Village of Prospect Zoning Law - Article II

ARTICLE II - DEFINITIONS

Section 3 - Interpretation

For the purposes of this law, certain terms or words used herein shall be interpreted as follows:

Words used in the present tense shall include the future. The singular number includes the plural, and the plural, the singular.

• The word person includes a firm, association, partnership, trust, company, or corpora­tion, as well as an individual.
• The word lot includes the word plot or parcel.
• The word used or occupied as applied to any land or building shall be construed to include the words built, arranged, or designed to be used or occupied.
• The word shall is mandatory.

Section 4 - Definitions

Accessory Building: A building subordinate to the principal building on a lot and used for purposes customarily incidental to those of the principal building.

Accessory Use: A use customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use or building and located on the same lot with such principal use or building.

Alteration: A change or rearrangement in structural pacts, or in entrance and exist facilities, or an enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height, or the moving from one location or position to another.

Basement: A space of full story height partly below grade and having at least half of its clear floor-to-ceiling height above the average grade of the adjoining ground, and which is not designed or used primarily for year-round living accommodations.

Building: Any roofed structure intended for the shelter, housing, or enclosure of persons, ani­mals, or property.

Building Area: The total ground floor area of a principal building and accessory buildings exclusive of uncovered porches, steps, and terraces.

Building Coverage: That area of the lot or plot covered by a building.

Building, Detached: A building surrounded by open space on all sides on the same lot.

Building, Height of: The vertical distance from the mean natural grade at the foundation to the highest peak of the roof.

Building Line: The line established by this law, parallel with the respective lot lines, beyond which a structure may not extend.

Building, Principal: A building in which the main use of the lot is conducted.

Cellar: That space of a building that is partly or entirely below grade, which has more than half of its height, measured from floor to ceiling, below the average established curb level or finished grade of the ground adjoining the building.

Dump: A plot of land or part thereof used primarily for the disposal by abandonment, dumping, burial, burning, or any other means or for whatever purpose, of garbage, sewage, trash, refuse, junk, discarded machinery, vehicles or parts thereof, or waste material of any kind.

Dwelling, Multiple-Family: A building or group of buildings, designed for year-round occupancy by more than two families, including apartment houses and group houses, but excluding mobile homes, hotels, and rooming houses.

Dwelling, One-Family: A detached dwelling unit, other than a mobile home, designed for exclusive year-round occupancy by one family only.

Dwelling, Two-Family: A detached dwelling, other than a mobile home, designed for exclusive year-round occupancy by two families living independently of each other.

Dwelling Unit: One or more rooms with provisions for living, sanitary, and sleeping facilities arranged for the use of one or more persons living as a single housekeeping unit.

Family: One or more persons occupying a dwelling unit as a single, nonprofit housekeeping unit.

Garage, Private: A roofed space of the storage of one or more motor vehicles, provided that no business, occupation, or service is conducted for profit therein nor space for more than one car is leased to a nonresident of the premises.

Garage, Public: A building or part thereof operated for gain and used for the storage, hiring, selling, greasing, washing, servicing, or repair of motor-driven vehicles.

Garage, Storage: A building or part thereof used only for the storage of vehicles for gain, and at which automobile fuels and oils are not sold and motor-driven vehicles are not equipped, repaired, hired, or sold.

Gasoline Station: Any area of land, including structures thereon, that is used or designed to be used for the sale of gasoline or oil or other motor vehicle fuel, and which may include facilities for lubricating, washing, cleaning, or otherwise servicing motor vehicles, but not including the painting or other major repair thereof. The term Gasoline Station shall be deemed to include filling station and service station.

Home Occupation: Any use customarily conducted entirely within a dwelling or its accessory buildings which use is clearly incidental to the use of the dwelling as a place of residence.

Hotel or Motel: A building or group of buildings where transient guests are lodged, but excluding rooming houses.

Junkyard: A lot, land, or structure, or part thereof, used for the collecting, storage, and/or sale of waste paper, rags, scrap metals, used or salvaged building materials, or other discarded material; or where two or more unregistered, old, or secondhand vehicles, no longer intended or in condition for legal use on the public highways, are held, whether for the purpose or resale of used parts therefrom, whether metal, glass, fabric, or otherwise, for the purpose of disposing of the same, or for any other purpose. The term junkyard shall not be construed to mean an establishment having facilities for processing iron, steel, or nonferrous scrap for remelting purposes.

Lot: A parcel of land considered as a unit, occupied or capable of being occupied by a building or use and accessory buildings or uses, or by a group of buildings united by a common use or interest; and including such open spaces as are required by this law, and having its principal frontage on a public street or an officially approved place.

Lot, Area of: The total area included within the lot lines. No part of the area within a public right-of-way may be included in the computation of lot area.

Lot, Corner: A lot located at the intersection of and fronting on two or more intersecting streets, and having an interior angle at the comer of intersection of less than 135 degrees.

Lot Depth: The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines, measured in the general direction of the side lot lines.

Lot, Interior: A lot other than a comer lot.

Lot Lines: The property lines bounding a lot, including:

• Front Lot Line: The lot line separating the lot from the street right-of-way.
• Rear Lot Line: The lot line opposite and most distant from the front lot line.
• Side Lot Line: Any lot line other than a front or rear lot line. A side lot line separating a lot from a street is called a side street lot line.

Lot, Through: A lot having frontage on two approximately parallel or converging streets other than a comer lot.

Lot Width: The distance between side lot lines measured parallel to the front lot line at the front building line.

Mobile Home: A dwelling unit with the following characteristics:

1)      Designed to be transportable after fabrication on its own wheels or on a fiat bed or other trailer or detachable wheels;

2)      Arriving at the site where it is to be occupied as a dwelling unit, conventionally designed to include major appliances, and ready for occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operations, location on foundation supports, connection to utili­ties, and the like;

3)      Designed for removal to and installation or erection on other sites.

A mobile home may include one or more units, separately towable, which when joined together shall have the characteristics as described above. For the purposes of this law, a mobile home shall not be deemed a one-family dwelling or recreation vehicle.

Mobile Home Court: A parcel of land which has been planned and improved for the placement of two or more mobile homes for non-transient use. The term shall include mobile home court, mobile home park, or other area planned and/or improved for two or more mobile homes.

Modular Dwelling: A dwelling consisting of component parts manufactured off-site which must be transported to the building site separately for erection, construction, or installation as a perma­nent structure. Modular homes differ from mobile homes in that the former must be installed on a site-built permanent foundation, are not designed to be moved or transported once installed on the foundation, and have been certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel­opment as modular housing units. For the purposes of this law, a Modular Dwelling Unit shall be deemed a one-family, two-family, or multiple-family dwelling.

Nonconforming Building/Structure/Use/Sign: A building, structure, use of land, or sign which lawfully existed prior to the enactment of this law, or conformed to the regulations of the zone in which it \WS located prior to the amendment of this law; which does not conform to the regu­lations of the zone in which it is located following the enactment or amendment of this law.

Recreation Vehicle: A mobile recreational unit including travel trailer, pickup camper, converted bus, tent-trailer, camper trailer, tent, or similar device used for temporary portable housing.

Sign, Business: A sign which directs attention to a business or profession conducted, or a com­modity, service, or entertainment sold or offered upon the premises where such sign is located, or to which it is affixed. A "For Sale" or "To Let" sign relating to the lot on which it is dis­played shall be deemed to be a business sign.

Sign, Flashing: An illuminated sign on which the artificial light is not maintained stationary or constant in intensity and color when such sign is in use. For the purpose of law, any revolving, illuminated sign shall be considered a flashing sign.          '

Story: That portion of a building, exclusive of cellars, included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between any floor and the ceiling next above it.

Story, Half: That part of a building, exclusive of cellars, between a pitched roof and the upper­most full story, and having a floor area at least half as large as the floor below. Space with less than five feet clear headroom shall not be considered as floor area.

Street: A public or private way which affords the principal means of access to abutting prop­erty.

Structure: Any thing constructed or erected, the use of which requires location on the ground or attachment to something having location on the ground.

Yard, Front: An open space extending across the principal street side of a lot measured between the side lot lines, the depth of which yard is the minimum horizontal distance between the lot line and the front building line.

Yard, Rear: An open space extending across the rear of a lot measured between the side lot lines and being the minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the principal building or any projection thereof other than steps and unenclosed balconies, not extending more than eight feet from the rear of the building, except as otherwise provided in this law. On both corner and interior lots, the rear yard shall in all cases be at the opposite end of the lot from the front yard.

Yard, Side: An open space from the front yard to the rear yard between the building line and the nearest side lot line, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward. except for steps and as otherwise specified in this law.