The regulations set forth in this article or set forth elsewhere in this ordinance when referred to in this article, are the regulations in the "M-2" Heavy Industrial District. This district provides for industrial operations of all types, except that certain potentially hazardous industries are permitted only after public hearing and review, to assure protection of the public interest and surrounding property and persons.

A building or premises shall be used only for the following purposes:

1.

Any manufacturing, processing, storing or distributing use permitted in the "M-1" Light Industrial District;

2.

Dwellings for resident watchmen and caretakers employed on the premises;

3.

Accessory farm dwellings, on a farm often (10) acres or more;

4.

Farm, truck garden, orchard, or nursery for growing or propagation of plants, trees and shrubs, including temporary stands for seasonal sales of products raised on the premises; but not including the raising for sale of birds, bees, rabbits, or other animals, fish or other creatures to such an extent as to be objectionable to surrounding residences by reason of odor, dust, noise, or other factors; and provided no retail or wholesale business office or store is permanently maintained on the premises;

5.

The following uses and any similar industrial uses which are not likely to create any more offensive noise, vibration, dust, heat, smoke, odor, glare, or other objectionable influences than the minimum amount normally resulting from other uses permitted; and manufacture, compounding, processing, packaging, or treatment of the following products or similar products:

Chemicals, petroleum, coal and allied products.

Adhesives;

Alcohol;

Bleaching products;

Bluing;

Calcimine;

Candle;

Cleaning and polishing preparations (nonsoap) dressings and blackings;

Dye-stuff;

Essential oils;

Exterminating agents and poisons;

Fertilizer (nonorganic);

Fuel briquettes;

Glue and size (vegetable);

Ink manufacture from primary raw materials (including colors and pigments);

Soap and soap products.

Clay, stone and glass products.

Abrasive wheels, stones, paper, cloth and related products;

Asbestos products;

Brick, fire brick and clay products;

Concrete central mixing and proportioning plant;

Glass and glass products;

Graphite and graphite products;

Monument and architectural stone;

Pottery and porcelain products (coal-fired);

Refractories (other than coal-fired);

Sand-lime products;

Wallboard and plaster, building, insulation and composition flooring.

Food and beverage.

Casein;

Cider and vinegar;

Distilleries (alcoholic), breweries and alcoholic spirits (nonindustrial);

Flour, feed, and grain milling and storage;

Molasses;

Oils, shortenings, and fats (edible) and storage;

Pickles, vegetable relish and sauces;

Rice cleaning and polishing;

Sauerkraut;

Sugar refining; Rubber tire and tube;

Shell grinding;

Storage batter (wet cell).

Unclassified uses.

Accessory advertising device giving the name of the industry or advertising products manufactured on the premises;

Bag cleaning;

Coal pocket;

Railroad switching and classification yard, roundhouse, repair and overhaul shops;

Oils, vegetable and animal (nonedible), and storage;

Paint, lacquer, shellac, and varnish (including colors and pigments, thinners and removers);

Roofing materials, building paper and felt (including asphalt and composition);

Salt tanning materials and allied products;

Tar products.

6.

Data centers, subject to the following conditions:

a.

All principal structures shall be set back at least one hundred (100) feet from any property line abutting a property used or zoned for residential purposes or a public park;

b.

A vegetated buffer fifty (50) feet in width shall be required along any property line abutting or across a road from a property used or zoned for residential purposes or a public park; for sites on which seventy (70) percent or more of the existing open space or vegetated area is cleared for the development, the buffer shall be a minimum of one hundred (100) feet in width;

1.

The buffer shall consist of an earthen berm that has a minimum height of six (6) feet and a slope not steeper than two-to-one (2:1) with plantings including a combination of large and understory deciduous trees, large and small evergreen trees, and ornamental trees and shrubs at a rate of one hundred twenty (120) plants per one hundred (100) linear feet; a minimum of forty (40) percent of the plantings shall be large evergreen trees on minimum 20-foot centers and no more than twenty (20) percent of the plantings shall be shrubs.

2.

Notwithstanding the requirements of this section, use of natural topography and preservation of existing vegetation, supplemented by new vegetation, if needed, or on the outside of a six-foot-tall solid fence, may be substituted for the above requirements when found by the Planning Director to provide visual screening equivalent to the buffer yard with earthen berm.

c.

For sites that abut property used or zoned for residential purposes or a public park, the following noise studies must be prepared by a Commonwealth Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) verifying the maximum sound levels for the development;

1.

A pre-construction study shall be submitted at the time of site plan review evaluating the existing noise conditions prior to the development and model-predicted noise conditions resulting from the development.

2.

A post-construction study of noise conditions at the time of operations shall be submitted at least one (1) month but no more than twelve (12) months after the issuance of the first Certificate of Occupancy for the development.

3.

Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, if either the pre-construction or post-construction noise study demonstrates the development exceeds the maximum sound levels specified in Chapter 50, Section 50-36 of the City Code as measured at the boundary abutting a property used or zoned for residential purposes or a public park, noise mitigation measures shall be required to secure conformance. Each study shall be accompanied by an affidavit or certificate signed by the PE stating whether noise mitigation measures are required by the noise study. If mitigation measures are required, they shall be designed in compliance with the noise study and shown on the site plan. The Zoning Administrator has the authority to interpret and enforce the Pre- and Post-Construction Study and any necessary noise mitigation measures.

d.

Closed-loop systems shall be utilized if water-based cooling is employed for the facility. This requirement may be waived or amended by the Director of Public Works.

(Ord. No. 2025-012, Exh. A, 1-21-2025)

The following uses, or manufacture, compounding, processing, packaging or treatment of the following products, having accompanying hazards, such as fire, explosion, noise, vibration, dust or the emission of smoke, odor, or toxic gases may, if no in conflict with any law or ordinance in the City of Petersburg or State of Virginia, be located in the "M-2" Heavy Industrial District, only after the location and nature of such use shall have been approved by the city council after public hearing. The planning commission shall review the plans and statements and shall not permit such buildings, structures, or uses until there has been shown that the public health, safety, morals and general welfare will be properly protected, and that necessary safeguards will be provided for the protection of surrounding property and persons. The planning commission, in reviewing the plans and statements, shall consult with other agencies created for the promotion of public health and safety:

Metal and metal products.

Boat manufacture (over five (5) tons);

Boiler manufacture (other than welded);

Brass and bronze foundries;

Forge plant, pneumatic, drop and forging hammering;

Foundries;

Galvanizing or plating (hot dip);

Lead oxide;

Locomotive and railroad car building and repair;

Motor testing (internal combustion motors);

Ore dumps;

Shipyards;

Structural iron and steel fabrication;

Wire rope and cable.

Textiles, fibers and bedding.

Bleachery;

Cotton wadding and linter;

Hair and felt products, washing, curing, dyeing;

Jute, hemp and sisal products;

Linoleum and other surface floor covering (except wood);

Nylon;

Oilcloth, oil-treated products and artificial leather;

Rayon;

Shoddy;

Wool pulling or scouring.

Wood and paper products.

Charcoal and pulverizing;

Excelsior;

Paper and paperboard (from paper machine only);

Sawmill (including cooperage stock mill);

Wallboard;

Wood preserving treatment.

Unclassified industries.

Leather tanning and curing;

Rubber (natural or synthetic), gutta percha, chicle and balata processing.

Chemicals, petroleum, coal and allied products.

Acids and derivatives;

Acetylene, generation and storage;

Ammonia;

Caustic soda;

Cellulose and cellulose storage;

Chlorine;

Coke oven products (including fuel gas);

Creosote;

Distillation, manufacture or refining of coal, tar asphalt, wood and bones;

Explosives (including ammunition and fireworks) and explosives storage;

Fertilizer (organic);

Fish oils and meal; Glue, gelatin (animal);

Hydrogen and oxygen;

Lamp black, carbon black and bone black;

Nitrating of cotton or other materials;

Nitrates (manufactured or natural) of an explosive nature, storage;

Petroleum, gasoline and lubricating oil;

Plastic materials and synthetic resins;

Potash;

Pyroxylin;

Rendering and storage of dead animals, offal, garbage or waste products;

Turpentine and resin.

Clay, stone and glass products.

Brick and firebrick refractories and clay products (coal-fired);

Cement, lime, gypsum, or plaster of Paris;

Minerals and earths: quarrying, extracting, grinding, crushing and processing.

Food and beverage.

Fat rendering;

Fish curing;

Slaughtering of animals;

Starch manufacture.

Metals and metal products.

Aluminum powder and paint manufacture;

Blast furnace, cupolas;

Blooming mill;

Metal and metal ores, reduction, refining, smelting and alloying;

Scrap metal reduction;

Steel works and rolling mill (ferrous).

Wood and paper products.

Match manufacture;

Wood pulp and fiber, reduction and processing.

Unclassified industries and uses.

Cotton ginning;

Cotton seed oil refining;

Hair, hides and raw fur, curing, tanning, dressing, dyeing and storage; Shell dredging;

Stockyard.

Height, area and bulk requirements shall be as set forth in the chart of article 22, and in addition the following regulations shall apply:

(1)

There shall be a side yard not less than twenty-five (25) feet in width on the side of a lot adjoining a residence district;

(2)

There shall be a rear yard not less than twenty-five (25) feet in depth on the rear of a lot adjoining a residence district;

(3)

Grain elevators, gas holders, coal bunkers, oil cracking towers and other similar structures may exceed one hundred twenty-five (125) feet in height, but whenever any building or structure in the "M-2" Heavy Industrial District adjoins or abuts upon a residence district, such building or structure shall not exceed fifty (50) feet in height, unless set back one foot from all required yard lines for each foot of additional height above fifty (50) feet.

The regulations contained in this article are supplemented or modified by regulations contained in other articles of this ordinance, especially the following: Article 19, Off-street parking regulations; Article 20, Off-street loading regulations; Article 23, Supplementary use regulations; Article 25, Supplementary height, area and bulk regulations.