Chapter 15.04
DEFINITIONS
Sections:
15.04.010 Explanation
15.04.020 Definitions
15.04.010 Explanation
This Chapter defines technical and procedural terms used throughout this ordinance in order to simplify wording, give meaning of a technical term, or to eliminate ambiguity. Some definitions differ from definitions of the same words in standard dictionaries. Where this occurs, the definitions in this ordinance will prevail. Words not defined will be presumed to have common and universally accepted dictionary meanings.
Access road: Access road means a public street providing vehicular access to the
boundary of a parcel of real property being proposed for development.
Accessory Use or Accessory Building: Accessory use or accessory building means a
subordinate use or building (one-story detached), customarily incidental to,
and located upon the same lot occupied by, the principal use or building (e.g.,
a storage shed, garage, gazebo, greenhouse, etc.).
Administrative Appeal: Administrative appeal means an appeal to the
Town Council of a decision made by the Town Planner.
Adult Family Home: Adult family home means the regular family
abode of a person or persons who are providing personal care, room, and board,
under a license issued pursuant to RCW 70.128.060, to more than one but not
more than four adults who are not related by blood or marriage to the person or
persons providing the services; except that a maximum of six adults may be
permitted if the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services
determines that the home and the provider are capable of meeting standards and
qualifications provided for by law (RCW 70.128.010).
Agriculture: Agriculture means the use of land for agricultural
purposes, including farming, dairying, pasturage, horticulture, floriculture,
viticulture, apiaries, and animal and poultry husbandry, and the necessary
accessory uses for storing produce; provided, however, that the operation of
any such accessory use shall be incidental to that of normal agricultural
activities, and provided further that such uses shall not include the
commercial feeding of garbage or refuse to swine or other animals.
Alley: Alley means
a public thoroughfare or way that provides only a secondary means of access to
abutting property.
Allowed Use:
Allowed use means any authorized use allowed alone or in conjunction
with another use in a specified district and subject to the limitations of the
regulations of such use district.
Amateur Radio Antennae: Amateur radio antennae means a structure that
is erected for the purpose on transmitting and receiving non-commercial radio
signals.
Apartment House (Multifamily
Dwelling): Apartment house means any
building or portion thereof which is designed, built, rented, leased, let or
hired out to be occupied, or which is occupied, as the home or residence of
three (3) or more families living independently of each other and doing their
own cooking in such building, and shall include flats and apartments.
Applicant: Applicant
means a person or persons submitting an application to the Town of South
Prairie for any type of permit or approval covered in this ordinance.
Automobile Repair: Automobile repair includes fixing, incidental body
or fender work, changing of automobile fluids, painting, upholstering, engine
tune-up, adjusting lights or brakes, or supplying and installing replacement
parts of or for passenger vehicles and trucks.
Automobile Service Station or
Gasoline Filling Station: Automobile service station
or gasoline filling station means a building or lot having pumps and storage
tanks where fuels, oils or accessories for motor vehicles are dispensed, sold
or offered for sale at retail only, repair service is incidental and no storage
or parking space is offered for rent.
Automobile Wrecking or Motor
Vehicle Wrecking: Automobile wrecking or motor
vehicle wrecking means the dismantling or disassembling of motor vehicles or
the storage, sale or dumping of dismantled, partially dismantled, obsolete or
wrecked motor vehicles or their parts.
Auxiliary Dwelling Unit: Auxiliary dwelling unit means an additional
dwelling unit, including separate kitchen, sleeping, and bathroom facilities,
separate from the owner occupied primary residential dwelling unit, on a
single-family lot, not to exceed 400 square feet.
Basement: Basement means that portion of a building between
floor and ceiling, which is partly below and partly above grade, but so located
that the vertical distance from grade to the floor below is more than the
vertical distance from grade to ceiling.
Bed and Breakfast: Bed and breakfast means a residential type
building, or portion of the building, other than a hotel or motel, where for
compensation lodging and a morning meal is provided for patrons, not including
members of the owner, occupant, or tenant occupant family.
Billboard:
Billboard means a sign, including both the supporting structural
framework and attached billboard faces, used principally for advertising a
business activity, use, product, or service unrelated to the primary use of the
property on which the billboard is located; excluding off-premise directional
signs or temporary real estate signs.
Binding Site Plan: Binding Site Plan is a to-scale drawing which:
identifies and shows the areas and locations of all streets, roads,
improvements, utilities, open spaces, and any other matters specified by local
regulations; contains inscriptions or attachments setting forth such
appropriate limitations and conditions for the use of land; and contains
provisions making any development be in conformity with the site plan;
processed pursuant to this Code and which has been approved by Town Council.
Block: Block means
a group of lots, tracts, or parcels within well-defined and fixed boundaries.
Boarding or Lodging Home: Boarding or lodging home means a dwelling or part
thereof, other than a motel or hotel, where lodging, with or without meals, is
provided, for compensation, for not more than three (3) persons.
Buffer Strip:
Buffer strip means an area of land or a structure used or created for
the purpose of insulating, separating, or screening a structure or land use
from other land uses or structures, in such a manner as to reduce or mitigate
any adverse impacts of one or the other.
Building: Building
means any structure having a roof, but excluding all forms of vehicles (e.g. a
recreational vehicle ‘RV’), even if it is immobilized. Yard requirements (i.e.,
‘setbacks’) apply to all buildings.
Building Code: Building code means the Uniform Building Code
promulgated by the International Conference of Building Officials.
Building Height: Building height means the vertical distance measured
from the average elevation of existing grade to the highest point of the roof
surface of a flat roof, to the top of a mansard roof, or to the mean height
level between the eaves and the ridge for a pitched roof. Average elevation of
existing grade will be measured at the vertical projection of the enclosed
building space. Pitched roofs are considered to be those with a 5”/12” pitch or
greater.
Building Inspector: Building Inspector means the Building
Inspector for the Town of South Prairie, Washington.
Building Permit: Building permit means the permit required by
the Town for new construction and additions.
Canopy: Canopy means a roof like projection.
Chemical Processes: Chemical Processes means a manufacturing
process that uses dangerous or potentially dangerous chemicals.
Closed Record Appeal: Closed record appeal means an administrative
appeal on the record to the Town Council, following an open record hearing on a
project permit application when the appeal is on the record with no or limited
new evidence or information allowed to be submitted and only appeal argument
allowed. [RCW 36.70B.020(1)]
Club: Club means
an incorporated or unincorporated association of persons organized for a
social, educational, literary, or charitable purpose.
Collector Arterial: Unless otherwise defined by
the Town's transportation plan, a collector arterial is a public street whose
function is to collect traffic from neighborhoods and local streets and which
connects to another public street of equal or greater classification. A collector arterial also may provide direct
access to adjacent properties.
Combining District: Combining district means
district regulations superimposed on an underlying zoning district which impose
additional regulations for specific uses, and which are valid for a stipulated
time period. Uses permitted by the
underlying zone may also be developed.
Commercial unit: Commercial unit means any building or
facility used for any purpose other than dwelling, except industrial.
Common Open Space: Common open space means a parcel of land or
an area of water or a combination of land and water within the site designated
for a planned unit development, and designed and intended primarily for the use
or enjoyment of the residents of such development.
Community Arts Center: Community Arts Center means a structure that
is used for the purpose of displaying and/or selling art, conducting
educational programs, and providing a means for art related meetings.
Completion Security: Completion security means a bond or other
acceptable surety deposited by an applicant with the Town to ensure completion
within one year of improvements required to obtain a permit or approval.
Comprehensive Plan: Comprehensive Plan means the most recent
edition of the Town of South Prairie Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Town
Council in accordance with RCW 35.63 or RCW 36.70A.
Comprehensive Water Plan: Comprehensive Water Plan means the most
recent edition of the Town of South Prairie Comprehensive Water Plan.
Conditional Uses: Conditional uses means certain uses which,
because of special requirements or unusual characteristics related to the
subject property, or because of possible detrimental effects on surrounding
properties, may be permitted in use districts if found under the conditional
use section, and after the granting of a conditional use permit by the Town
Council. Conditional uses require a special degree of control to make such uses
consistent with and compatible to other existing or permissible uses in the
same zone or zones.
Condominium: Condominium means a multi-family structure in which
each of the tenants hold full title to their unit, and joint ownership in the
common grounds.
Consolidated Permit Processing: Consolidated permit processing means the
integrated and consolidated review and decision on two or more project permits
relating to a proposed project action, including a single application review
and approval process covering all project permits requested by an applicant for
all or part of a project. If an applicant elects consolidated permit
processing, the determination of completeness, notice of application, and
notice of final decision must include all project permits being reviewed
through the consolidated permit review process.
Convalescent Home or Nursing Home: Convalescent home or
nursing home means an establishment providing nursing, dietary, and other
personal services to convalescents, invalids, or aged persons.
Convenience Store: Convenience store means a retail grocery
business of less than one thousand (1,000) square feet that primarily caters to
residents of the same neighborhood.
County Assessor: County Assessor means the
Assessor of Pierce County, Washington.
County Auditor: County Auditor means the Auditor of Pierce
County, Washington.
County Road: County road is a road maintained for public travel
by Pierce County.
Creeks, Minor: Minor creeks means all creeks other than
major creeks and generally conforming to following criteria: a course or route as formed by nature, or as
altered by human activity, and generally consisting of a channel with a bed, banks
or sides substantially throughout its length along with surface waters, with
some regularity, naturally and normally flow or drain from high to lower
lands.
Creeks-Rivers, Major: The following are major creeks/rivers
identified by the Town:
South
Prairie Creek
Crop and Tree Farming: Crop and Tree Farming means the use of land
for horticultural purposes.
Cul-de-sac: Cul-de-sac is a dead-end
street of limited length having a primary function of serving adjoining land,
and constructed with a turnaround at its end.
Dangerous Wastes: Dangerous wastes means those wastes designated in
WAC 173-303-070 through 173-303-103 as dangerous wastes. This may include any discarded, useless,
unwanted or abandoned substances, including but not limited to certain
pesticides, or any residues or containers of such substances which are disposed
of in such quantity or concentration as to pose a substantial present or
potential hazard to human health; wildlife or the environment because such
wastes or constituents or combinations of such wastes:
A. Have short-lived toxic properties that may
cause death, injury or illness or have mutagenic, teratogenic or carcinogenic
properties; or
B. Are corrosive, explosive or flammable, or may
generate pressure through decomposition or other means.
A moderate risk waste is not dangerous waste.
Decision: Decision
means a final determination by the decision-making body on applications for
permits or approvals or on appeals.
Decision-making Body: Decision-making body means the body with
final approval authority for any given application.
Dedication Plat: Dedication Plat is property that is dedicated
for public right-of-way or land for public use.
Dedication:
Dedication means the deliberate appropriation of land by an owner for
any general and public uses, reserving to himself no other rights than such as
are compatible with the full exercise and enjoyment of the public uses to which
the property has been devoted. The intention to dedicate will be evidenced by
the owner by the presentment for filing of a final plat or short plat showing
the dedication; and, the acceptance by the public will be evidenced by the
approval of such plat for filing by the Town Council.
Density: Density
means the permissible number of dwelling units that may be developed on a
specific amount of land area measured in number of dwelling units per gross
acre.
Designated Zone Facility: Designated Zone Facility means any hazardous
waste facility that requires an interim or final status permit under rules
adopted under RCW 70.105 and WAC 173-303, and that is not a preempted facility
as defined in RCW 70.105.010 or in WAC 173-303.
A hazardous waste treatment or storage facility is a designated zone
facility.
Determination of Completeness: Determination of Completeness means the
determination made by the Town Planner as to whether a project permit
application is complete or incomplete. [RCW 36.70B.070]
Developer:
Developer means a person who is responsible for any undertaking that
requires a permit or approval from the Town of South Prairie.
Development or Development Activity: Development or development activity means any
human-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not
limited to:
A. Construction, clearing, grading, filling, excavating, paving,
dredging, mining, drilling, or otherwise significantly disturbing the soil of a
site;
B. Building, installing, enlarging, replacing, or substantially restoring a structure, impervious surface, or water management system;
C. Subdividing land into two (2) or more parcels;
D. Construction of a permanent sign unless expressly exempted by this ordinance;
E. Alteration of a historic property for which authorization is
required by this ordinance; or
F. Changing the use of a site so that the need for parking is
increased.
Development Permit: Development Permit or development approval
means any written authorization from the Town, which authorizes the
commencement of a development activity.
Development Plan: Development plan means a plan drawn to scale,
indicating the proposed use, the actual dimensions and shape of the property to
be built upon, the exact sizes and locations on the property of buildings
already existing, if any, and the location on the property of the proposed building
or alteration, yards, setbacks, landscaping, off street parking, ingress and
egress, and signs.
Development
Standards: Development standards means regulations
including but not limited to setbacks, landscaping, screening, height, site
coverage, signs, building layout, drainage, parking and site design and related
features of land use.
Discontinuance: Discontinuance means the abandonment or
nonuse of a building, structure, sign or lot for a period of six (6) months.
District: District means a portion of the incorporated
area of the Town within which certain regulations and requirements apply under
the provisions of this ordinance.
Dock, High-loading Areas: Dock-high loading areas means truck
maneuvering areas and loading or unloading areas associated with loading doors
that are located above the finish grade.
Drainage Ditch: Drainage ditch means a manmade channel with a
bed, bank or sides, which discharges waters into a major or minor creek, lake,
pond or wetland.
Dripline: Dripline means a circle drawn at the soil
line directly under the outermost branches of a tree.
Duplex: Duplex means
a building used or intended to be used as a home of two (2) families living
independently of each other having two separate kitchen facilities and bathroom
facilities (i.e., two separate dwelling units).
Dwelling, Multiple-family: Multiple-family Dwelling means a residential
building designed for or occupied by three (3) or more families, with the
number of families in residence not exceeding the number of dwelling units
provided.
Dwelling, Single-family: Single-family dwelling means a detached
residential dwelling unit, other than a mobile home, designed for and occupied
by one (1) family only.
Dwelling, Two-family: Two-family dwelling means a detached
residential building containing two (2) dwelling units, designed for occupancy
by not more than two (2) families.
Dwelling Unit:
Dwelling unit means a building or portion of a building designed for
occupancy by one family for residential purposes and having kitchen facilities.
Easement: Easement is a non-ownership interest in land; a
grant by a property owner to specific persons or to the public for a specific
purpose or purposes such as ingress, egress and for utilities.
Emergency Repair: Emergency repair means work necessary to
prevent destruction or dilapidation to real property or its structures
immediately threatened or damaged by fire, flood, earthquake, or other
disaster.
Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU): Equivalent Dwelling Unit means any
residential or nonresidential use, which has been found to place a demand on
the Town's sewerage system or water system approximately equal to the demand
thereon by a single-family dwelling.
Erosion Hazard Area: Erosion hazard areas include areas that
because of natural characteristics, including vegetative cover, soil texture,
slope, gradient, and rainfall patterns, or man-made changes to such
characteristics, are vulnerable to erosion.
Essential Public Facilities: Essential public facilities means public
facilities and privately owned or -operated facilities serving a public purpose
that are typically difficult to site. They include:
Type One: Multi-county facilities on the state Office of Financial Management (OFM) list of future projects. These are major facilities serving or potentially affecting more than one county. These facilities include, but are not limited to, regional transportation facilities, such as regional airports; state correction facilities; and state education facilities.
Type Two: These are local or inter-local
facilities serving or potentially affecting residents or property in more than
one jurisdiction. They could include, but are not limited to, county jails,
county landfills, community colleges, sewage treatment facilities,
communication towers, and inpatient facilities (e.g., substance abuse
facilities, mental health facilities, and group homes). [NOTE: Facilities that
would not have impacts beyond the jurisdiction in which they are proposed to be
located would be Type Three facilities.]
Type Three: These are facilities serving or potentially
affecting only the jurisdiction in which they are proposed to be located.
Extremely Hazardous Waste: Extremely hazardous waste means those wastes
designated in WAC 173-303-070 through 173-303-103 as extremely hazardous
wastes. This may include any dangerous
waste which:
A. Will persist in a hazardous form for several years or more at a disposal site and which in its persistent form:
1. Presents a significant
environmental hazard and may be concentrated by living organisms through a food
chain or may affect the genetic makeup of man or wildlife; and
2. Is highly toxic to man or wildlife.
B. Is disposed of at a hazardous waste disposal site in such quantities as would present an extreme hazard to man or the environment.
Family: Family means
one or more related persons living together or not more than six unrelated
persons living together in a single dwelling unit.
Family Day Care Provider: Family Day Care Provider means a residential
facility where supervision is provided for periods less than twenty-four hours
for twelve (12) or fewer children from the age of birth to eleven (11) years of
age, exclusive of members of the occupant’s family. Such facility must be operated in accordance
with state requirements.
Fee Resolution: Fee schedule means the most current list,
adopted by resolution of the Town Council, of the fees required for submitting
applications to the Town under this ordinance and other Town laws.
Fence, One-hundred Percent
Sight-obscuring: One-hundred percent
sight-obscuring fence means a fence constructed of solid wood, metal or other
appropriate material which totally conceals the subject use from adjoining uses
at six (6) feet above the base of the fence line, at twenty (20) feet from the
subject property line.
Fence, Sight-obscuring: The minimum for a sight-obscuring fence is a
chain link fence with woven slats in every row or available space of the fence.
Flag Lot: Flag lot is a tract or lot of land of uniform
dimensions in which the portion fronting on a street is less than the required
minimum width for construction of a building
or structure on that lot but leads from the access point to a lot with proper dimensions for
building.
Front of House: Front of house means that part of the house
that faces the street, road, or public access way.
Front Yard: Front
yard means an open, unoccupied space extending across the full width or depth
of the lot, between the building and the property line adjacent to the street.
On corner lots, both yards abutting streets are considered front yards.
Frontage, Building or Occupancy: Building or occupancy frontage means the
length of that portion of a building or ground floor occupancy which abuts a
street, publicly used parking area or mall appurtenant to such building or
occupancy, expressed in lineal feet and fractions thereof.
Garage or Carport, Private: Private garage or carport means a building,
or a portion of a building, principally for vehicular equipment such as
automobiles, boats, etc., not more than one thousand (1,000) square feet in
area, in which only motor vehicles used by the tenants of the buildings on the
premises are stored or kept.
General Sewer Plan: General Sewer Plan means the most recent
edition of the General Sewer Plan of the Town of South Prairie.
Grade: Grade means
a ground elevation established for the purpose of regulating the height of the
structure. The building grade is the level of the ground adjacent to the walls
of the building if the finished grade is level. If the ground is not entirely
level, the grade is determined by averaging the elevation of the ground for
each face of the building.
Grading Permit: Grading permit means the permit required
under Chapter 70 of the Uniform Building Code.
Grocery Store:
Grocery store means a retail business of one thousand (1,000) square
feet or more that sells primarily food.
Gross Floor Area: Gross floor area means the area included
within the surrounding exterior walls of a building expressed in square feet
and fractions thereof. The floor area of
a building not provided with surrounding exterior walls shall be the usable
area under the horizontal projections of the roof or floor above.
Ground Cover: Ground cover means low-growing vegetative
materials with a mound or spreading manner of growth that provides solid cover
within two (2) years after planting.
Examples include sod or seed lawn, ivy, junipers, cotoneaster, etc.
Group Home:
A. Class I
Group Home: Class I group home means
publicly or privately operated residential facilities such as state-licensed
foster homes and group homes for children; group homes for individuals who are
developmentally, physically or mentally disabled; group homes or halfway houses
for recovering alcoholics and former drug addicts; and other groups not
considered within class II or III group homes.
1. Group
Home Class I-A: A Class I-A group
home shall have a maximum of seven (7) residents including resident staff.
2. Group
Home, Class I-B: A Class I-B group
home shall have a maximum of ten (10) residents including resident staff.
3. Group
Home, Class I-C: The number of
residents for a Class I-C group home will be based upon the density of the
underlying zoning district.
B. Class
II Group Home: Class II group home
means publicly or privately operated residential facilities for juveniles under
the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system. These homes include state-licensed group care
homes or halfway homes for juveniles, who provide residence in lieu of
sentencing or incarceration, and halfway houses providing residence to
juveniles needing correction or for juveniles selected to participate in
state-operated work-release and pre-release programs. The Town Council shall have the discretion to
classify a group home proposing to serve juveniles convicted of the offenses
listed under Class III group home in this section as a group home Class III,
and any such home shall be sited according to the regulations contained within
the Group III classification.
1. Group
Home, Class II-A: A Class II-A group
home shall have a maximum of eight (8) residents including resident staff.
2. Group
Home, Class II-B: A Class II-B group
home shall have a maximum of twelve (12) residents including resident staff.
3. Group
Home, Class II-C: A Class II-C group
home shall have a maximum of eighteen (17) residents including resident staff.
C. Class
III Group Home: Class III group home
means privately or publicly operated residential facilities for adults under
the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system who have entered a pre or
post-charging diversion program, or have been selected to participate in
state-operated work/training release or other similar programs. Such groups also involve individuals who have
been convicted of a violent crime against a person or a crime against property
with a sexual motivation and convicted or charged as a sexual or assaultive
violent predator.
Guest Cottage: Guest cottage means an accessory, detached
dwelling without any kitchen facilities designed for and used to house
transient visitors or non-paying guests of the occupants of the main building.
Half-width Street: Half-width
street means any public or private street right-of-way or easement which is
less than the full required width specified in this chapter, and which is
established so that the additional half-width right-of-way or easement may be
provided at a later date to complete a full-width roadway.
Hazardous Substance Facility
Buffer Zone: Hazardous substance facility
buffer zone means a setback area between the hazardous substance land use
facility boundary and the nearest point of the hazardous substance land use
property line, necessary to provide added protection to adjacent land uses or
resources of beneficial use. All
hazardous waste treatment and storage facilities must maintain at least a
fifty-foot buffer zone.
Hazardous Substance Land Use
Facility: Hazardous substance land use facility means
the projected line enclosing the area of all structures and lands on which
hazardous substance land use activities occur, have occurred in the past or
will occur in the future. This does not
include the application of products for agricultural purposes.
Hazardous Substance Land Use: Hazardous substance land use means any use
which is permitted under this title and which includes a designated zone
facility or the processing or handling of a hazardous substance.
Hazardous Substance, Processing
or Handling of: Processing or handling of a
hazardous substance means the compounding, treatment, manufacture, synthesis,
use or storage of hazardous substances in excess of the following amounts in
bulk quantities: five thousand (5,000)
pounds of solid hazardous substances, five hundred (500) gallons of liquid
hazardous substances, and six hundred fifty (650) cubic feet of gaseous hazardous
substances.
Hazardous Substance: Hazardous substance means any liquid, solid,
gas or sludge, including any material, substance, product, commodity or waste,
regardless of quantity, that exhibits any of he characteristics or criteria of
hazardous waste as described in rules adopted under RCW 70.105 or in WAC
173-303-090, 173-303-100, 173-303-101, 173-303-102 or 173-303-103.
Hazardous Waste Facility: Hazardous waste facility means the contiguous
land, structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land used for
recycling, storing, treating, incinerating or disposing of hazardous waste.
Hazardous Waste Storage Facility: Hazardous waste storage facility means any
designated zone facility which holds hazardous waste for a temporary period not
to exceed five (5) years; this does not include accumulation of hazardous waste
by the generator on the site of generation, as long as the generator complies
with the applicable requirements of WAC 173-303-200 and 173-303-201.
Hazardous Waste Treatment
Facility: Hazardous waste treatment facility means any
designated zone facility which processes hazardous waste by physical, chemical
or biological means to make such waste non hazardous or less hazardous, safer
for transport, amenable for energy or material resource recovery, amenable for
storage, or reduced in volume.
Hazardous Waste Treatment or
Storage Facility, Offsite: Offsite
hazardous waste treatment or storage facility means any hazardous waste
treatment or storage facility, which treats or stores wastes that are generated
off the site.
Hazardous Waste Treatment or
Storage Facility, Onsite: Onsite
hazardous waste treatment or storage facility, which treats or stores only
those wastes that are generated on the site.
Hazardous Waste: Hazardous waste means any dangerous and
extremely hazardous waste, including substances composed of radioactive and
hazardous components. A moderate risk
waste is not a hazardous waste.
Highest Shade-producing Point: Highest shade-producing point means the point
of a structure, which casts the longest shadow at noon on December 21.
Home Occupation: Home occupation means an occupation carried
on entirely within a residence by the occupants, which does not include storage
or sale of stock in trade.
Homeowners' Association: Homeowners' association means an
incorporated, nonprofit organization operating under recorded land agreements
through which (a) each lot owner is automatically a member, and (b) each lot is
automatically subject to a charge for a proportionate share of the common
property, and (c) a charge, if unpaid, becomes a lien against the property.
Hostel: Hostel means
a low cost hotel catering to the traveling public, consisting of large common
sleeping rooms.
Hotel or Motel: Hotel or
motel means a building in which there are guest rooms where lodging with or
without meals is provided for compensation, and where provision may or may not
be made for cooking in any individual room or suite and in which building may
be included one apartment for use of the resident manager. Not included in this
definition are institutions housing persons under legal restraint or requiring
medical attention or care.
Impervious Surface: Impervious surface means that hard surface
area which either prevents or retards the entry of water into the soil mantle
as it entered under natural conditions preexistent to development, or that hard
surface area which causes water to run off the surface in greater quantities or
at an increased rate of flow from that present under natural conditions
preexistent to development. Common
impervious surfaces include but are not limited to rooftops, concrete or
asphalt paving, paved walkways, patios, driveways, parking lots or storage
areas, and oiled, macadam or other surfaces, which similarly impede the natural
infiltration of surface water.
Improvements:
Improvements means altering or modifying land and/or structures, which
results in added value to the property.
Industrial User: Industrial user means a nonresidential user
of the public sewer which discharges a waste that is distinct from sanitary
sewage, resulting in an industrial waste.
Industrial Waste: Industrial waste means any liquid, solid or
gaseous material or combination thereof resulting from any process of industry,
manufacturing, commercial, food processing, business, agriculture, trade or
research, including, but not limited to, development, recovering or processing
of natural resources and:
A. Has a concentration of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in excess of
three hundred milligrams per liter per average work day; or
B. Has a discharge containing cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc,
silver or similar toxic substances: or
C. Is found by the Town, State Department of Ecology or United States
Environmental Protection Agency to have a significant impact on the wastewater
treatment system; or
D. Has a discharge flow of ten percent or more of the total treatment plant flow per average workday.
Interior Court: Interior court means a space, open and
unobstructed to the sky, located at or above grade level on a lot and bounded
on three (3) or more sides by walls of a building.
JARPA: JARPA means
the Joint Aquatic Resource Permit Application, which must be completed whenever
work is proposed in or near water.
Judicial Appeal: Judicial appeal means an appeal to the Pierce
County Superior Court of a decision made by the Town Council.
Junkyard: Junkyard means a place where waste, discarded
or salvaged materials are bought, sold, exchanged, stored, baled, cleaned, packed,
disassembled or handled, including auto and motor vehicle wrecking yards, house
wrecking yards, used lumber yards and yards for use of salvaged house wrecking
and structural steel materials and equipment.
Kennel: Kennel means any fenced lot and/or structure
on which four or more dogs or cats over six months of age are kept for
breeding, sale, training, boarding or sporting purposes, or are cared for or
kept for any purpose other than as a pet.
Lake: Lake means a natural or artificial body of
water of two (2) or more acres or where the deepest part of the basin, at low
water, exceeds two (2) meters (six and six-tenths (6.6) feet). Artificial bodies of water with a
recirculation system approved by the public works director are not included in
this definition.
Landscaping: Landscaping means vegetative cover including
shrubs, trees, flowers, seeded lawn or sod, ivy and other similar plant
material.
Landslide Areas: Landslide hazard areas include areas
potentially subject to landslides based upon the following combination of
geologic, topographic and hydrologic factors:
A. Areas of historic failure;
B. Areas with all three of the following characteristics:
1. Slopes of twenty-five percent gradient or greater,
2. Hillsides intersecting geologic
contacts with a relatively permeable sediment overlaying a relatively
impermeable sediment or bedrock, and
3. Springs
or groundwater,
C.
Slopes that are parallel or subparallel to planes or weak in subsurface
materials.
D. Privately owned areas with slopes that
have gradients greater than eighty percent subject to rock fall during seismic
shaking.
E. Areas potentially unstable as a result
of rapid stream incision, stream bank erosion and undercutting by wave action.
F. Areas located in a canyon or an active alluvial fan presently or potentially subject to one percent or greater chance of inundation by debris flows or catastrophic flooding.
G. Areas
with slope gradients of forty percent or greater not composed of consolidated
rock. These will be of at least ten feet of vertical relief.
Local Access: A street whose primary function is to provide
direct access to adjoining properties and which serves a limited area only, usually a
neighborhood.
Loop: A loop is a
street of limited length forming a loop, having a beginning and ending on the
same street, having no other intersecting street, and having as its primary
function the provision of direct access to adjoining properties.
Lot: Lot means a
fractional part of divided lands having fixed boundaries, being of sufficient
area and dimension to meet minimum zoning requirements for width and area and
having frontage upon a street or alley. The term includes tracts and parcels.
Lot, Corner: Corner lot means a lot abutting upon two (2)
or more streets at their intersection, or upon two (2) parts of the same
street, such streets or parts of the same street forming an interior angle of
less than one hundred thirty-five (135) degrees within the lot lines.
Lot, Riverfront: Riverfront lot means any lot or land parcel,
which is adjacent to a riverfront road or a riverfront park.
Lot, Through: Through lot means a lot that has both ends
fronting on a street. Either end may be
considered the front.
Lot Area: Lot area
means the total land space or area contained within the boundary lines of any
lot, tract, or parcel of land, and may be expressed in square feet or acres.
Lot Frontage: The front of a lot shall be that portion
nearest the street. The user of a corner lot has the option of determining
which part of the lot fronting on a street shall become the lot frontage, but
the entrance shall be in the front.
Lot lines: Lot lines means the property lines bounding
the lot.
Lot measurements:
A. Depth of a lot shall be considered to be the distance between the foremost points of the side lot lines in front