Washington Township
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XXI
SC Shopping Center District
§ 285-121 Purpose.
It is the purpose of this district to provide areas for coordinated commercial centers which adhere to unified architectural, building and land use standards. Overall appearance and control mechanisms are important to assure compatibility with surrounding areas. Such a development shall be a contiguous land area of not less than five acres designed to contain multifacility structures used for cultural, commercial, entertainment and/or recreational purposes.
§ 285-122 Permitted uses.
[Amended 10-27-2010 by Ord. No. 23-2010]
In any SC Shopping Center District, land, buildings or premises shall be used by right only for only one of the following:
A.
A planned community shopping center.
B.
All of the permitted uses in § 285-100A(1) through (12) for the HC Highway Commercial District.
C.
Automobile service centers, excluding gas stations and auto body works.
§ 285-123 Accessory uses.
Only accessory uses on the same lot with, and customarily incidental to, any of the above permitted uses shall be permitted.
§ 285-124 Area and bulk regulations.
Area and bulk regulations shall be as follows:
A.
Any application for development under the terms of this article shall provide initially at least for the construction of either a minimum of 10,000 square feet of ground floor area or a minimum of three of the permitted main uses.
B.
The minimum lot size shall be five acres.
C.
The minimum lot width shall be 200 feet. The minimum lot depth shall be 100 feet.
D.
No more than 30% of the gross land area shall be covered by buildings.
E.
No structure shall be closer than 50 feet to any perimeter property line. Buffers, if required, shall be in addition to the 50 feet.
F.
No building, parking access or service area may be located within 50 feet of a side or rear property line. Buffers, if required, shall be in addition to the 50 feet.
G.
No building shall be more than 65 feet in height.
[Amended 7-26-2007 by Ord. No. 19-2007]
§ 285-125 Design requirements.
A.
All shopping center projects shall be subject to all of the standards and requirements set forth in Chapter 199, Site Plan Review.
B.
The minimum width, pavement edge to pavement edge, of interior streets within the development not to be used as through streets shall be 24 feet for two-way traffic and 14 feet for one-way traffic. These widths will accommodate twelve-foot lanes and the necessary width for trucks and emergency vehicles.
C.
There shall be no parking on any interior streets.
D.
The proposed development shall be constructed in accordance with an overall plan and shall be designed as a single architectural scheme, with appropriate common landscaping. The buildings, sizes, shapes, site positions and architectural design may be considered along with the landscaping and natural features.
E.
Parking, loading or service areas used by motor vehicles shall be physically separated from public streets by a buffer strip or other effective and suitable barrier against unchanneled motor vehicle access or egress and shall not have more than two accessways to any one public street. All such areas shall be arranged to facilitate proper and safe internal circulation and shall be paved with an acceptable hard surface.
F.
All accessways to a public street or highway shall be located at least 200 feet from the intersection of any street lines and shall be designed in a manner conducive to safe ingress and egress.
G.
Areas provided for loading and unloading of delivery trucks and other vehicles and for the servicing of shops by refuse collection, fuel and other service vehicles shall be adequate in size and shall be so arranged that they may be used without blockage or interference with the use of accessways or automobile parking facilities.
H.
Along each side or rear property line which adjoins existing residences or a residence district, a buffer planting strip shall be provided, which shall not be less than 30 feet in width and on which shall be placed shrubbery, trees or other suitable plantings sufficient to constitute an effective visual and noise abating screen. Along each street line bounding the district, a twenty-foot line buffer strip shall be provided, suitably landscaped, except for necessary sidewalks and accessways. Nothing herein provided shall prohibit the erection of a suitable fence or wall on the required buffer areas. Buffers shall be 100% evergreen, planted six feet apart in two rows within a 10 foot width, and shall be six to eight feet high at time of initial planting. Such planting shall provide a thick, dense visual buffer from the ground to a height of eight feet.
I.
Appropriate provisions shall be made for private garbage and trash collection and for the private maintenance of all interior roads and streets, including snow removal, and all buildings and land areas not dedicated to the Township. Such services shall be performed at the owner's expense.
J.
All trash or garbage disposal facilities shall be totally screened, and plans shall be submitted as part of the developmental site plan showing the location and types of screening.
§ 285-126 Off-street parking requirements.
Notwithstanding the requirements of this chapter, the following off-street parking standards shall apply in the SC Shopping Center District, except that these standards may be reduced to the extent that combined use of parking lots makes such reduction feasible in the judgment of the approving authority.
A.
For shopping centers, retail sales, trade, personal and business services the minimum number of off-street automobile parking spaces required is five spaces for each 1,000 square feet of gross leasable area. Gross leasable area is the total floor area designed for tenant occupancy and exclusive use, including basements, mezzanines and upper floors, if any, expressed in square feet measured from center lines of joint partitions and exteriors of outside walls.
B.
For all other freestanding uses the minimum number of off-street automobile parking spaces required is as required by the parking regulations of this chapter.
§ 285-127 Traffic impact study.
At the time of the submission of the concept plat, the applicant shall submit a traffic impact study performed and certified by a licensed engineer. The study shall include, among other factors, the current vehicular volume and the width and capacity of streets and highways in the nearby area of the proposed development. Additional vehicular volumes to be generated by the development shall be estimated and related to the current capacity of the roadway network to determine the future adequacy or deficiency of the circulation system. Additional information shall be provided to demonstrate that satisfactory arrangements will be made to facilitate traffic movement on the highways adjoining the development and to assure proper circulation within the development. These arrangements shall include provisions for necessary signalization, channelization, standby turn lanes, right turn lanes, added highway width, adequate warning signs and adequate storage area and distribution facilities within the development to prevent the backup of vehicles on public streets.
§ 285-128 Phasing plan.
For developments to be constructed over a period of years, a phasing plan shall be submitted as part of the preliminary plan.
§ 285-129 Additional regulations.
A.
There must exist approved public water and public sewer systems which shall be available to each unit prior to the issuance of the building permits.
B.
All other applicable regulations of this chapter shall be followed as required.
C.
The buildings' sizes, shapes, site positions and architectural design may be considered along with the landscape and natural features.