Sussex County Unincorporated
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE IX
UB Urban Business District
§ 115-60 Purpose.
The purpose of this district is to provide zoning regulations for incorporated municipalities having no zoning provisions of their own and which choose to come under the Sussex County Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. The pattern of most areas within incorporated municipalities is already established by existing structures and uses. The intent of the UB regulations, therefore, is to prevent deterioration and abuse of the existing pattern in each locality of a municipality. To avoid making a majority of the existing structures and uses nonconforming, UB regulations are broadly flexible.
§ 115-61 Permitted uses.
A building or land shall be used only for the following purposes:
Amusement places or theaters, except open-air drive-in theaters. Amusement places include bowling alleys, dance halls, subject to applicable county regulations, skating rinks, swimming pools, miniature golf, billiard or pool parlors, indoor model racing tracks and similar activities. |
Any use permitted in the UR District |
Automobile parking lots and garages, automobile sales, service and repair, but not auto salvage or junk, and any major repair or storage of equipment or materials or damaged vehicles shall be inside a completely enclosed building |
Bakeries, provided that all products produced on the premises shall be sold at retail on the premises |
Banks, drive-in or otherwise, so long as driveway space shall be provided off the street for all vehicles waiting for drive-in service |
Barbershops or beauty parlors |
Bicycle sales and repair shops |
Boat and boat sales and storage, but not marinas |
Bottling works, dyeing and cleaning works, plumbing and heating shops, painting shops, upholstering shops not involving furniture manufacture, tinsmithing shops, tire sales and service (including vulcanizing and recapping, but no manufacturing), appliance repairs and general service and repair establishments, similar in character to those listed in this item, provided that no outside storage of material is permitted, except as provided in this section |
Car washes or automobile laundries, automatic or otherwise |
Catering or delicatessen businesses |
Clinics |
Dry-cleaning laundries or pressing pickup stations or shops |
Farm implement sales, service, rental and repair, but not salvage or junk, provided that major repair or storage of materials or damaged or unusable implements or vehicles shall be inside a completely enclosed building |
Filling stations, subject to the requirements listed in § 115-69 |
Flower shops and greenhouses incidental thereto |
Frozen food lockers for individual or family use |
Laundromats or self-service dry-cleaning establishments |
Lawn mower, yard and garden equipment, rental, sales and service |
Manufactured home sales and storage, but not manufactured home parks [Amended 10-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2152] |
Monument sales establishments with incidental processing to order, but not including the shaping of headstones |
Offices, general business or professional |
Printing, publishing and engraving establishments |
Private clubs, lodges or meeting halls |
Radio and television broadcasting stations or studios |
Restaurants, drive-in or otherwise |
Shoe repairing shops |
Shops for the sale, service or repair of home appliances, office machines, electrical and television and radio equipment |
Stores or shops for the conduct of retail business, including sale of accessories, antiques, apparel, appliances, beverages, books, carpets, drugs, fabrics, food, furniture, general merchandise, hardware and lumber and building material, garden supplies, hobby supplies, jewelry, office supplies, paint, sporting goods and stationery, and similar stores and shops |
Studios for artists, photographers, teachers, sculptors and musicians |
Telephone stations or booths, including drive-in or talk-from-car stations, and telephone central offices, provided that all storage of materials, all repair facilities and all housing of repair crews are within a completely enclosed area |
Tourist homes |
Manufactured home sales and storage, but not manufactured home parks [Amended 10-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2152] |
Undertaking businesses or establishments or funeral homes |
Used car sales and storage lots |
Wholesale establishments |
§ 115-62 Permitted accessory uses.
§ 115-63 Conditional uses.
The following uses may be permitted as conditional uses when approved in accordance with the provisions of Article XXIV of this chapter:
A.
Hospitals or clinics for small animals, dogs, cats, birds and the like, provided that such hospital or clinic and any treatment rooms, cages, pens or kennels are maintained within a completely enclosed, sound proof building and that such hospital or clinic is operated in such a way as to produce no objectionable noise or odors outside its walls.
B.
Hotels, motels or motor lodges.
C.
Material storage yards in connection with a permitted use where storage is incidental to the approved occupancy of the building, provided that all products and materials used or stored are in a completely enclosed building or enclosed by a masonry wall, screening, fence or hedge, not less than six feet in height. Storage of all materials and equipment shall not exceed the height of the wall. Storage of cars and trucks used in connection with the permitted trade or business is permitted within the walls or screen, but not including storage of heavy equipment, such as road-building or excavating equipment.
D.
Building or land used for light industrial and storage purposes, including the following uses and any similar 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 listed, such listed uses being generally wholesale establishments, service industries and light industries that manufacture, process, store and distribute goods and materials and are, in general, dependent on raw materials refined elsewhere and manufacture, compounding, processing, packaging or treatment, as specified, of the following products or similar products:
Bakery products, wholesale (manufacturing permitted) | |
Beverage blending, bottling (all types), but not distilling | |
Boat manufacture and repair (vessels less than five tons), boat sales, service, storage or rentals | |
Building materials (bulk cement and lime, sand, gravel, stone, structural or reinforcing steel, pipe and the like) storage and sales, open or enclosed, but not manufacture or steel fabricating or junk storage | |
Button manufacture | |
Cleaning and dyeing of garments, hats and rugs | |
Contractors' shops and storage yards or equipment rental | |
Dairy operations and dairy products, ice cream and cheese | |
Electrical appliances or electronic apparatus, medical, optical or drafting equipment, toys, games, musical instruments, manufacture or assembly | |
Fertilizer storage in bags or bulk storage of liquids or dry fertilizer in tanks or in a completely enclosed building, but not manufacture or processing | |
Fruit and vegetable processing, including canning, preserving, drying and freezing | |
Greenhouses, commercial, wholesale or retail | |
Heating, ventilating, cooling and refrigeration supplies and appliances | |
Ice manufacture, including dry ice | |
Knitting, weaving, printing and finishing of textiles and fiber into fabric goods or clothing, hats or hosiery | |
Laboratories, research or experimental, but not including combustion-engine testing | |
Machinery manufacture and machine shops | |
Manufacturing of modular and manufactured-home-type structures [Amended 10-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2152] | |
Meat products, packing and processing (not slaughtering) | |
Metal products manufacture, such products as bolts, nails, staples, needles, pins, metal containers, ornamental iron fabrication, silverware and plated wire | |
Pharmaceutical products and drugs | |
Plumbing supplies, manufacture, sale or storage | |
Printing, publishing and engraving, photographic processing or blueprinting | |
Sheet metal products, ductwork and containers | |
Sign fabrication and painting shops | |
Tire retreading, recapping and vulcanizing shops | |
Trailers and truck bodies, assembly | |
Truck and transfer terminals, freight | |
Warehouses, wholesale houses and distributors and wholesale markets | |
Welding or soldering shops | |
Wood products manufacture, including baskets, boxes, crates, barrels and veneer |
E.
Multifamily dwelling structures, subject to the provisions of Articles IV through XX, § 115-219 and Table II (included at the end of this chapter).
F.
Nursing and similar care facilities.
[Added 4-16-2019 by Ord. No. 2645]
§ 115-64 Special use exceptions.
Special use exceptions may be permitted by the Board of Adjustment in accordance with the provisions of Article XXVII of this chapter and may include:
A.
Temporary and conditional permits for a period not to exceed five years, such period to be determined by the Board, for the following uses:
[Amended 11-10-1992 by Ord. No. 863; 10-12-1999 by Ord. No. 1346; 10-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2152; 10-22-2019 by Ord. No. 2684]
Archery ranges |
Asphalt batching plants or concrete batching plants |
Commercial dog kennels |
Driving ranges |
Outdoor display or promotional activities at shopping centers or elsewhere |
Pony rings |
Raising for sale of birds, bees, rabbits and other small animals, fish and other creatures |
Riding academies, public stables or private stables |
Temporary buildings for use as a sales or rental office for an approved real estate development or subdivision |
Tents for special purposes for a period exceeding three days. The Director may, without requiring an application for a special use exception, grant approval for a tent for a special purpose (revival, reception, tent sale as an accessory to a business or commercial use, or other similar activities). If approved by the Director, a tent for special purposes may be utilized on a parcel no more than three times in a calendar year. |
Use of a manufactured home as a single-family dwelling in any district to meet an emergency or hardship situation when not approved administratively by the Director or his or her designee, such permit not to exceed two years. The Director may, without requiring an application for a special use exception, grant an extension for an emergency or hardship situation previously approved by the County Board of Adjustment upon receipt of an affidavit from a doctor stating that the emergency or hardship situation still exists. Such extension may be granted annually as long as the emergency or hardship still exists. |
Use of a manufactured-home-type structure for any business, commercial or industrial use when not approved administratively by the Director or his or her designee |
B.
Exceptions to parking and loading requirements as follows:
(1)
Off-street parking areas, adjacent to or at a reasonable distance from the premises on which parking areas are required by the parking regulations of Article XXII, where practical difficulties, including the acquisition of property, or undue hardships are encountered in locating such parking areas on the premises and where the purpose of these regulations to relieve congestion in the streets would best be served be permitting such parking off the premises.
(2)
Waiver or reduction of the parking and loading requirements in any district whenever the character or use of the building is such as to make unnecessary the full provision of parking or loading facilities.
(3)
Waiver or reduction of loading space requirements where adequate community loading facilities are provided.
(4)
Waiver or reduction of loading space requirements for uses which contain less than 10,000 square feet of floor area where construction of existing buildings, problems of access or size of lot make impractical the provision of required loading space.
C.
Other special use exceptions as follows:
[Amended 10-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2152; 9-13-2011 by Ord. No. 2213; 4-16-2019 by Ord. No. 2645; 10-22-2019 by Ord. No. 2684; 6-25-2024 by Ord. No. 3027]
Alteration, extension or replacement of a nonconforming manufactured home, subject to the provisions of § 115-196 | |
Cemeteries for pets | |
Commercial greenhouses, wholesale or retail, and nurseries for growing of plants, trees and shrubs, including a building for sale of products produced on the premises | |
Day nurseries or child-care centers | |
Public telephone booths in residential areas |
§ 115-65 Permitted signs
§ 115-66 Height, area and bulk requirements.
A.
Minimum lot sizes. Minimum lot sizes shall be as follows:
Use | Area** (square feet) | Width* (feet) | Depth (feet) |
|---|---|---|---|
Single-family dwelling | 10,000 | 75 | 100 |
Other | 10,000 | 75 | 100 |
*NOTE: A lot fronting on a numbered road shown on the General Highway Map for Sussex County of 1964, as revised, shall have a minimum lot width of 90 feet. [Added 11-7-1989 by Ord. No. 632] | |
**NOTE: Any lot which is not connected to a central sewer system, as defined by § 115-194A, or which is located within a planning area as defined by a sewer planning study approved by the Sussex County Council, shall have a minimum area of 3/4 acre. [Added 7-15-1997 by Ord. No. 1157] |
B.
Minimum yard requirements. Minimum yard requirements shall be as follows:
Use | Depth of Front Yard (feet) | Width of Side Yard (feet) | Depth of Rear Yard (feet) |
|---|---|---|---|
Single-family dwelling | 40 (30)* | 10 | 10 |
Other | 40 | 5 | 5 |
Multifamily-type structures | (See Table II, included at the end of this chapter.) | ||
*NOTE: See also the table of district regulations at the end of this chapter. |
C.
Maximum height requirements. Maximum height requirements shall be as follows:
[Amended 10-31-1995 by Ord. No. 1062]
Use | Feet |
|---|---|
Single-family dwelling | 42 |
Other | 42 |