Richland Township Cambria County
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE X
C-2 General Commercial District
§ 240-61 Purpose.
The C-2 General Commercial District is intended for the conduct of general business to which the public requires direct and frequent access, but which is not characterized either by constant heavy trucking other than stocking and delivery of light retail goods or by any nuisance factors other than occasioned by incidental light and noise or congregation of people and passenger vehicles. This includes such uses as retail stores, theaters and other amusement enterprises, business offices, newspaper offices and printing presses, restaurants, bars and community garages or community parking areas subject to special regulations. Residential and industrial use of land is prohibited as well as any other use which would substantially interfere with the development or continuation of the commercial structures and uses in the district.
§ 240-62 Use regulations.
A building may be erected or used and a lot used or occupied for any of the following purposes:
A.
Permitted uses.
(1)
Amusement establishment, including bowling alleys, dance halls and similar places of recreation when conducted wholly within a completely enclosed building.
(2)
Animal hospital.
(3)
Art, book, school supply and stationery store.
(4)
Automobile repair, minor.
(5)
Auto accessory store, automobile and truck sales and incidental service.
(6)
Bakery shop, including the baking and processing of food products.
(7)
Bank, financial institution and savings and loan association.
(8)
Barbershop, beauty shop, chiropody or similar personal service.
(9)
Bicycle repair, sales and rental.
(10)
Blueprinting and photostating establishment.
(11)
Bus passenger terminal.
(12)
Cabinet shop.
(13)
Camera and photographic supply shop, retail sales and service.
(14)
Candy or ice cream store.
(15)
Church or similar place of worship.
(16)
Club or fraternal organization.
(17)
Custom dressmaking, millinery, tailoring or shoe repair when conducted for retail sales on a premises only.
(18)
Delicatessen.
(19)
Department store.
(20)
Drugstore.
(21)
Dry cleaning and/or laundry and shoe repair.
(22)
Dry goods store, haberdashery and wearing apparel store.
(23)
Electrical appliances store, sales, service and repair, but excluding appliance assembly or manufacture.
(25)
Florist shop and conservatory for retail trade on the premises only, not including retail or wholesale greenhouse or outdoor planting beds for sale or nursery.
(26)
Food, fruit or vegetable store.
(27)
Funeral home.
(28)
Furniture store and upholstery when conducted as a secondary operation to the sale of furniture and furnishings.
(29)
Furrier, conducted as a retail operation for trade on the premises only.
(30)
Garden supplies, seed store and nursery.
(31)
Gift store.
(32)
Hardware store.
(33)
Health club.
(34)
Hobby store.
(35)
Hospitals or medical facilities.
(36)
Hotel, motor hotel, club, tearoom, cafe, restaurant or tavern, including those which serve alcoholic beverages.
(37)
Household appliance store, sales and service.
(38)
Interior decorating business, including upholstering and making of draperies, slipcovers and similar articles when conducted as a part of the retail operations and secondary to the main use.
(39)
Jewelry store.
(40)
Laundry, self-service, including self-service dry-cleaning establishment.
(41)
Liquor store, including beer distributor.
(42)
Meat market.
(43)
Medical office.
(44)
Newsstand.
(45)
Nursing home.
(46)
Office, business or professional, or broadcasting station.
(47)
Paint and wallpaper sales.
(48)
Photographer's studio and art gallery, including the developing of film when conducted as a part of the retail business on the premises.
(49)
Plumbing, heating and similar business showroom, including shop or repair facilities.
(50)
Post office.
(51)
Printing shops.
(52)
Service station, public garage or other motor vehicle services, provided that no repair work is performed outdoors; provided that all pumps, underground storage tanks, lubricating and other devices are located not less than 15 feet from any street right-of-way; provided that all fuel oil or similar substances are stored inside or underground; and provided that all automobile parts and dismantled or disabled vehicles awaiting repair or disposition during an insurance claim shall be stored within a building. Tank size shall not exceed 10,000 gallons and number of tanks will not exceed five.
(53)
Shoe store.
(54)
Sporting goods store.
(56)
Theater, indoor.
(57)
Tobacco store.
(58)
Typewriter and office equipment sales and service.
(59)
Variety store.
(60)
Watch repair.
(61)
(62)
Similar type retail or local service use not specifically listed herein when authorized by the Zoning Hearing Board according to the procedure outlined in § 240-100A(9).
§ 240-63 Area regulations.
A.
Lot area. The minimum lot area for every building hereafter erected or altered shall contain a minimum of 20,000 square feet.
B.
Building area. All buildings, including accessory buildings, shall cover not more than 40% of the area of the lot.
C.
Yard area setbacks.
(1)
No building or structure shall be erected or enlarged unless the minimum yard areas and setbacks are provided as follows:
(a)
Front yard: not less than 50 feet.
(b)
Side yard: not less than 50 feet where abutting a street or alley. None required for interior lot, except where abutting upon an R District, where there shall be provided a side yard equal to 25 feet if abutting such R District, plus a buffer area of not less than 15 feet.
(c)
Rear yard: not less than 25 feet, plus a fifteen-foot buffer when abutting an R District.
(2)
A one-story accessory building may be located within a required rear yard except for the five feet adjacent and parallel to the rear lot line or alley line, but not upon any required buffer area, for the storage of motor vehicles, the loading or unloading of vehicles under roof or the storage of stock and merchandise customarily associated with the principal use. For the purposes of this section, a trailer, van or any vehicle or structure which was transported to the site is not such a building and shall not be permitted to remain on the property for more than seven days in any fourteen-day period.
§ 240-64 Height regulations.
The maximum height of buildings hereafter erected, altered or enlarged shall not exceed 35 feet.
§ 240-65 Conditions of use.
A.
All activities, except for accessory uses and a service station shall be conducted within a completely enclosed building.
(1)
All refuse, garbage and similar solid waste shall be enclosed in a masonry or equivalent structure of sufficient height, width and depth to prevent dispersal of the solid waste in the vicinity with a solid gate sufficient to conceal the contents.
B.
The Township Planning Commission may require an occupancy permit or zoning approval issued for a General Commercial District or lot therein in accordance with the provisions and procedures of this chapter and upon an affirmative finding that the following requirements have been met by the owner, owners, developer, developers or petitioners for the tract or lot proposed for commercial development:
(1)
Traffic study.
(a)
To include a comparative analysis of present capacity of street(s) adjacent to the proposed business with potential capacity and volumes generated by the proposed development, together with necessary points of access to off-street parking and loading. Traffic data available in the Richland Township municipal offices may be utilized, provided that such data is deemed current by the Township Planning Commission.
(b)
To include a circulation plan for all streets in the vicinity, existing and proposed, which show the recommendations for controlling, signalizing, channelizing, storing, warning and directing traffic.
(2)
Landscape development plan.
(a)
To include a plan of landscape development which shall include, among other considerations, an area of at least 10 feet in width along all streets with the exception of approved entrances, to be planted and maintained with trees, shrubbery or other landscape material or ornamental fence or wall to serve as a visual screen for the parking areas and loading or servicing areas.
(b)
A fifteen-foot wide buffer planting strip consisting of suitable landscaping maintained wherever the proposed business abuts an R District.
(c)
All parking lots and landscape areas or planting strips adjacent to parking lots or streets or highways shall be surrounded with a raised curb.
(d)
The location, arrangement, size and effect of all outdoor advertising or other signs and lighting proposed to be erected.
C.
Any other authority approval required, when applicable, such as Department of Health, State Highway Department, Department of Labor and Industry and similar organizations, shall be obtained before applying for a zoning approval or an occupancy permit. Said authorizations shall accompany plans at the time they are submitted to the Township Planning Commission. If the state or similar organization requires zoning approval prior to issuing its approval, the Planning Commission may issue site plan approval conditioned upon the applicant presenting the state's or similar organization's approval to the Zoning/Codes Official prior to the township issuing the building permit.