.

Drainage is a general term applied to the removal of surface or subsurface water from a given area, either by gravity or by dumping.

35.

Dwelling means a building, designed or used exclusively as a residence or sleeping place, but does not include boarding or lodging houses, motels, hotels, tents, cabins or mobile homes.

36.

Dwelling unit means a group of rooms constituting all or part of a dwelling, which are arranged, designed, used or intended for use exclusively as living quarters for one family.

37.

Dwelling, efficiency, means a dwelling unit consisting of one principal room with no separate sleeping rooms.

38.

Dwelling, single-family, means a detached building designed for or occupied by one family.

39.

Dwelling, two-family, means a detached building containing two separate dwelling or living units, designed for occupancy by not more than two families.

40.

Dwelling, multiple-family, means a residential building designed for or occupied by three or more families, with the number of families in residence not to exceed the number of dwelling units provided.

41.

Elderly day care home means locations which provide day care and food service for adults who are unable to be left alone while other family members are at work or otherwise not at home during the day. Overnight lodging is not to be provided at a day care center.

42.

Essential services means services provided by public and private utilities, necessary for the exercise of the principal use or service of the principal structure. These services include underground, surface or overhead gas, electrical, steam, water, sanitary sewerage, stormwater drainage, and communication systems and accessories thereto, such as poles, towers, wires, mains, drains, vaults, culverts, laterals, sewers, pipes, catch basins, water storage tanks, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, pumps, lift stations and hydrants, but not including buildings.

43.

Family means an individual living alone, or two or more people related by marriage or blood living as a single unit; or a group of not more than five people that need not be related by blood living in a single unit for housekeeping, as distinguished from a hotel, club, lodge or rooming house.

44.

Family day care home means a dwelling, also licensed as a day care center by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and where for compensation of consideration, a resident of the dwelling provides group care for at least four, but not more than eight children, between the ages of infancy and seven years of age at a location other than the child's own home or home of relatives or guardians.

45.

Farming, general, includes floriculture, forest and game management, orchards, raising of grain, grass, mint and seed crops, raising of fruits, nuts and berries, sod farming, and vegetable farming. General farming includes the operating of such an area for one or more of the above uses with the necessary accessory uses for treating or storing the produce, provided, however, that the operation of any such accessory uses shall be secondary to that of the normal farming activities.

46.

Farmstead means a single-family residential structure located on a parcel of land, which primary land use is associated with agriculture.

47.

Floodplain means the land adjacent of a watercourse or other body of water, subject to overflow therefrom during a regional flood.

48.

Floor area means the square feet of floor space within the outside line of walls and includes the total of all space on all floors of a building.

49.

Floor area, business and manufacturing buildings, means, for the purpose of determining off-street parking and off-street loading requirements, the sum of the gross horizontal areas of the floors of the building, or portion thereof, devoted to a use requiring off-street parking or loading. This area shall include elevators and stairways, accessory storage areas located within selling or working space occupied by counters, racks or closets and any basement floor area devoted to retailing activities, to the production or processing of goods, or to business or professional offices. However, floor area, for the purposes of determining off-street parking spaces, shall not include floor area devoted primarily to storage purposes except as otherwise noted herein.

50.

Foster family home means the primary domicile of a foster parent which is four or fewer foster children or adults and which is licensed under Wis. Stats. § 48.62 and amendments thereto.

51.

Frontage means all the property butting on one side of a street between two intersecting streets or all of the property abutting on one side of a street between an intersecting street and the dead end of a street.

52.

Garage, private, means an accessory building or space for the storage of motor vehicles.

53.

Garage, commercial, means any building or portion thereof, not accessory to a residential building or structure, used for equipping, servicing, repairing, leasing or public parking of motor vehicles.

54.

Garage, storage, means any building or premises used for the storage only of motor-driven vehicles, pursuant to previous arrangements, not to transients, where no equipment, parts, fuel, grease or oil are sold and vehicles are not equipped, serviced, repaired, hired or sold.

55.

Grade, when used as a reference point in measuring the height of a building, means the average elevation of the finished ground at the exterior walls of the main building.

56.

Group foster home means any facility operated by a person required to be licensed by the State of Wisconsin under Wis. Stats. § 48.62 for the care and maintenance of five to eight foster children.

57.

Home occupation means an accessory use of a dwelling unit for gainful employment involving the manufacture, provision or sale of goods and/or services that is clearly secondary to the residential use and does not change the character of the structure as a residence and meets all the applicable limitations of this title.

58.

Hospital means an institution intended primarily for the medical diagnosis, treatment and care of patients being given medical treatment. A hospital shall be distinguished from a clinic by virtue of providing for bed-patient care.

59.

Hotel means a building in which lodging, with or without meals, is offered to transient guests for compensation and in which there are more than five sleeping rooms with no cooking facilities in any individual room or apartment.

60.

Institution means a building occupied by a nonprofit corporation or a nonprofit establishment for public use.

61.

Junk means any scrap, waste, reclaimable material or debris, whether or not stored or used in conjunction with dismantling, processing, salvage, storage, baling, disposal or other use or disposition. Junk includes, but is not limited to, vehicles, tires, vehicle parts, equipment, paper, rags, metal, glass, building materials, household appliances, brush, wood and lumber.

62.

Junkyard means any place at which personal property is or may be salvaged for reuse, resale or reduction or similar disposition and is owned, possessed, collected, accumulated, dismantled or assorted, including, but not limited to, used or salvaged or new scrapped base metal or metals, their compounds or combinations, used for salvaged rope, bags, paper, rags, glass, rubber, lumber, millwork, brick and singular property, except animal matter; and used motor vehicles, machinery or equipment which are used, owned or possessed for the purpose of wrecking or salvaging parts therefrom.

63.

Loading area means a completely off-street space or berth on the same lot for the loading or unloading of freight carriers, having adequate ingress and egress to a public street or alley.

64.

Lodge or club means a building or portion thereof or premises owned by a corporation, association, person or persons for a social, educational or recreational purpose, but not primarily for profit or to render a service which is customarily carried on as business.

65.

Lodging house means a building where lodging only is provided for compensation for not more than three persons not members of the family.

66.

Lot means a parcel of land having frontage on a public street, or other officially approved means of access, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal structure or use and sufficient in size to meet the lot width, lot frontage, lot area, and other open space provisions of this zoning code as pertaining to the district wherein located.

67.

Lot, corner, means a lot situated at the intersection of two streets.

68.

Lot, interior, means a lot with frontage on only one street.

69.

Lot, through, means a lot other than a corner lot with frontage on two streets.

70.

Lot area means the area of contiguous land bounded by lot lines, exclusive of land designated for public thoroughfares.

71.

Lot depth means the shortest horizontal distance between the front lot line and the rear lot line measured at a 90-degree angle from the road right-of-way.

72.

Lot frontage means the smallest dimension of a lot abutting a street measured along the street lines.

73.

Lot line means legally established lines dividing one lot, plot of land, or parcel of land from an adjoining lot, or plot of land, or parcel of land as defined herein.

74.

Lot line, front, means a line separating the lot from the street or approved private road.

75.

Lot line, rear, means a lot line which is opposite and most distant from the front lot line.

76.

Lot line, side, means any lot boundary line not a front line or a rear lot line.

77.

Lot of record means a lot which has been recorded in the office of the register of deeds prior to the effective date of this zoning code.

78.

Lot width means the horizontal distance between the side lot lines at the building setback line.

79.

Minor structures means any small, movable accessory erection, or construction such as birdhouses, tool houses, pet houses, play equipment, arbors and walls, and fences under three feet in height.

80.

Mobile home means any of the following:

a.

A structure that is designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation and that is certified by the federal department of housing and urban development as complying with the standards established under 42 USC 5401 to 5425.

b.

A vehicle manufactured or assembled before June 15, 1976, designed to be towed as a single unit or in sections upon a highway by a motor vehicle and equipped and used, or intended to be used, primarily for human habitation, with walls of rigid uncollapsible construction, which has an overall length in excess of 45 feet. The term "mobile home" includes the mobile home structure, its plumbing, heating, air conditioning and electrical systems, and all appliances and all other equipment carrying a manufacturer's warranty.

81.

Mobile home lot means a parcel of land for the placement of a single mobile home and the exclusive use of its occupants.

82.

Mobile home park or manufactured home community means any plot or plots of ground upon which three or more manufactured homes that are occupied for dwelling or sleeping purposes are located. The term "mobile home park" does not include a farm where the occupants of the manufactured homes are the father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister of the farm owner or operator or where the occupants of the manufactured homes work on the farm.

83.

Modular unit means a prefabricated, detached single-family or double-family dwelling unit designed for long-term occupancy and containing sleeping accommodations, a flush toilet, a tub or shower bath, and kitchen facilities with plumbing and electrical connections provided for attachment to outside systems, which is or was designed to be transported and mounted on a permanent foundation.

83.5.

Mother-in-law-suite means one or more rooms within a single-family dwelling, designed, occupied, or intended to be occupied by one or more members of a family, provided that such rooms do not constitute or include a separate entry. No keyed entries between sides. The mother-in-law suite shall not have a separate address or utilities nor shall it be designed, occupied, or intended to be occupied separately and exclusively as a separate dwelling unit.

84.

Nonconforming lot means a lot of record existing on the date of passage of this zoning code which does not have the minimum width or contain the minimum area for the zone in which it is located.

85.

Nonconforming uses means any structure, use of land, use of land and structure in combination or characteristic of use (such as yard requirement or lot size) which was existing at the time of the effective date of this zoning code or amendments thereto and which is not in conformance with this zoning code. Any such structure conforming in respect to use but not in respect to frontage, width, height, area, yard, parking, loading or distance requirements shall not be considered a nonconforming use, but shall be considered nonconforming with respect to those characteristics.

86.

Nursing home means an establishment used as a dwelling place by the aged, infirm, chronically ill, or incurably afflicted, in which not less than three persons live or are kept or provided for on the premises for compensation, excluding clinics and hospitals and similar institutions devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, or the care of the sick or injured.

87.

Parking lot means structures or premises containing five or more parking spaces open to the public.

88.

Parties in interest includes all the abutting property owners, all property owners within 200 feet, and all property owners of opposite frontages.

89.

Planned unit development (PD) means a large lot or tract of land containing two or more principal buildings of uses developed as a unit where such buildings or uses may be located in relation to each other rather than to a lot line or zoning district boundaries.

90.

Professional home offices means residences of doctors of medicine, practitioners, dentists, clergymen, architects, landscape architects, professional engineers, registered land surveyors, lawyers, artists, teachers, tradesmen, authors, musicians or other recognized professions used to conduct their professions. "Tradesmen" shall be defined as a person or persons who hold themselves out with a particular skill, including, but not limited to, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, roofers and others involved in the building trade.

91.

Rear yard means a yard extending across the full width of the lot, the depth of which shall be the horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the principal structure. This yard shall be opposite the street yard.

92.

Restaurant means a business establishment consisting of a kitchen and dining room, whose primary purpose is to prepare and serve food to be eaten by customers seated in the dining room.

93.

Restaurant, drive-in, means a business establishment consisting of a kitchen, with or without a dining room, where food is prepared and packaged to be eaten either off the premises or within automobiles parked on the premises.

94.

Retail means the sale of goods or merchandise in small quantities to the consumer.

95.

Roadside stand means a structure not permanently fixed to the ground that is readily removable in its entirety, covered or uncovered and not wholly enclosed, and used solely for the sale of farm products produced on the premises.

96.

Setback means the minimum horizontal distance between the front lot line and the nearest point of the foundation of that portion of the building to be enclosed. The overhang cornices shall not exceed 12 inches. Any overhang of the cornice in excess of 12 inches, shall be compensated by increasing the setback by an amount equal to the excess of cornice over the 12 inches. Uncovered steps shall not be included in measuring the setback.

97.

Side yard means a yard, which extends from the street yard to the rear yard of the lot, the width of which shall be the minimum horizontal distance between the side lot line and the nearest point of the principal structure.

98.

Signs means any medium, including its structure, words, letters, figures, numerals, phrases, sentences, emblems, devices, designs, trade names or trademarks by which anything is made known and which are used to advertise or promote an individual, firm, association, corporation, profession, business, commodity or product and which is visible from any public street or highway.

99.

Site plan includes, but is not limited to, a drawing to scale of not less than one inch, which equals 50 feet, showing all physical aspects, such as buildings, setback dimensions, sidewalks, driveways, playgrounds, parking areas, and so forth which pertain to the proposed development and its relation to the surrounding area in conformance to the zoning of the area in which the development will exist.

100.

Story means that portion of a building which is included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the next floor above it, or if there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it. Any portion of a story exceeding 14 feet in height shall be considered as an additional story for each 14 feet or fraction thereof over the 14 feet in height requirement. A basement which has one-half or more of its height above the grade level shall be deemed a story for the purposes of height regulations.

101.

Story, half, means that portion of a building under a gable, hip or mansard roof, the wall plates of which, on at least two opposite exterior walls, are not more than 4½ feet above the finished floor of such story. In the case of one-family dwellings, two-family dwellings, and multifamily dwellings less than three stories in height, a one-half story in a sloping roof shall not be counted as a story for the purposes of this zoning code, except if used for residential purposes.

102.

Street means property other than an alley, or private thoroughfare, or travel way, which is subject to public easement or right-of-way for use as a thoroughfare.

103.

Street yard means a yard extending across the full width of the lot, the depot of which shall be the minimum horizontal distance between the existing street or highway right-of-way line and the nearest point of the principal structure. Corner lots shall have two street yards.

104.

Structural alterations means any change in the supporting members of a structure, such as foundations, bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.

105.

Structure means anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a permanent location on the ground or attached to something having a permanent location on the ground.

106.

Temporary structure means a movable structure not designed for human protection of goods or chattels.

107.

Terrace means the public right-of-way.

108.

Unnecessary hardship means that circumstance where special conditions, which were not self-created, affect a particular property, and make strict conformity with the restrictions governing the area, setback frontages, height, or density and are unnecessary, burdensome or unreasonable in light of the purposes of this title.

109.

Use means the purpose or activity for which the land or building thereof is designed, arranged or intended, or for which it is occupied or maintained.

110.

Use, accessory, means the subordinate building or use, which is located on the same lot on which the principal building or use is situated, and which is reasonably necessary, and incidental to the conduct of the primary use of such a building or main use, when permitted by district regulations.

111.

Use, principal, means the main use of land or a building as distinguished from the subordinate or accessory use.

112.

Utilities mean public and private facilities, such as water wells, water and sewage pumping stations, water storage tanks, electrical power substations, static transformer stations, telephone and telegraph exchanges, microwave radio relays, and gas regulation stations, inclusive of associated transmission facilities, but not including sewage disposal plants, municipal incinerators, warehouses, shops, storage yards and power plants.

113.

Variance means a relaxation of the terms of this title by the zoning board of appeals whereas the literal enforcement of this title would deny to the property owner a use of his/her property enjoyed as a right by other property owners within the same zoning district.

114.

Vehicle, motor, means every device upon or by which any person or property, is or may be transported.

115.

Vision setback area means an unoccupied triangular space at the intersection of highways or streets with other highways or streets, or at the intersection of highways or streets with railroads. Such a vision clearance triangle shall be bounded by the intersecting highway, street, or railroad right-of-way lines and a setback line connecting the points located on such right-of-way lines by measurement from this intersection as specified in this title.

116.

Wall, retaining, means a structure designed to resist the lateral displacement of soil and/or other materials.

117.

Yard means an open space on the same lot with a building, unobstructed by structures, except as otherwise provided herein.

118.

Yard, front, means a yard extending the full width of the lot between the front lot line and the nearest part of the principal building, excluding uncovered steps. On corner lots, the front yard shall be considered as parallel to the street upon which the lot has its least dimensions.

119.

Yard, rear, means a yard extending the full width of the lot between the rear lot line to the nearest part of the principal building.

120.

Yard, side, means a yard on each side of the principal building extending from the building to the lot line and from the front yard line to the rear yard line.

121.

Zero lot line means the concept whereby two respective dwelling units within a building shall be on separate and abutting lots and shall meet on the common property line between them, thereby having zero space between the units.

122.

Zoning official means a person designated by the common council to administer this title. Reference to the zoning official shall be construed to include the city administrator, the director of public works, or any other duly appointed city employee.

123.

Zoning permit means a permit issued by the zoning administrator to certify that the use of lands, structures, air and waters subject to this title are or shall be used in accordance with the provisions of this title.

(Prior Code, § 13-1-300; Code 1998, § 17.12.010; Ord. No. 346, § 1(part), 1997; Ord. No. 414(part), 2005; Ord. No. 479, 12-19-2017)