In their interpretation and application the provisions of this chapter shall be held to be the minimum requirements. Where this chapter imposes a greater restriction than is imposed or required by other provisions of law or by other rules, regulations or ordinances, the provisions of this chapter shall control.  For the purposes of this chapter, the words “used or occupied” shall be deemed also to include “designed, intended or arranged to be used or occupied.” The word “lot” includes the words “plot or parcel.” Additional words, phrases, and terms used herein are defined and interpreted as follows:

   1.   “Accessory use, building or structure” means a building, use, or structure subordinate to another building, use, or structure on the same lot which is of a nature customarily incidental to the principal use, building, or structure; and does not alter or change the character of the premises; and which is not used for human occupancy.

      A.   Any book store, video store, or other establishment in which a substantial portion of its stock and trade is devoted to printed matter or visual representation of specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas.

      B.   Any movie theater offering movies or other displays, or any establishments offering coin operated devices, which emphasize specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas.

      C.   Any cabaret, club, tavern, theater, or other establishment which offers any entertainment emphasizing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, including (but not limited to) topless and/or bottomless dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators or similar entertainment.

      D.   Any establishment offering massage or similar manipulation of the human body, unless such manipulation is administered by a medical practitioner, chiropractor, acupuncturist, physical therapist or similar professional licensed by the State. This definition does not include massages or similar manipulation offered at an athletic club, health club, school, gymnasium, spa, or similar establishments.

   3.   “Alley” means a public way, other than a street, 20 feet or less in width providing a secondary means of access to abutting property.

   5.   “Animal hospital” means any building, or portion thereof, and attached fenced-in kennel area, designed or used for the care, observation, or treatment of domestic animals.

   8.   “Automobile wrecking yard” means any area of land where two or more vehicles, not in running condition, or parts thereof, are stored in the open and are not being restored to operation; or any land, building, or structure used for wrecking or storing of such motor vehicles, or parts thereof.

   12.   “Boarding house” means a building other than a hotel, and not open to transients, where, for compensation, meals and lodging are provided for three or more persons.

   13.   “Building” means any enclosed structure which is built for the support or shelter of human use activities, whether stationary or movable.

   14.   “Building, height of” means the vertical distance from the average natural grade at the front of the building to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, or to the deck line of a mansard roof, or to the mean height level between eaves and ridge for gable, hip, and gambrel roofs.

   15.   “Building line”: A line parallel to the front lot line over which no portion of the building may extend, and which is a distance from the front lot line equal to the depth of the front yard required for the district in which such lot is located.

   16.   “Building, main or principal” means a building in which is conducted the main or principal use of the lot on which said building is situated. Where a substantial part of an accessory building is attached to the principal building in a substantial manner, as by a roof, such accessory building shall be counted as a part of the principal building.

   17.   “Bulk stations” means buildings, structures, and tanks used for the storage and distribution of flammable liquids or liquefied petroleum products, where the aggregate capacity of all storage tanks is more than 12,000 gallons.

   18.   “Business” means the purchase, sale, barter, or exchange of goods, wares, merchandise or services, the maintenance or operation of offices, or amusement and recreational enterprises for profit.

   19.   “Carport” means a roofed structure providing space for the parking of motor vehicles and enclosed on not more than two sides. A carport attached to the principal building shall be considered as part of the principal building, and subject to all yard requirements therein.

   20.   “Clinic, medical or dental” means a building or buildings in which a group of physicians and/or dentists and their professional assistants are associated for the purpose of carrying on their professions.

   21.   “Club or lodge, private” means a non-profit association of persons who are bona-fide members paying dues; which owns, leases, or hires land, a building or portion thereof, the use of such premises being restricted to members and their guests.

   22.   “Commission” means the Van Meter, Iowa, Planning and Zoning Commission.

   23.   “Condominium” means a multiple dwelling consisting of at least three units with a fee title to each dwelling unit which is held independently of the others and each unit having its own separate utilities and the remainder of the real estate is designed for common ownership solely by the owners of the separate dwelling units.

   24.   “Court” means an open, unobstructed, and unoccupied space other than a yard which is bounded on two or more sides by a building on the same lot.

   25.   “Curb level, grade” means the average elevation, where curb and gutter exists, of the highest point of the curb along the front line of the lot. Where no curbing exists, it is to be taken as the average elevation of the centerline of the paving along the front of the lot.

   26.   “Dwelling” means a building or portion thereof, used primarily as a place of abode for one or more human beings, but not including a tent, trailer, or mobile home, or hotels, motels, boarding houses, and tourist homes.

   27.   “Dwelling, single-family” means a building designed or used exclusively for occupancy by one family.

   28.   “Dwelling, two-family” means a building designed or used exclusively for occupancy by two families.

   29.   “Dwelling, multiple family” means a building, or portion thereof, containing three or more dwelling units.

   30.   “Dwelling unit” means a dwelling or a portion thereof, used for one family for living, and sleeping purposes, containing bathroom and cooking facilities. One or more persons occupy a single housekeeping unit and using common cooking facilities. Unless related by blood or marriage, no such family shall contain over three persons. Every additional group of three or fewer persons not related by blood or marriage living in said housekeeping unit shall be considered a separate family for the purpose of this chapter.

   31.   “Floodplain” means that continuous area, adjacent to a stream bed or other natural drainage channels or areas, that is low-lying and subject to periodic inundation by water.

   32.   “Floor area of building” means the sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of a building and its accessory buildings on the same lot; except that in residential buildings, basement, and attic floor area not devoted to active use shall be excluded, but the area of roofed porches and roofed terraces shall be included. All dimensions shall be measured between exterior faces of walls.

   33.   “Garage, private” means any building or structure enclosed on more than two sides intended and used for the parking of the private motor vehicles of the families resident upon the premises.

   34.   “Garage, public” means any building where automotive vehicles are painted, repaired, rebuilt, reconstructed and/or stored for compensation.

   35.   “Home occupation” means any use conducted entirely within a dwelling and participated in solely by members of the family, which use is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling for dwelling purposes and does not change the character thereof, and in connection with which there is no commodity sold upon the premises except those produced thereon. In no event shall a barber shop, salon, gift shop, or animal hospital be construed as a home occupation unless the individual has applied for and received a special use permit pursuant to Section 165.22(7)(A)(7) of this chapter for a special use permit to operate a barbershop or salon. Commodities incidental to the practice of cosmetology or barbering may be sold in the event a special use permit is granted.

   36.   “Hotel” means a building in which lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensation, and which is open to transient guests, in contradistinction to boarding or lodging houses.

   37.   “Junk yard” means an open area or fenced-in enclosure where waste, discarded, or salvaged materials are bought, sold, exchanged, baled, packed, disassembled or handled, including (but not limited to) scrap iron and other metals, paper, rags, rubber tires, and bottles, but not including areas where such uses are conducted entirely within a completely enclosed building, or the processing of used, discarded, or salvaged materials are part of a manufacturing operation.

   39.   “Land use plan” means the comprehensive long-range plan for the desirable use of land within the community, as officially adopted and as amended from time to time by the Council; the purpose of the plan being, among other things, to serve as a guide to the zoning and progressive changes in zoning of land to meet changing needs, in the subdividing and use of undeveloped land and in the acquisition of land for such public purposes as streets, parks, schools, and other public buildings and uses.

   40.   “Lot” means a parcel of land, abutting on a street, whose area, in addition to the parts thereof occupied or hereafter to be occupied by a building, structure, and/or accessory buildings, is sufficient to provide the yards required by the regulations herein given.

   41.   “Lot, corner” means a lot abutting upon two or more streets at their intersection.

   42.   “Lot double-frontage” means a lot having a frontage on two or more non-intersecting streets, as distinguished from a corner lot.

   43.   “Lot interior” means a lot other than a corner lot.

   44.   “Lot area” means the horizontal area within the lot lines of the lot.

   45.   “Lot lines” means the lines bounding a lot.

   46.   “Lot of record” means a lot which is part of a subdivision recorded in the office of the County Recorder, or a lot or parcel described by metes and bounds, the legal description of which has been duly recorded.

   47.   “Lot depth” means the mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.

   48.   “Lot width” means the width of a lot measured at the building line and at right angles at its depth.

   49.   “Mobile home” means any vehicle used or maintained for use as a conveyance upon highways or public streets or waterways; so designed and constructed as to permit occupancy thereof as a dwelling unit or sleeping place for one or more persons whether attached or unattached to a permanent foundation.

   50.   “Mobile home park” means any lot or portion of a lot upon which two or more mobile homes occupied for dwelling or sleeping purposes are located regardless of whether or not a charge is made for such accommodation.

   51.   “Nonconforming use” means a building, structure, or premises lawfully occupied or under construction at the time of the enactment of the zoning regulations for the district in which it is located; also such use resulting from changes in zoning districts or in textual provisions made hereafter.

   52.   “Nursing or convalescent home” means a building or structure having accommodations and where care and room and board is provided for invalid, infirm, aged, convalescent, or physically disabled or injured persons, not including insane or other mental cases, inebriate or contagious cases.

   53.   “Parking area, public” means an open area, other than a street or alley, designed for use or used for the temporary parking of four or more motor vehicles when available for public use, whether free or for compensation, or as an accommodation for clients, or customers, paved with a dust preventative or hard surface.

   54.   “Parking space” means a permanently surfaced area of not less than 200 square feet either within a structure or in the open, inclusive of driveway or access drives, for the parking of a motor vehicle.

   55.   “Primary building face” means the side or sides of the building fronting on a street right-of-way, excluding any appurtenances such as projecting fins, columns, pilasters, canopies, marquees, showcases or decorations.

   56.   “Plat” means a map or chart indicating the subdivision or re-subdivision of land, intended to be duly filed for record.

   57.   “Row dwelling” means any one of at least three but no more than six attached dwellings in a continuous row, each such dwelling designed and erected as a unit on a separate lot and separated from one another by an approved wall or walls and each unit having its own separate utilities. (Also referred to as a “townhouse.”)

   58.   “Satellite receiving antenna” means an accessory structure often called a “dish” or “earth station antenna” the purpose of which is to receive communication, including (but not limited to) radio and television or other signals from satellite and other extra-terrestrial sources whether affixed to the ground as a permanent structure, to the building, or a mobile unit such as a trailer or vehicle.

   59.   “Sign” means any structure or device for visual communication that is used for the purpose of bringing the subject thereof to the attention of the public. Any non-illuminated or illuminated sign with non-moving, non-flashing, and non-rotating light conforming to the applicable standards set forth in the categories below is exempt from the general sign requirements of each zoning district. However, such sign must meet all other requirements described for its category:

      A.   Directional/Informational Signs. Up to four free-standing on-premises signs per nonresidential lot with a maximum height of three feet and a total maximum sign area per lot not to exceed 32 square feet. One off-premises sign for an institutional use may be allowed by special permit from the Zoning Administrator.

      B.   Flags. Any official governmental flag, or flag displaying the recognized symbol of a non-profit organization.

      C.   Historical Marker. A marker, monument, plaque, or other type sign or notice located on public or private property which identifies documents or records an historical event pertaining to the structure on which it is located. One sign per building no larger than 12 square feet is permitted.

      D.   Incidental Signs. A sign pertaining to specific products services, or facilities available on the premise. A maximum of five signs per nonresidential lot with a total maximum of 32 square feet.

      E.   Institutional Signs. An on-premises sign pertaining to a medical, charitable, religious, educational, or civic institution with a maximum size of 40 square feet.

   60.   “Specified anatomical areas” means:

      A.   Less than completely and opaquely covered human genitals, pubic region, buttocks, and female breasts below a point immediately above the top of the areola; and

      B.   Human male genitals in a discernible turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.

   61.   “Specified sexual activities” means:

      A.   Human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal;

      B.   Acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse or sodomy; and fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttocks or female breasts.

   62.   “Story” means that portion of a building between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there is no floor above it the space between such floor and the ceiling next above it.

   63.   “Street” means a public or private thoroughfare, being a right-of-way of a required width, which affords a primary means of access to abutting property.

   64.   “Structure” means anything constructed or erected which requires location on the ground or attachment to something having a location on the ground, including satellite receiving antenna.

   65.   “Structural alteration” means any change in the supporting members of a building, including (but not limited to) bearing walls, load bearing partitions, columns, beams, or girders, or any substantial change in the exterior walls or roof, beyond ordinary repairs and maintenance.

   66.   “Yard” means an open space on the same lot with a building or structure open, unoccupied, and unobstructed by structures, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

   67.   “Yard, front” means an open space extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the front lot line and the nearest line of the principal building, other than the usual projection of steps.

   68.   “Yard, rear” means an open space extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the rear lot line and the nearest line of the principal building, other than the usual projection of steps.

   69.   “Yard, side” means an open space extending from the front yard to the rear yard between a building and the side lot line.