Richmond Heights City Zoning Code
CHAPTER 1171
I-2 Industrial District
1171.01 INTENT.
The purpose of the I-2 Industrial District is to provide locations for warehousing, wholesale and manufacturing establishments where infrastructure is sufficient to support and promote these uses and where their impacts on residential areas can be mitigated.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.02 PERMITTED USES.
In all I-2 Industrial Districts no building or land, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, shall be erected or used except for one or more of the following specified uses:
(a) Basic research, design and pilot or experimental product development when conducted within a completely enclosed building.
(b) Research and office uses related to permitted manufacturing operations.
(c) Warehousing and wholesale establishments.
(d) Tool, die, gauge and machine shops.
(e) The manufacture, compounding, processing, packaging or treatment of such products as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, toiletries, food products, hardware and household supplies.
(f) The manufacture, compounding, assembling or treatment of articles or merchandise from the following previously prepared materials: bone, canvas, cellophane, cloth, cork, feathers, felt, fibre, fur, glass, hair, horn, leather, paper, plastics, precious or semiprecious metals or stones; sheet metal excluding large stampings such as automobile fenders or bodies, ferrous and nonferrous metals excluding large castings and fabrications, shell, textiles, tobacco, wax, wire, wood excluding saw and planing mills and yarns.
(g) The manufacture of pottery, figurines or other similar ceramic products using only previously pulverized clay and kilns fired only by electricity or gas.
(h) Manufacture of musical instruments, toys, novelties, and metal or rubber stamps or other small molded rubber products, not including pneumatic tires.
(i) Manufacture or assembly of electrical appliances, electronic instruments and devices, radios and phonographs.
(j) Laboratories--experimental, film or testing.
(k) Warehouse, storage and transfer uses and electric and gas service building, public utility buildings, telephone exchange buildings, electrical transformer stations and substations and gas regulator stations; provided that outside storage is not permitted for any of these uses.
(l) Accessory buildings and uses.
(m) Off-street parking and loading facilities; parking garages.
(n) Maintenance and storage only within wholly enclosed buildings.
(o) Permitted signs.
(p) Administrative, executive and managerial office buildings.
(q) Regional offices or home branch offices for regional, national and international corporations.
(r) Office buildings for the use of any of the following occupations: law, medicine, engineering, drafting, writing, accounting, broadcasting, investing and other uses similar in nature.
(s) Data processing and computer centers, including sales, service and maintenance of electronic and data processing equipment.
(t) Cultivation, processing and testing of medical marijuana. Dispensaries of medical marijuana associated with the foregoing uses in this subsection (t) that are located on the same or contiguous lot are a permitted accessory use.
(u) Accessory buildings or uses customarily incidental to any of the above permitted uses such as storage garage, off-street parking and permitted signs.
(v) Other Uses. The Planning Commission may recommend and City Council may approve the establishment of additional uses which are not listed above and which are:
(1) Related and reasonably necessary and convenient for the satisfactory and efficient operation of a complete and integrated Office Industrial District; and
(2) Similar in character to one or more of the uses permitted by Section 1171.02, (a) through (u).
The proposed use and any proposed conditions shall be fully described in a document submitted with the site plan. The Planning Commission may recommend and Council may approve or require any conditions deemed necessary to ensure the compatibility of the proposed use with the district.
(Ord. 11-2017. Passed 2-28-17.)
1171.03 USE RESTRICTIONS.
(a) In all industrial districts no building shall be erected, altered or moved and no land shall be used for carrying on of manufacturing activities of the character of or similar to tanneries, slaughterhouses, stockyards, glue factories, soap factories, oil refineries, drop forgings or other uses the normal operation of which produce or cause noxious, offensive, unhealthful and harmful odors, fumes, dust, smoke, light, waste, noise or vibration.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
(b) The processing of raw material for shipment in bulk form to be used in an industrial or commercial operation at another location is prohibited, except for the processing of raw materials for legal pharmaceutical drugs and medical marijuana.
(Ord. 11-2017. Passed 2-28-17.)
(c) No interior display shall be visible from any property line.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.04 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS.
An I-2 District shall be located with access to an arterial or collector street.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.05 PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.
No use, otherwise allowed, shall be permitted within the I-2 Industrial District which does not conform to the following standards of use, occupancy and operation, which standards are hereby established as the minimum requirements to be maintained within the area.
(a) Smoke. No person, firm or corporation shall permit the emission of any smoke from any source whatever to a density greater than that density described as
No. 1 on the Ringelmann Chart; provided, that the following exceptions shall be permitted: smoke, the shade of appearance of which is equal to but not darker than No. 2 on the Ringelmann Chart for a period or periods, aggregating four minutes in any thirty minutes.
Method of Measurement. For the purpose of grading the density of smoke, the Ringelmann Chart, as now published and used by the United States Bureau of Mines, which is hereby made a part of this chapter, shall be the standard. However, the Umbrascope readings of smoke densities may be used when correlated with the Ringelmann Chart.
(b) Dust, Dirt and Fly Ash. No person, firm or corporation shall operate or cause to be operated, maintain or cause to be maintained, any process for any purpose or furnace or combustion device for the burning of coal or other natural or synthetic fuels, without maintaining and operating, while using such process or furnace or combustion device, recognized and approved equipment, means, method, device or contrivance to reduce the quantity of gas or airborne solids or fumes emitted into the open air, which is operated in conjunction with such process furnace or combustion device so that the quantity of gas or airborne solids shall not exceed 0.20 grains per cubic foot of the carrying medium at a temperature of 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Method of Measurement. For the purpose of determining the adequacy of such devices, these conditions are to be conformed to when the percentage of excess air in the stack does not exceed fifty percent at full load. The foregoing requirement shall be measured by the A.S.M.E. Test Code for dust separating apparatus. All other forms of dust and dirt shall be completely eliminated insofar as escape or emission into the open air is concerned. The Director of Public Safety may require such additional data as is deemed necessary to show that adequate and approved provisions for the prevention and elimination of dust and dirt have been made.
(c) Noise. The intensity level of the sounds being emitted from any operation within districts regulated by this section shall not exceed the following decibel levels when adjacent to the following types of use districts:
In Decibels | Adjacent Use | Where Measured |
50 | All Residential Districts | Common Property Line |
55 | Office-Service District | Common Property Line |
55 | Neighborhood Business District | Common Property Line |
60 | Regional Business Districts | Common Property Line |
60 | General Business Districts | Common Property Line |
60 | Industrial Office District | Common Property Line |
75 | Major Street | At Street Line |
60 | Secondary residential street (residential opposite) | At Street Line |
Objectionable noises, due to intermittence, beat frequency or shrillness shall be muffled so as not to become a nuisance to adjacent uses.
Method of Measurement. The sound level, in decibels, measured at the points adjacent to the various use districts shall meet the established levels ninety percent of the time, and shall not exceed the established sound levels by more than ten percent. The sound levels shall be measured with an approved standard sound-level meter incorporating a forty decibel frequency weighting network, or by any method subsequently approved by the U.S. Bureau of Standards.
(d) Glare and Heat. Such operations producing an intensity of light and heat (such as welding operations and acetylene torch cutting) which would prove detrimental to any person or to the public or endanger the health, comfort or safety of any such person or the public, shall be performed within a completely enclosed building or behind a fence so as to completely obscure the operation from view from any point beyond the property line, except during the period of construction of the facilities to be used and occupied.
(e) Sewage Wastes. No use or structure shall be established unless connected to an approved public sanitary sewer. Wastes disposed into the sanitary sewer shall comply with the regulations of the authority operating the sewer.
(f) Odor. The emission of obnoxious odors of any kind shall be unlawful.
Method of Measurement. For the purpose of defining an odor, as such, it is hereby established that at such point where the measurement of the threshold of smell can be achieved, it shall be considered a noxious concentration and shall not be exceeded. These measurements will show the minimum concentration at which the first sensation of odor is had, and shall be made in ounces of the substances per thousand cubic feet of air (example: maximum for ethyl selano mercaptan shall be 18 millionths of an ounce per 1,000 cubic feet of air).
(g) Gases. The escape or emission of any gas which is injurious or destructive in character shall be unlawful and may be summarily abated.
(h) Fire and Explosive Hazards. The storage, handling and use of flammable or explosive materials shall be permitted only in structures having incombustible exterior walls, and all operations in connection therewith shall be provided with adequate safety and protective devices against hazards of fire and explosion as well as with adequate fire-fighting and suppression equipment and devices standard to the operation involved.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.06 VIOLATIONS OF PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.
In every district regulated by the performance standards as set forth in Section 1171.05, any use of any facility or equipment which results in a violation of the performance standards shall be, and is hereby declared to be a violation of this chapter and a nuisance, and the same may be prosecuted under the penal provisions set forth in Chapter 1187.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.07 SITE PLAN REVIEW.
(a) No building or structure shall be erected or land used in an I-2 Industrial District unless the site plan has been approved by Council. Council shall not approve the site plan unless it receives a report and recommendation from the Planning Commission, but Council may act on the site plan if a report and recommendation is not received from the Planning Commission within sixty days after the site plan has been presented to the Commission.
(b) When recommending the approval of a site plan for an I-2 District, the Planning Commission may recommend such additional conditions as are necessary to secure the following objectives:
(1) That all the development features including the principal and accessory buildings, open spaces, service roads, driveways and parking areas shall be located so as to encourage pedestrian and vehicular traffic safety; and
(2) That the design of such land use will not discourage the appropriate development or impair the value of existing or proposed development in the area surrounding the subject development.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.08 YARD, AREA AND BULK REQUIREMENTS.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.09 OFF-STREET PARKING.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) hereof, off-street parking shall be as required in Chapter 1175.
(b) Parking shall be located at least fifty feet from any public right of way, except as follows:
(1) Parking may be located in the areas of a lot between twenty-five feet and fifty feet from the right of way where a landscaped earth mound or masonry wall and other landscaping is installed and permanently maintained in the area between the parking lot and the right of way.
(2) The height of the mound or wall shall be at least three feet above the grade of the parking.
(3) Additional planting shall be installed and maintained in the area between the parking lot and the right-of-way in conformance with a landscape plan submitted by the applicant and approved by the Planning Commission.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)
1171.10 WALLS AND LANDSCAPING.
1171.11 SIGNS AND LIGHTING.
Signs and lighting shall be permitted only when in conformity with the provisions set forth in Chapter 1179.
(Ord. 99-2002. Passed 11-26-02.)