Accessory. A structure detached from a principal building or part of a structure customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use of a zoning lot or of a structure. In addition to accessory uses, structures set forth in the permitted tables, accessories shall include the following:

1. Barn, shed, tool room or other similar subordinate building or structure for domestic or agricultural storage;
2. Home tennis court; swimming pool;
3. Incinerators incidental to the use of a lot or tract of land for residential or other purposes;
4. Private recreation areas in connection with the principal use;

Accessory Use. Subordinate or incidental uses customarily considered as being appropriate in connection with the principal use of the lot. An accessory use is located on the same zoning lot as the principal use, except in the cases of off-street parking, temporary manufactured housing parks, temporary real estate sales office and temporary construction facilities.

Acre. A measure of land containing 43,560 square feet.

Administrative and Business Office. The use of a building or a portion of a building for the provision of executive, management, or administrative services. Typical uses include administrative offices and services including real estate, insurance, property management, investment, personnel, travel, secretarial services, telephone answering, photocopy and reproduction, and business offices of public utilities, organizations and associations, or other use classifications when the service rendered is that customarily associated with administrative office services.

Adult Entertainment Uses. See definitions in Section 3.1.4.B

Agricultural Processing. The preliminary processing of agricultural products, to include processing and packaging, such as a packing shed.

Agricultural Sales and Service. An establishment engaged in sale from the premises of feed, grain, fertilizers, pesticides and similar goods or in the provision of agriculturally related services with incidental storage on lots other than where the service is rendered.

Ambient Air Quality Standard. An acceptable concentration of an air pollutant in a community.

Amortization. A method of eliminating nonconforming uses by requiring the termination of the nonconforming use after a specified period of time.

Amusement and Recreation Services. Establishments engaged in providing entertainment for a fee and including such activities as dance halls; studios; theatrical productions; bands, orchestras, and other musical entertainment; bowling alleys and billiard and pool establishments; commercial facilities, such as arenas, rings, rinks and racetracks; public golf courses; coin-operated devices; amusement parks; membership sports and health clubs; amusement and bathing beaches; swimming pools; riding academies; carnival operations; expositions; game parlors; and horse shows.

Animal Service. Retail sales, veterinary service, grooming, and boarding (located totally within a building), of dogs, cats, birds, fish or similar small animals customarily used as household pets. Typical uses include pet stores, small animal clinics, dog bathing and clipping salons, and pet grooming shops, but exclude uses for livestock and large animals.

Application, Complete. An application for development review and approval that: (1) has been submitted in the required format; (2) includes all information required to be submitted for the subject application type; and (3) is accompanied by the required fee.

Arborist, Certified. Means a person or firm, possessing a current city business license, who has been trained in the business of diagnosing, treating, pruning and removing trees.

Aviation and Surface Transportation. Airports, landing fields, aircraft parking and service facilities for operation, service, fueling, repair, storage, charter, sales and rental of aircraft, including activities directly associated with the operation and maintenance of airport facilities and the provision of safety and security. Aviation and Surface Transportation also includes facilities for loading, unloading and interchange of passengers, baggage and incidental freight or package express between modes of transportation, including bus terminals, railroad stations, and public transit facilities.

Banner. A strip of cloth containing a message or advertisement.

Bar or Lounge. Premises used primarily for the sale or dispensing of liquor by the drink for on-site consumption and where food may be available for consumption on the premises as accessory to the principal use.

Base Flood Elevation. The highest height, expressed in feet above sea level, of the level of flood-waters occurring in the regulatory base flood.

Bed and Breakfast. A portion of an owner-occupied dwelling unit, or detached accessory structure, offering transient lodging accommodations with or without breakfast to paying guests.

Berm. A man-made landscape feature generally consisting of a linear mound of soil. Temporary soil stockpiles and retaining walls are not berms.

Buffer. Open spaces, landscaped areas, fences, walls, berms, or any combination thereof used to physically separate or screen one use or property from another so as to visually shield or block noise, lights, or other nuisances.

Building. Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls and intended for the shelter, housing, or enclosure of any individual, animal, process, equipment, goods, or materials of any kind.

Building Code. The International Building Code as regulated by Charleston County.

Building Height. The vertical distance between the base flood elevation and: (1) the average height level between the eaves and ridge line of a gable, hip or gambrel roof; (2) the highest point of a mansard roof; or (3) the highest point of the coping of a flat roof.

Building, Principal. A building in which is conducted the principal use of the zoning lot on which it is situated. In a Residential District, any dwelling shall be deemed to be a principal building on which the lot is situated.

Canopy Tree. A tree, with a diameter of at least 2 1/2 inches (as measured 6 inches above grade) at the time of planting.

Caretaker. An individual or family who resides on premises as an accessory use for the purpose of maintaining, protecting, or operating a permitted principal use on the premises and for which financial remuneration is received for such services.

Cemetery. Land used or intended to be used for the burial of the dead and dedicated for cemetery purposes, including columbariums, crematoriums, mausoleums, and mortuaries when operated in conjunction with and within the boundaries of such cemetery.

Certificate of Occupancy. A document issued by a governmental authority allowing the occupancy or use of a building and certifying that the structure or use has been constructed and will be used in compliance with all the applicable municipal codes and ordinances.

Club or Lodge. An establishment providing meeting, recreational, or social facilities for a private or nonprofit association, primarily for use by members and guests. Typical uses include private social clubs and fraternal organizations.

Cluster Development. A development design technique that concentrates buildings on a part of the site to allow the remaining land to be used for recreation, common open space, and preservation of environmentally sensitive features.

Commercial Timber Operations. Tracts of 5 acres or more devoted to the production of marketable forest products through generally accepted silvicultural practices including, but not limited to, harvesting, site preparation and regeneration.

Communications Tower. A tower of any size that supports communication equipment, transmission or reception, and is utilized by commercial, governmental, or other public or quasi-public users. This does not include communication towers for amateur radio operators licensed by the Federal Communications Commission which are exempt from local zoning restrictions or communications towers under 100 feet in height used solely for educational communications purposes.

Construction Sales and Service. An establishment primarily engaged in construction activities and incidental storage on lots other than construction sites as well as the retail or wholesale sale, from the premises, of materials used in the construction of buildings or other structures other than retail sale of paint, fixtures and hardware. Typical uses include building materials stores, tool and equipment rental or sales, or building contractors.

Cul-de-sac. The radial turnaround area at the end of a dead-end street; or an egress.

Cultural Service. A library, museum, or similar registered non-profit organizational use displaying, preserving, and exhibiting objects of community and cultural interest in 1 or more of the arts and sciences.

Curb. A stone, concrete or other improved boundary marking the edge of a road or other paved area.

Curb Cut. The opening along the curb line at which point vehicles may enter or leave the roadway.

Day Care Center. The care, supervision or guidance of a person or persons, unaccompanied by the parent, guardian or custodian, on a regular basis, for periods of less than twenty-four hours per day in a place other than the person or persons’ own home or homes.

Dedication. The transfer of property by the owner to another party.

Density. The number of families, individuals, dwelling units, households, or housing structures per unit of land.

Detention Basin (Pond). A facility for the temporary storage of stormwater runoff.

Developer. The legal or beneficial owner of a lot land proposed for development; or the holder of an option or contract to purchase, or any other person having an enforceable contractual interest in such land.

Diameter Breast Height (DBH). The total diameter, in inches, of a tree trunk or trunks measured at a point four and one-half (4 1/2) feet above existing grade (at the base of the tree). In measuring DBH, the circumference of the tree shall be measured with a standard diameter tape, and the circumference shall be divided by 3.14.

Drip Line. An imaginary vertical line extending from the outermost circumference of the branches of a tree to the ground.

Dwelling (Dwelling Unit). A building or portion of it designed and used for residential occupancy by a single household and that includes exclusive sleeping, cooking, eating and sanitation facilities.

Dwelling, Multi-Family. A building containing three or more dwelling units.

Easement. A grant of one or more of the property rights by the property owner to and/or for use by the public, a corporation, or another person or entity.

Easement, Drainage. Land required for the installation of stormwater sewers drainage ditches and/or required for the preservation or maintenance of a natural stream or watercourse or other drainage facility.

Elderly Residential Care Facility. A facility which offers room and board for up to ten elderly persons who are unrelated to the operator and require personal assistance.

Excavation. Removal or recovery by any means whatsoever of soil, rock, minerals, mineral substances, or organic substances, other than vegetation, from water or land, on or beneath the surface thereof, or beneath the land surface, whether exposed or submerged.

Façade. The entire building wall, fascia, windows, doors, canopy and on any complete elevation.

Family. An individual, or two or more persons related by blood or marriage living together; or a group of not more than six individuals not related by blood or marriage but living together as a single housekeeping unit. In each instance the family shall be construed to include necessary live-in servants. Residents of state-licenses group homes for nine or fewer individuals shall be considered a family, for the purpose of Farm Labor Housing only, a family will be defined as up to and including ten unrelated persons living together as a single housekeeping unit.

Farm Labor Housing. A building or structure which is designed or constructed as a place of residence for farm workers.

Fence or Wall. A structural device erected to serve as an architectural element, landscape element, visual screen or physical barrier.

Financial Service. An establishment primarily engaged in the provision of financial and banking services. Typical uses include banks, savings and loan institutions, stock and bond brokers, loan and lending activities, and similar services.

Floor Area. The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of the building, measured from the exterior faces of the exterior wall or from the center lines of walls separating two buildings, computed as follows: (1) floor space devoted to the principal use of the premises, including accessory storage areas located within selling or working space, such as counters, racks, or closets; (2) any basement floor area devoted to the production or processing of goods or to business or professional offices. Floor area shall not include space devoted primarily to storage purposes except ramps, and maneuvering space, or basement floor area, other than area devoted to retailing activities, the production of processing of goods, or business or professional offices, stairwells, elevator shafts, equipment rooms (generally minus about 15 percent).

Florist. A commercial activity offering for sale cut flowers, ornamental plants, floral arrangements, real or artificial, and related accessories including cards, figurines, and indoor ornamental fixtures.

Food Sales. An establishment primarily engaged in the retail sale of food or household products for home consumption. Typical uses include grocery stores (including the sale of beer and wine in unopened containers for off-premise consumption) where revenue from the sale of groceries other than beer and wine comprises at least 51 percent of the gross sales of products of the establishment, and at least 51 percent of the total display or shelf space is devoted to groceries (other than beer and wine), delicatessens, meat markets, retail bakeries, and candy shops.

Forestry. Establishments primarily engaged in the operation of timber tracts, tree farms, forest nurseries, the gathering of forest products, or in performing forest services.

Frontage Road. A service road, usually parallel to a highway, designed to reduce the number of driveways that intersect the highway.

Funeral Service/Home. An establishment engaged in undertaking services such as preparing the human dead for burial and arranging and managing funerals.

Garage, (Private). An accessory structure or space on a lot with a dwelling unit devoted to or designed for the storage of automobiles and small (one-half ton capacity or less) trucks and not used for business purposes or occupancy.

Garage Apartment. A single dwelling unit located over a private detached garage and containing square footage no greater than that of the garage.

Garden Supply Center. A commercial activity offering for sale indoor or outdoor garden fixtures, packaged plant food, or pesticides, garden tools, manually or power operated with associated parts and accessories. Accessories may include plants. Not included is farm equipment elsewhere provided for in this ordinance.

Gasoline Service Station. Any premises used for supplying gasoline and oil, tires, accessories and services for automobiles at retail direct to the motorist consumer, including the making of minor repairs, but not including such major repairs as (a) spray painting; (b) body, fender, clutch, transmission, differential, axle, spring, and frame repairs; (c) major overhauling of engines requiring removal therefrom of cylinder-head or crankcase pan; (d) repairs of radiator requiring removal thereof; and (e) complete recapping or retreading of tires. The term includes the sale of used tires, taken in trade on the premises. The term does not include automobile sales and/or trailer rental.

Government Office. Federal, state, county or city offices, administrative, clerical or public contact services, together with incidental storage and maintenance of necessary vehicles.

Grade. The natural elevation of the ground or (1) the average elevation of the land around a building (2) the percent of rise or descent of a sloping surface.

Grand Tree. Any tree with a diameter breast height of 24 inches or greater, with the exception of pine tree species.

Ground Cover. Low-growing plant material less than 18 inches in height.

Group Care Home. A residential care facility licensed by the State Department of Social Services or Department of Mental Retardation for care of more than nine developmentally disabled or physically handicapped residents

Historic Area. A district or zone designated by a local authority or state or federal government within which the buildings, structures, appurtenances, and places are of basic and vital importance because of their association with history; or because of their unique architectural style and scale.

Home Occupation. Any activity carried out for gain by a resident and conducted as a customary, incidental, and accessory use in the resident’s dwelling unit.

Homeowners Association. A community association, other than a condominium association, that is organized in a development in which individual owners share common interest and responsibilities for costs and upkeep of common open space or facilities.

Horticulture Production. The growing of horticultural and floricultural specialties, such as flowers, shrubs, or trees intended for ornamental or landscaping purposes, but excluding retail sales. Typical uses include wholesale commercial nurseries and greenhouses.

Hotel-Motel. A building or portion thereof, or a group of buildings, which provides sleeping accommodations for transients on a daily or weekly basis, whether such establishment is designated as a hotel, inn, automobile court, motel, motor inn, motor lodge, tourist court, or tourist home.

Impervious Surface. Any material that prevents absorption of stormwater into the ground.

Inoperable Vehicle. Any motor-driven vehicle, regardless of size, which is incapable of being self-propelled upon the public streets of the County or which does not meet the requirements for operation upon the public streets, including a current motor vehicle license.

Junk Yard. Any area, lot, land, parcel, building, or structure, or part thereof, used for the storage, collection, processing, purchase, sale, salvage, or disposal of junk.

Kennel. Boarding and care services for dogs, cats and similar small animals. Typical uses include boarding kennels, pet motels, and dog training centers.

Lot Occupancy. The proportion, expressed as a percentage, of the area of a zoning lot covered by all buildings located thereon, including the area covered by all overhanging roofs.

Lot, Through. An interior lot which abuts on two or more streets.

Lot Width. The horizontal distance between the side lines of a lot measured at right angles to its depth along a straight line parallel to the front lot line at the minimum required building setback line.

Lots of Record, Approved. A portion or parcel of land laid out and approved by proper authorities and recorded as a single parcel in the R.M.C. office for Charleston County, which is devoted to a common use or occupied by a building or buildings.

Maintenance Guarantee. Any security which may be required and accepted by the Town to ensure that necessary improvements are maintained and will function as required for a specific period of time.

Manufactured Housing Park (Mobile Home Park). A development which meets the requirements of Section 2.6.8, upon which two (2) or more mobile homes are placed for occupancy.

Manufactured Housing Unit or Mobile Home. Any residential dwelling unit constructed to standards and codes set forth by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, including the federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 5401). The term does not include recreational vehicles, travel trailers or motorized homes licenses for travel on highways nor manufactured housing units designed and built to meet applicable requirements of South Carolina Modular Buildings Construction Act.

Manufacturing and Production. An establishment engaged in the manufacturing, processing, fabrication, packaging, or assembly of goods. Natural, man-made, raw, secondary, or partially completed materials may be used. Products may be finished or semi-finished and are generally made for the wholesale market, for transfer to other plants, or to order for firms or consumers. Goods are generally not displayed or sold on site, but if so, they can include processing of food and related products; slaughter houses and meat packing; weaving or production of textiles or apparel; lumber mills, pulp and paper mills and other wood products manufacturing; woodworking, including cabinet makers; production of chemical, rubber, leather, clay, bone, plastic, stone, or glass materials or products; printing, publishing and lithography; movie production facilities; concrete batching and asphalt mixing; production or fabrication of metals or metal products including enameling and galvanizing; manufacture or assembly of machinery, equipment, instruments, including musical instruments, vehicles, appliances, precision items and other electrical items; production of artwork and toys; sign making; and production of prefabricated structures, including manufactured housing units.

Marina. The wet or dry storage and docking of seaworthy watercraft, including ramps and hoists for boats, for commercial purposes.

Marshlands. Low-lying tracts of land characterized by high water tables, soils, and extensive vegetation peculiar to and characteristic of wet places.

Mean High Waterline. The line formed by the intersection of the tidal plane of mean high tide with the shore.

Medical Office. A use providing consultation, diagnosis, therapeutic, preventative, or corrective personal treatment services by doctors, dentists, medical and dental laboratories, or similar practitioners of medical and healing arts for humans, licensed for such practice by the state.

Mile. A linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, or 1.6 kilometers.

Mini-Warehouse. See “Self-Service Storage”

Mixed-Use Structure. A structure containing both residential and nonresidential uses.

Modular Building Unit. A building including the necessary electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilating, and other service systems, manufactured off-site and transported to the point of use for installation or erection, with or without other specified components, as a finished building and not designed for ready removal to another site. This term is not to be limited to residential dwellings.

Moratorium. The legally authorized delay of new construction or development.

Motel/Hotel. An establishment providing sleeping accommodations with a majority of all rooms having direct access to the outside without the necessity of passing through the main lobby of the building.

Multi-Family. A building containing three or more dwelling units, including condominium residential structures.

Nonconforming Lot. A lot, the area, dimensions, or location of which was lawful prior to the adoption, revision, or amendment of the zoning ordinance but that fails by reason of such adoption, revision, or amendment to conform to the present requirements of the zoning district.

Nonconforming Structure. A structure or building, the size, dimensions, or location of which was lawful prior to the adoption, revision, or amendment to the zoning ordinance but that fails by reason of such adoption, revision, or amendment to conform to the present requirements of the zoning district.

Nonconforming Use. A use which was lawfully established and maintained, but which does not comply with the use regulations applicable to new uses in the zoning district in which it is located.

Nonpoint Runoff. Surface water entering a channel from no definable discharge source.

Nursery. Land or greenhouses used to raise flowers, shrubs, and plants for sale.

Office. A room or group of rooms used for conducting the affairs of a business, profession, service, industry, or government and generally furnished with desks, tables, files, and communication equipment.

Office of Coastal Resource Management Critical Area Line. This line is defined by Office of Coastal Resource Management at the date of application and determines their jurisdiction.

Office/Warehouse Complex. A structure or group of structures offering compartments of varying size for rental to different tenants for the storage of commercial goods or wares, conducting of certain retail trade activities, or provision of those personal or business services permitted by zoning.

Off-Site Improvement. Improvements required to be made off-site as a result of an application for development and including, but not limited to, road widening and upgrading, stormwater facilities, and traffic improvements.

Open Space. Any parcel or area of land or water essentially unimproved and set aside, dedicated, designated or reserved for public or private use or enjoyment, or for the use and enjoyment of owners and occupants of land adjoining or neighboring such open space. Open space shall not include streets, drives, off-street parking and loading areas, area so located or of such size of shape to have no substantial aesthetic or recreational value and any area within residential lots.

Open (or field) Storage. The location of bulk items, assemblies or sub-assemblies in areas exposed to weather, in whole or in part, for the end use of further manufacturing process, sale or transportation. This shall include, but not be limited to, open display of transportation vehicles, marine craft, aircraft, manufactured housing units, modules, recreation vehicles, junk yards, or “piggy-back” containers. It does not include uses that are totally enclosed.

Overlay Zone. A zoning district that encompasses one or more underlying zones and that imposes additional requirements above that required by the underlying zone.

Parapet. The extension of the main walls of a building above the roof level.

Parcel. A contiguous lot or tract of land owned and recorded as the property of the same person or persons or controlled by a single entity.

Parks and Recreation. Parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, recreation facilities, and open spaces available to the general public and under the management or control of a public agency. The term also includes golf courses, whether public or private.

Pavement. (1) A created surface, such as brick, stone, concrete, or asphalt, placed on the land to facilitate passage; (2) that part of a street having an improved surface.

Pawn Shop. A use engaged in the loaning of money on the security of property pledged in the keeping of the pawnbroker, and the incidental sale of such property.

Person. A corporation, company, association, society, firm, partnership, or joint stock company, as well as an individual, a state, and all political subdivisions of a state or any agency or instrumentality thereof.

Personal Improvement Service. An establishment primarily engaged in the provision of informational, instructional, personal improvements and similar services of a nonprofessional nature. Typical uses include photography studios, driving schools, health or physical fitness studios, reducing salons, dance studios, and handicraft or hobby instruction.

Permitted Uses. Any use allowed in a zoning district and subject to the restrictions applicable to that zoning district.

Pervious Surface. Any material that permits full or partial absorption of stormwater into previously unimproved land.

Planned Development. An area of a minimum contiguous size, as specified by ordinance, to be planned, developed, operated, and maintained according to plan as a single entity and containing one or more structures with appurtenant common areas.

Plat. A diagram drawn to an engineering scale showing all essential data pertaining to the boundaries and subdivision of a tract of land as determined by a professional land surveyor.

Point Source. A stationary source of a large individual emission, generally of an industrial nature.

Prescription of Land. The acquisition of land by right of continuous use without protest from the owner.

Principal Use. The primary or predominant use to which a property is or may be devoted and to which all other uses on the premises are accessory.

Private Club. A building and related facilities owned or operated by a corporation association, or group of individuals established for the fraternal, social, educational, recreational, or cultural enrichment of its members and not primarily for profit and whose members pay dues and meet certain prescribed qualifications for membership.

Professional Office. A use providing professional or consulting services in the fields of law, architecture, design, engineering, accounting, and similar professions.

Professional Services. The office of a doctor, dentist, architect, landscape architect, engineer, surveyor, lawyer or other similar recognized professions.

Recreation Vehicle Park. A zoning lot on which two or more recreational vehicles are parked or any zoning lot on which space for the parking of recreational vehicles is rented or offered. The term does not include premises on which unoccupied recreational vehicles, whether new or used, are parked for the purposes of inspection, sale, storage, or repair.

Recreational Vehicle. A highway vehicular, portable structure designed as a temporary dwelling for travel, recreational, and vacation uses. The term includes camping trailer, motor home, travel trailer, and truck campers; the term does not include manufactured housing units.

Recycling Center. An establishment engaged in the processing, collection and transfer of recyclable materials. Typical recyclable materials include glass, paper, plastic, cans, or other source-separated, non putrescible materials.

Religious Assembly. A use located in a permanent or temporary building and providing regular organized religious worship and religious education incidental thereto, but excluding private primary or secondary educational facilities, community recreational facilities, day care facilities, and parking facilities. A property tax exemption obtained pursuant to state law shall constitute prima facie evidence of religious assembly use.

Repair, Minor. A repair affecting 25 percent or less of the gross floor area of a structure.

Residential Building or Use. A term including dwellings, rooming and boarding houses, group quarters, and manufactured housing units. A residential building is a building containing only residential uses and uses accessory thereto.

Residential Treatment Facility. A facility providing 24 hour supervision, counseling, and treatment for more than 15 residents not needing regular medical attention. This classification includes alcohol and chemical dependence rehabilitation facilities, including facilities to which persons convicted of alcohol or drug-related offenses are ordered to remain under custodial supervision as a condition of probation or parole, and residential care facilities and halfway houses for the emotionally ill.

Resource Extraction. The on-site extraction of surface or sub-surface mineral products or natural resources. Typical extractive uses are quarries, borrow pits, sand and gravel operations, oil and gas extraction, and mining operations.

Restaurant, Fast Food/Take Out. An establishment engaged in the preparation and retail sale of food and beverages in a ready-to-consume state, with one or more of the following characteristics:

1. It serves ready-to-eat foods, frozen desserts, or beverages in paper, plastic or disposable containers;
2. It serves foods that customers carry to the restaurant’s seating facilities, to motor vehicles, or off-premises; and/or
3. It serves foods through a pass-through window, (which includes any and all drive-in restaurants).

Restaurant, General. An establishment engaged in the preparation and retail sale of food and beverages for on-premises consumption. Typical uses include diners, cafeterias, dinner-houses and restaurants, but not including fast food restaurants.

Restriction. A limitation on property that may be created in a property deed, lease, mortgage, through certain zoning or subdivision regulations, or as a condition of approval of an application for development.

Restrictive Covenant. A restriction on the use of land usually set forth in the deed.

Retail Sales and Service, Convenience. An establishment primarily engaged in the provision of frequently or recurrently needed services of a personal nature. Typical uses include seamstresses, tailors, shoe repair shops, and dry cleaning pick-up station services.

Retail Sales and Service, General. An establishment primarily engaged in the sale, lease or rent of new or used products to the general public, including those providing personal services, entertainment, catering services, product repair or sales of consumer goods, but excluding those establishments more specifically defined in this ordinance.

Retention Basin. A pond, pool, or basin used for the permanent storage of water runoff.

Retirement Housing. The use of a site for dwelling units designed and marketed specifically for the elderly, persons with physical disabilities or both.

Review Body. The entity that is authorized to recommend approval or denial of an application or permit required under this Ordinance.

Right-of-Way. A strip of land acquired by reservation, dedication, forced dedication, prescription, or condemnation and intended to be occupied by a road, crosswalk, railroad, electric transmission lines, oil or gas pipeline, water line, sanitary storm sewer, and other similar uses, also, generally, the right of one to pass over the property of another.

Roadway. The word “roadway” shall mean that portion of an approved street or that is designed for ordinary use of vehicular travel.

Rooming House. A residential building other than a hotel where for compensation and by pre-arrangement for definite periods of time, lodging is provided for three or more persons on a weekly or monthly basis.

Rural Area. A sparsely developed area, with a population density of less than one hundred persons per square mile and where the land is undeveloped or primarily used for agricultural purposes.

Salvage Yard or Junk Yard. Establishments engaged in storing, assembling, disassembling, breaking up, sorting, or distributing scrap equipment, mechanical components, and waste materials, including auto wrecking, parts salvage, and junk establishments.

Screening (Elements). Various combinations of walls, fences, earthen berms, trees, shrubbery, and landscape materials which comprise a screening plan approved by the Town to fulfill the requirements and serve the purposes of buffering requirements.

Screening (Opaque). A combination of screening elements, approved by the Planning Director, designed to substantially or completely obscure horizontal views between abutting or adjacent properties. When plant materials are used for screening, the screening shall be opaque at the time of plant maturity.

Setback. A required minimum distance from a lot line or street right-of-way that establishes an area within which a structure shall not be erected.

Silviculture. The cultivation of a forest for the purpose of harvesting timber.

Single-Family, Attached. The use of a site for 2 or more dwelling units, constructed with common or abutting walls and each located on a separate lot. Also known as townhouses or rowhouses.

Site Plan. A plan delineating the overall design of a development on a tract of land, including but not limited to grading, engineering design, construction details and survey data for existing and proposed improvements, the size, height, shape and location of buildings, location and design of parking areas, landscaping, refuse areas, and pedestrian and vehicular circulation on site.

Special Exception. A departure from a general provision of this chapter, by the expressed terms of such provision, may be permitted by the Board of Zoning Appeals upon application only after the Board finds the use meets the conditions specified in Section 3.2.

Stable. An establishment for boarding, breeding or raising of horses .not owned by the occupant of the premises, or the rental of horses for riding by other than the occupants of the premises or their nonpaying guests. Typical uses include boarding stables, public stables and private, noncommercial, (non-accessory use) stables.

Street. The word “street” shall mean the entire width between boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular traffic and shall be taken to include any public way, road, highway, street, avenue, boulevard, parkway, alley, lane, viaduct, bridge and approaches thereto within the city. The word “street” shall also mean a private street within a subdivision.

Street, Arterial. A federal or state highway designed primarily for the movement of large volumes of traffic from one area to another.

Street, Collector. A street that collects traffic from local streets and connects with minor and major arterials.

Street, Local. A public street used primarily for providing direct access to abutting property.

Street, Paper. A street that has never been built but is shown on an approved plan, subdivision plat, tax maps, or official map.

Structure. Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires more or less permanent location on the ground, or which is attached to something having a more or less permanent location on the ground.

Subdivision. The division of a tract, parcel, or lot into two or more lots or any division of land involving the dedication of a street or other public right-of-way or any division of land involving a change in existing streets.

Tax Map. The recorded map of delineated lots or tracts in a municipality showing boundaries, bearings, sizes, and dimensions, including the block and lot numbers.

Traffic Count. A tabulation of the number of vehicles or pedestrians passing a certain point during a specified period of time.

Traffic Impact Study. A report analyzing anticipated roadway conditions with and without an applicant’s proposed development.

Use Permitted by Right. A principal use permitted without the requirement of a Special Exception.

Variance. Relief from the literal enforcement of this chapter, permitting the use of property in a manner otherwise forbidden, granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals upon a finding that the enforcement of this chapter as written would inflict practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship as hereinafter described; provided, however, that the Board of Zoning Appeals may not, by variance, permit to be established or carried on in any use district an activity, business or operation which is not otherwise allowed in such district by a specific provision of this chapter.

Vehicle Repair, General. An establishment that provides service to passenger vehicles, light and medium trucks and other consumer motor vehicles such as motorcycles, boats and recreational vehicles. Generally, the customer does not wait at the site while the service or repair is being performed. Typical uses include muffler shops, auto repair garages, tire sales and installation, wheel and brake shops, body and fender shops, and similar repair and service activities, but excluding dismantling of salvage.

Vehicle Sales/Rental. The sale or rental of automobiles, noncommercial trucks, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, or boats, including incidental storage, maintenance, and servicing. Typical uses include new and used car dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, and boat, trailer, or recreational vehicle dealerships.

Vehicle Service, Limited. An establishment that provides direct services to motor vehicles where the driver or passengers generally wait in the car or nearby while the service is performed. Typical uses include full-service, mini-service and self-service gas stations; car washes; and quick lubrication services.

Veterinary Service. An establishment offering veterinary services and hospitals for animals. Typical uses include pet clinics, dog and cat hospitals, and veterinary hospitals for livestock and large animals.

Wall or Fence. A structural device erected to serve as an architectural element, landscape element, visual screen or physical barrier.

Warehouse and Distribution/Freight Movement. An establishment engaged in the storage, or movement of goods for themselves or other firms. Typical use include separate warehouses used by retail stores such as furniture and appliance stores; household moving and general freight storage; cold storage plants, including frozen food lockers; storage of weapons and ammunition; major wholesale distribution centers; truck, or air freight terminals; bus barns; parcel services; major post offices; grain terminals; and the stockpiling of sand, gravel, or other aggregate materials. Goods are generally delivered to other firms or the final consumer, except for some will-call pickups. There is little on-site sales activity with the customer present.

Wetlands. Those areas of land that are inundated or saturated by fresh or saltwater surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.

Wholesale Sales. An establishment engaged in the sale, lease, or rent of products primarily intended for industrial, institutional, or commercial businesses. The uses emphasize on-site sales or order taking and often include display areas. Businesses may or may not be open to the general public, but sales to the general public are limited. Products may be picked up on-site or delivered to the customer. Typical use include sale or rental of machinery, equipment, heavy trucks, building materials, special trade tools, welding supplies, machine parts, electrical supplies, janitorial supplies, restaurant equipment and store fixtures; mail order houses; and wholesalers of food, clothing, auto parts, building hardware.